Shoemark Group 1 magic. Always been class. Always wanted to be part of a team. A lesson to us all - however badly you are treated never give up. And you can overcome anything. Ed Walker your dad would be so proud of you @curraghrace 💛🖤💛🖤
Not sure I’ve ever been as touched by a video of horses as by this one.
Queen’s Gamble returns to Ladyswood Stud having retired post a successful racing career with @Harry05Derham & @OliverSherwood to be reunited with her mother, Gambling Girl, 8 years after being weaned.
We lost the beautiful and the brave Saint Sam on Easter Monday at Fairyhouse. He was doing something he loved: racing, running and jumping.
He was expertly trained by Willie and the team @WillieMullinsNH and rated 163 over fences at his peak. He won 9 races for me, plus another two as a 3 year old in France.
He won the @ClonmelR Oil Chase and the Red Mills @gowranpark Both Grade 2 contests. He was also Grade 1 placed as well as placed in many other graded races (including The Fred Winter).
Saint Sam took us to the beautiful @KillarneyRaces and won, to the incredible @Galway_Races Festival, and won, and to many other big race days providing so much fun for us.
@PTownend won 8 times on him and @rachaelblackmor once; he always gave his jockey’s arms a good workout with his immense enthusiasm for racing!
Maybe it was his heart-on-the-sleeve, front running style of racing that endeared him to many racing fans and I would like to thank everyone who posted on social media and contacted me to say goodbye to a lovely, talented, genuine racehorse. I know that Julie, Adam and others who looked after him will miss him sorely too.
They say that God loves a trier and Saint Sam was most certainly that.
We have very sadly lost the battle to overcome Sir Gino’s ailment and he has had to be put to sleep at the veterinary hospital this morning.
He has been fighting from severe deep-seated infections that he had overcome last year prior to his brilliant return in the Christmas Hurdle but this time it had spread too far although his fractured pelvis was healing well.
He was not only brilliant but one of the nicest kindest horses you could ever wish to see and this leaves an awful hole in Seven Barrows this morning and a very sad day for Joe & Marie Donnelly. They have had some wonderful horses over the years and they both care so much for them so losing such a young star with his life in front of him is particularly cruel.
Sir Gino was unbeaten in all his 7 starts including 3 Grade 1’s over hurdles and an amazing display in a Grade 2 Chase on his one and only start over fences.
We would have to say that he was just at least as good as any of all the amazing horses we have been lucky enough to have trained. Unforgettable in every way.
There are moments in this sport when your heart beats far faster than it should, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, you see a horse who is clearly enjoying himself, freewheeling down a home straight and winning doing cartwheels, and you are so thankful that horses and horse racing play such a big part in your life and with it bring such uplifting memories. That was one of those moments.
#constitutionhill
Nicky Henderson reported that Sir Gino endured a "comfortable" night in hospital and there is "every chance" his superstar can recover from the fractured pelvis he sustained at Cheltenham on Saturday
@louise_another@OliverSherwood I was assistant trainer to @OliverSherwood for 8 years and had the privilege to be alongside him in Clouds finest days, Hennessy, Grand National etc. I felt like I was the lucky one! He was taken to soon and I will be internally grateful to say I was a small part involved ♥️