Horses

Sceptre, who lived from 1899 to 1926, was bred and trained in Britain. In a career that spanned three years, she would break the record of British Classic Races.

She was bred by Hugh Grosvenor, who was the 1st Duke of Westminster. The mare was one of his trophies in a farm that raised winners and was known around England for how it operated. It is fair to say that Sceptre was born among winners and would go on to live among winners for a very long time. You could argue that this precipitated her rise to stardom.

When the duck died, his estate decided to auction his stock, which saw the mare getting sold. A lot of people wanted the hammer to fall for the second Duke, but the mare eventually went to Robert Sievie , who bid high at 10,000 guineas. In the course of his training, it became pretty clear that Sceptre was hardy and could stand any challenge thrown her way.

Between 1901 and 1904, Sceptre won a lot of races and was notorious for her ability to thrive in the most trying of challenges. She started her career with a bang, winning at the Woodcote stakes in 1901.She also left a trail of tears in the July Stakes of the same year. 1902 brought about the likes of Epsom Oaks and Nassau Stakes. In 1903, she won the Duke of York and Champion Stakes.

After retirement, she went on to foal 8 horses, and while most did not set the world alight, they did win derbies at local levels. She died in February 1926. Out of the 25 races she took part in , Sceptre won 13. She had racked more than a dozen outings and seen plenty of cash in her day. At retirement, her winnings were at

₤38,225

Which was a considered a goodly sum back in the day.

Yeats, named after Jack Butler Yeats, a painter and brother to the one and only W B Yeats, poet extraordinaire, is a living Irish horse who is known to be the only horse to ever cruise to victory in the Ascot Golf Cup four times on the spin. He was born in 2001 at Barronstown Stud. His owners are John Magnier and Coolmore Stud.

Career

Yeats started out at the age of two, winning his first race quite easily. At 3 years, he continued his hot spell, winning his first two starts of the season. He however suffered an injury and would be on the sidelines for close to a season. When he came back to the game in 2005, there were difficulties getting to the top, but he did win the Coronation Cup. In 2006, he won the Ascot Gold Cup and would remain a fixture in the competition for the following four years. In these races, Yeats established himself as a stayer. This meant that while he was okay with short races, he was made for the long ones, where his mettle and aura of patience could intimidate almost any rival on the tracks. The Goldwood Cup was also one of Yeat’s spoils of 2006.

Even as Yeats advanced in age, he never showed any signs of lethargy. After 2006, he went on to win the Ascot 3 more times, with the last coming in 2009, the year he retired. His other victories included the Vintage Crop Stakes, Irish St. Leger and Saval Beg Stakes. He now stands as a stud at Coolmore’s National Hunt foaling grounds in Ireland, where he has sired tens of studs at huge fees. His winnings on the tracks at the time he said goodbye to the sport were an astronomical £1,146,977, thanks to his tendency to thrive in the longer , more complex races.

Arrogate, the current leading all-time money earner in North America, is a grey four-year-old racehorse who took the tracks by storm in the middle years of the 2010s and is currently the beast every fan is talking about.

The horse owned by Khalid Abdulla-linked Juddmonte farms has already clocked $17,084,600 in race winnings so far to set a north American record, and still counting.

Arrogate’s success can be attributed partially to his rider Mike Smith, who has repeatedly steered him to wins that have left all,including, and especially his trainer Bob Baffert- baffled. In the just concluded March 25, 2017 Dubai World Cup race held at the Meydan Racecourse, UAE for example, Arrogate suffered a poor start and found himself at the end of a fourteen horse pack at a dangerous point in the race.

The comeback combination

With even Baffert panicked, Man Mike and Beast Arrogate made up for lost time by moving to the outside track before steadily picking up speed to cover lost ground. It was a scene of gasps and awe for all who were watching, as the team closed in length by length to finally win it by 2 ¼ lengths and secure the largest share of a $10 million purse.

Arrogate was not as fancy at his debut, finishing fourth in his first race at Los Alamitos where he was ridden by Martin Garcia. He then partnered with rider Rafael Bejarano to win his next three races, but then Bejarano dumped him for American Freedom in August 2016. At this point he got together with Mike Smith, and went ahead to beat American Freedom by 13 lengths in his next race at the Saratoga, breaking a 37 year 2km record in the process.

After wowing the crowd in the UAE, Arrogate is now on his way back to Los Angeles, but fans might have to wait until August before they can see him in action again. His next race will probably be the Breeders Cup Classic.

The Fugue was a racing mare that was born and bred in England under the eye of owner and veteran racing investor Andrew Lloyd Webber. She did not come from particularly rich stock, but some of those before her in the genealogy had managed some middle distance running feats. The young filly was hauled over to John Gosden’s turf for training.

Career

The Fugue had her maiden chance to shine in 2011, appearing as a two-year-old at a race in Newmarket. She was little known at the time and the bookies gave her very little exposure. Despite these challenges, she went on to win that race at the end.

2012 ushered new challenges, and the pressure was racked up in order to help the horse get used to the gig. She finished fourth in the 1000 Guineas. Two weeks later, she was ready to be in among the winners and notched the Musidora Stakes trophy. The rest of the year posed its bag of challenges for the mare, and she would struggle to find her footing, with her minders constantly tinkering with her distances and categories. She finished her year in California at the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, where she finished third.

The rest of her career featured moderate successes and decent performances. Her retirement was announced in 2014 and is believed to have been as a result of injury concerns. Her major career victories included the Yorkshire Oaks, Irish Champion Stakes, Nassau stakes and Prince of Wales’ Stakes.

The Fugue had taken part in 17 competitions, managing to win 6 of those. Even though her career was riddled with challenges such as injuries, she did become one of the more recognisable mares in England and Europe. She took part in high profile races, which is how she managed to make her owners a cool £1,934,560 and a lot more when she retired.

Born in Ireland but trained and raced in England, Night Nurse was a hurdler who was known in the landscape in the 70’s. In 1972, the horse was sold to trainer Peter Easterby, who saw a potential career in horseracing for the bay gelding. At that point, Night Nurse could only fetch 13000 guineas for the sellers. Easterby was buying the horse for Reg Spencer and would go on to train the animal for almost all of its career. Night Nurse enjoyed a great career with Paddy Broderick, the Irish Jockey, on the saddles. Broderick was known for the long rein approach to racing, going on to establish a great relationship with the horse and working to ensure that this style was its correct fit.

Career

You could argue that Night Nurse simply wasn’t cut out for the flat racing thing, and the stats will show exactly that. At two years old, he went for the first 6 races of his career winless before scrambling for a single victory from the same number of attempts the following year. In 1975, after two seasons of trying and failing, he switched to hurdles, and this turned on the magic from his legs. It was clear from the first race that this was his sweet spot and he was ready to dominate. There was a spell between ’75 and ’76 where he ran amok, winning ten races on the spin. After winning almost everything in this category, Nurse became a steeplechaser, where he faired pretty averagely. At retirement, he had won classic hurdles in Wales, England and Scotland. He was rated at 182 by Timeform, which is the highest ever accolade given to a horse whose specialty was hurdles.

At the time of retirement, Night nurse had earned £174,507 from 35 starts on the tracks. He became a sire after hanging up his saddle.