No-one can have been surprised at this week's announcement of the retirement of Sir Michael Stoute, one of the leading figures among the European training fraternity. It turns a page on one of the most successful training careers in the modern era.
In excess of 4,000 British winners belies an international career that covered Group winners on the Continent, and at the highest level in the USA and Canada that saw him enjoy top dog slot in the British Trainers' Championship on no less than 10 separate occasions in a tenure spanning more than 50 years.
Retirement columns in many newspapers including The Times have already charted the story of Stoute's Bajan upbringing and move to Britain, and don't merit repeating here in an article directed at many who will have known him personally.
But we can all take joy from a trip down memory lane enjoying some of Sir Michael's biggest and most memorable winners.
Estimate - Gold Cup 2013
No-one could fail to be moved by the dour staying performance of Estimate, by a neck, in the Ascot Gold Cup of 2013. Not so much by the speed and endurance of the winner, but the reaction of her wonderful owner, HM The Queen, whose support over many decades had seen some fabulous horses. The Ascot crowd were overjoyed with the result.
Winner of 5 of her 13 starts, Estimate should by rights have added a second place finish in the same race the following year, but was disqualified from second place (beaten a neck) for a prohibited substance in her blood.
Her progeny, all mated with middle distance horses, have to date produced 12 winners from 6 individuals.
Workforce - Derby 2010
Workforce set a new record time for the Derby in 2010 with a blistering turn of foot to win the 231st Derby by 7l, one of six Derbys won by Stoute's Freemason Lodge stables.
He was second-bested at Ascot 7 weeks later in the King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes by stable companion Harbinger, illustrating the strength in depth that was a trait of Stoute's yard at the time, but came good once again at Longchamp in early October, beating Nakayama Festa by just a head.
Daliapour - Hong Kong Vase 2000
At the peak of his international status, Stoute sent smart 12f performer Daliapour to campaign in Hong Kong. Runner-up in the previous season's English and Irish Derbys, Daliapour had already won the Group I Coronation Cup at Epsom and been narrowly beaten in the Canadian International at Woodbine before continuing his westward trip to the former British colony. A properly international field saw the four year old take it up 2f out and assert quite readily under Johnny Murtagh.
Singspiel - Japan Cup 1996
In an era before transworld racing had really taken off, Stoute despatched Singspiel to win the richly endowed Japan Cup in a campaign that also included victory in the Group I Canadian International, and the following Spring the Dubai World Cup. Winner of 8 of his 19 races, he turned into a prolific breeder of winners too before his death at Dalham Hall in 2010.
Pilsudski - Grosser Preis von Baden 1996
Prolific winner Pilsudski graduated in his third season's racing from handicap company to win the Group II Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown in 1996 before a busy autumn campaign that included victories in the Curragh's Royal Whip, the Group I Grosser Preis von Baden at Iffzheim, a 5l second in the Arc before a seasonal swansong in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Woodbine, beating Singspiel 1 1/4l.
In 7 runs in 1997, he never finished out of the first two, winning the Coral Eclipse, Irish Champion, Group I Champion Stakes (then at Newmarket) and concluding with a neck victory in the Japan Cup won by Singspiel the previous year.
Waterford Crystal Champion Hurdle 1990
An outlier in this Who's Who of Group races on the Flat, Kribensis was retained by Sheikh Mohammed to go jumping, although it's doubtful his owner took much interest in the success of his grey gelding.
In his juvenile jumping career, he was unbeaten, finishing on a high in the Triumph Hurdle. the following season, a sequence of victories left him 11/8 favourite to succeed in the Champion Hurdle, only to have to give way to Beech Road.
He came through his third season's jumping unbeaten, with the Fighting Fifth, Christmas Hurdle, Kingwell and Champion all under his belt but the 3l victory in the last of these was never replicated. He was well beaten in two subsequent renewals of the Champion Hurdle.
Shergar - Derby 1981
Every racing fan recognizes the name Shergar, even if many following the sport today weren't born when he devastated the Derby field by 10l. His trouncing of the oldr horses in the King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot was equally compelling, and he wasn't disgraced in the St Leger later in the year.
Inevitably, in the absence of any progeny, his kidnap in 1983 from Ballymany Stud is as much part of his story, and sad to say, we may never find the real truth of what happened.
Stoute has, however, been as much a trainer of trainers and riders as of horses. James Fanshawe, Owen Burrows, Walter Swinburn, Kieran Fallon, Ryan Moore and Richard Kingscote have all passed through the academy that is Freemason Lodge.
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