King George memories: Captain Christy 1975

“Those fortunate enough to be at Kempton Park on Boxing Day 1975 will cherish for many a long year the memory of Captain Christy’s breathtaking win in the King George VI Chase. His trouncing of Bula sent the racing correspondents into raptures.

John Oaksey, under his pen name Audax in Horse & Hound, wrote: ‘I honestly believe it fair to call this the finest performance seen in a three-mile chase since Arkle retired.’ To Peter Willett of the Sporting Chronicle Captain Christy’s win was ‘one of the great performances of steeplechasing history.’

Len Thomas of the Sporting Life was more cautious: ‘It was the most impressive display on this course since Arkle won this corresponding event in 1965.’ The correspondent of Stud & Stable called it ‘one of the greatest ever steeplechasing performances.’ These views were echoed throughout the steeplechasing world…..”

That is how Timeform’s Chasers & Hurdlers annual of 1975/76 recorded the contemporary reaction to Irish raider Captain Christy’s second successive win in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, a performance which cemented his position as the best chaser of the 1970s.

In truth, his comprehensive eight-length defeat of Pendil in the 1974 renewal was arguably evidence enough for that title. Pendil had won 18 of his 19 completed start over fences going into that race, including the previous two renewals of the Boxing Day showpiece, and was deemed pretty much unbeatable around Kempton – he was sent off the 7/4-on favourite in a field of six, with Captain Christy at 5/1.

“I remember lining up on Pendil against Christy and thinking ‘dodgy jumper, front runner, I’ll let him go’. Never saw him again!” was jockey Richard Pitman’s rueful recollection of the race.

In fairness to Pitman, he certainly wasn’t alone in picking holes in Captain Christy’s chances beforehand, as the gelding’s sometimes erratic jumping had twice proved costly in high-profile races on British soil – he’d even had to survive a bad blunder at the last when winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup (when still a novice) the previous March.

Although Captain Christy was unsuccessful when defending his Cheltenham Gold Cup crown in 1975 – eventually pulled up after getting bogged down in barely raceable ground – he showed his class (and versatility) when kept busy in top company over the ensuing weeks and months, making the frame in the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown (runner-up under top weight), the Grand Steeplechase de Paris over four miles at Auteuil (runner-up) and the Colonial Cup International Chase at Camden (close fourth), which was then by far the richest jumps race in the USA.

His ability to handle a wide variety of obstacles and trips (he’d been a top-class two-mile hurdler less than two years earlier!) clearly marked Captain Christy out as something out of the ordinary and he warmed up for the 1975 King George VI with a smooth win over 1977 Cheltenham Gold Cup Davy Lad in the Punchestown Chase (now the John Durkan) in mid-December, when 1975 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Ten Up was only fourth.

With Pendil sidelined through injury, Fred Winter was represented at Kempton instead by former dual champion hurdler Bula, who’d developed into a top-class chaser in his own right.

Indeed, he was sent off the 11/10 joint favourite (along with Captain Christy) in a field of seven that also included dual Champion Chase winner Royal Relief and 1974 Cheltenham Gold Cup third Game Spirit. Bula and Captain Christy were old rivals from their hurdling days and had looked closely matched at the start of their chasing careers in 1973/74, but it was clear from an early stage that wasn’t the case any more.

With regular pilot Bobby Coonan out injured in a recent fall, the ride on Captain Christy went to 5 lb claimer Gerry Newman, who’d only turned professional a few months earlier and had never ridden in Britain before. In addition, he wasn’t able to use his claim. As Chasers & Hurdlers explained, such concerns proved futile as Newman ended up enjoying a steering job: “Hurtling over the fences in dazzling style Captain Christy was six lengths clear of his field by halfway.

His main rival Bula took up the chase soon afterwards but Captain Christy, keeping up a scorching gallop, drew steadily out from the field in the second half of the race. Meeting fence after fence with impeccable accuracy, he had exhausted all his rivals with three-quarters of a mile to go and was so far in front that he could be beaten only if he fell.

He swept on relentlessly to inflict a humiliating thirty-length defeat on Bula, who, though clearly very tired in the last half-mile, held on to second place just ahead of Royal Marshall II. The applause for Captain Christy started up before he reached the last and it came as no surprise to hear that his winning time was inside the course record by more than four seconds.”

The world looked at Captain Christy’s feet in the immediate aftermath of this stunning performance, with trainer Pat Taaffe (who, of course, had been Arkle’s partner during his riding days) mapping out a hugely ambitious four-race Spring/Summer campaign in 1976 taking in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Grand National, Whitbread Gold Cup and Grand Steeplechase de Paris

Alas Captain Christy, who turned nine merely five days after Kempton, was to never race again. He missed the remainder of 1975/76 after injuring his off-fore at exercise in February and was never sound enough to race again – even after a controversial move by strong-willed owner Jane Samuel to switch stables (from Taaffe to Francis Flood) with him. This anti-climactic end to his career is possibly the reason Captain Christy isn’t so revered as some other King Georges winners before or since him.

That does him an injustice, though. Indeed, Peter Willett’s post-race reaction billing his 1975 King George win as ‘one of the great performances of steeplechasing history’ was an accurate one.

After all, the form didn’t work out too shabbily afterwards - Bula continued to show top-class form subsequently and was sent off a short-priced favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup less than three months later (albeit flopping the race itself), whilst Royal Marshall II went two places better when springing a surprise in the 1976 King George.

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