When you think about it, while we have come a long way from every Clerk of the Course being ‘Brigadier this’ or ‘Admiral that’, racing still uses an awful lot of military language: “h/she’s a weapon”, “the Mullins battalion”, Lester’s ‘machine gun’ finish on The Minstrel, Denman “The Tank”, h/she is ‘bombproof’, “we have some two year-olds to go to war with” … and there’s many more including the one I truly dislike: “we haven’t put a gun to his/her head yet” which, for my non-racing friends, means we haven’t stepped up the training. I would think, given modern-day sensibilities and understandable misunderstanding (sic), this one can be safely dispensed with!
How, then, could I possibly have resisted buying a horse called Chosen Comrade? Actually, as anyone who has followed these blogs knows, I do not base decisions on names. Does anyone remember Friska De Thaix? A horse I bought, despite the name, which was quickly changed to Freedom to Dream? Would someone who won the eight-year-old Spelling contest at school want to buy a horse called Suprise Package? I think not!
Chosen Comrade is a four-year-old filly despite the masculine-sounding name. As Ber says, better than her being called Suzy Perfume (I checked – there is no horse with this name. That’s not something that can be said about my first choice: Lipstick Rose!)
Ber loves the name. She may have had too much to drink, but said,” It speaks volumes of the relationship you and Peter have…”
Anyway, I digress. Chosen Comrade won her point-to-point at Borris House on March 2nd. It was a strongly run race and much the fastest time of the day. The horse who finished second was well fancied and came to win her race, but could not get past Chosen Comrade, who just kept pulling out more and more. The second was subsequently sold for £150k; a figure much higher than Chosen Comrade was bought for (although much higher than my normal budget). I would love to tell you how much, but my family reads this blog. Kim does as well, of course, but she does know and was incredibly supportive and encouraging (this is something worth memorializing in case things don’t turn out as well as hoped).
Chosen Comrade was going to go to the sales, so we wanted to move quickly. Peter went down to the yard on the Tuesday after the race, and we did the deal that evening. A full veterinary check took place on Thursday, and she arrived in Peter’s yard on Friday.
We always had the idea of a Bumper run before a summer at grass and then onto the real business: hurdling later this year. She has done well, and while we have not done any speed work with her, she does show both pace and stamina. Equally as important, she is very determined and won’t be passed easily.
She is running in a Bumper tomorrow at Tipperary restricted to horses who have run in point to points since September 2024. Those races are over fences and 3 miles, and tomorrow’s is over 2 ¼ miles on the flat. We think she will have the speed for it and, maybe, more than several of the others. We do want to check the ground at Tipperary, but if everything is well, I will be making the short drive to Tipperary tomorrow.
John Gleeson (a top amateur rider) texted Peter about the ride when the entries were made, and we were more than delighted to welcome him into our little platoon. We will be racing prominently as she seems to have a high cruising speed and will likely make the pace. If others go on, they will probably be going too fast.
Tomorrow is not D-day, but we want her to enjoy it and show up well. I did mention to Peter about the PTSD I still have from Suprise Package’s first run at Thurles when he finished tailed off—I'm not sure he appreciated the comment. That’s good; it tells me that he thinks a lot of her and expects a decent run with much improvement to come.
It’s not a bad race. I think the betting is wrong and that Bly Manor (currently 12/1) and Noble Name (9/1) may be the dangers. We are 7/2, and that is probably fair. She is the youngest horse in the race (the others are five and older), and four-year-olds have never won this race, although they have only represented 7/126 runners in the last 10 years!
Let battle commence!