Sporting Life
Who are your favourite sprinters?
Who are your favourite sprinters?

Let's talk about... star sprinters | Caspain Prince is one of ours - who are yours?

By Sporting Life
Horse Racing
Mon April 13, 2020 · 5y ago

Ben Linfoot discusses the remarkable achievements of Caspian Prince - but who are your favourite sprinters? Get involved and let us know.

Our man reveals one of his favourite sprinters - now we want your feedback! Who are your star speed demons on the turf? Check out details of how to contact us towards the foot of the article.

Ben Linfoot – Caspian Prince

I love a sprinter. There’s just something about watching a thoroughbred going as fast as they can. On any given day in the summer, the first race I look for is invariably a sprint handicap and a lot of my favourite races throughout the season are sprints.

The King’s Stand, the Diamond Jubilee, the Commonwealth Cup. The July Cup, the King George at Goodwood, the Nunthorpe. The Haydock Sprint Cup and the Prix de l’Abbaye. And then the handicaps, like the Stewards’ Cup, the Portland and the Ayr Gold Cup.

All great races and you can add to that list the Epsom Dash on Derby day. While the Classic itself is reserved for the blue bloods the Dash always has a mixture of ragtags in it on the fastest sprint course in the country. It makes for compelling drama.

Given the size of the field in the Dash and the contours of the track, luck of the draw usually comes into play. So when you get a horse that wins the race in three years out of four, there’s probably something special about that horse.

And that’s certainly the case with triple Dash hero Caspian Prince.

For starters, he’s not really bred to be a sprinter. By the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Dylan Thomas out of a Rainbow Quest mare, you’d think he might be best over middle-distances.

His first trainer, Eoghan O’Neill, certainly thought as much. He started him out over 10 furlongs and stepped him up in trip after that. He quickly learnt, though, that his future lay over shorter distances, dropping him first to a mile and then to seven furlongs where he notched his first win.

By the time he was four he was regularly running over five furlongs in France and he won a couple of races over that distance before he switched stables to Tony Carroll where he started his English odyssey.

He won the Epsom Dash for the first time on his eighth start for Carroll. He won the Epsom Dash for the second time on his ninth start for Dean Ivory. And he won the Epsom Dash for the third time on his third start for Tony Coyle. He’s won the Epsom Dash off marks of 97, 104 and 107.

Trained by David Loughnane, Roger Fell and Julia Brooke as well, he seems to have finally settled at Mick Appleby’s where he was better than ever in the June of 2018, winning a Musselburgh handicap off a mark of 106 before finishing second in the Rockingham off 114 three weeks after that.

A horse that defies logic, a fourth Epsom Dash wouldn’t have been out of the question now he’s dropped down the handicap again (currently has a mark of 100 having run in it last year off 114) at the ripe old age of 11.

It remains to be seen whether he’ll get the chance this year. But you couldn’t bet against the seemingly evergreen and reliable rocket that is Caspian Prince writing another chapter in his remarkable story just yet.

Send us your views

Send your favourite star sprinters and other contributions to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and if you’ve any ideas for more topics you want covering over the coming days and weeks please let us know.

Feedback from readers

Dave Huntley: Hi All, for me INVINCIBLE SPIRIT would be my choice, simply put very good on and off the track.

Happy Easter all. Dave H

Simon from Newark: SOBA and Elbio. Trained by the unfashionable David Chapman and ridden by Dandy Nicholls, she won both a Stewards' Cup and the Great St Wilfred at Ripon. In the latter race she was out of the gate in a flash, two lengths clear after a furlong and the race was all over.

ELBIO was a good three year old, not quite top class, but missed the next year through injury. As a five year old he was aimed at the Kings Stand at Royal Ascot where he was ridden by Steve Cauthen. He looked magnificent in the paddock, clearly 100% fit despite the lack of a preliminary run and won cosily at 14-1 (I was on). A great piece of training by the under-rated Peter Makin.

Steve G: I love the sprinters too, especially the 'make-all' type. LOCHSONG was my favourite, graduating from handicaps to group ones, she seemed to finish first or last but usually first, leading all the way in that trademark sheepskin noseband. I read in Ian Balding's autobiography that she wasn't the most amenable of mares but she was a star on the track.

Andrew Pelis: Happy Easter everyone.

I loved the sprinters in the 1980s and in particular the excitement of the three year-olds that dropped in trip after running in the Guineas. They are brilliant horses! Moorestyle, like Dayjur a decade later, started out in the European Free Handicap. What a great race that used to be! He was supremely fast and from an unfashionable stable.

Marwell was good enough to finish second in the 1,000 Guineas, but made her mark as a sprinter in 1981. But HABIBTI in 1983 was utterly mesmerising. Her victory in the July Cup signalled the arrival of a special horse and you really felt for Soba, who chased her shadow all year to no avail. Habibti returned in 1984 but Chief Singer was in a truly purple patch of form and won a vintage July Cup, while Petong landed the Haydock Sprint Cup.

Then in 1986, it was Green Desert. One of the most amazing things to me about Dancing Brave, was how he managed to outpace a champion sprinter in a slowly-run 2,000 Guineas which developed into a sprint, for Green Desert was incredibly fast. So too was his contemporary, Last Tycoon, who went on to win a Breeders' Cup Mile, while Hallgate was not far behind these.

A year later Sir Michael Stoute was at it again. He told me a few years ago that Ajdal "was my greatest cock-up" … a brilliant juvenile who took time to come to hand in his Guineas year, he did so in late May, tempting connections to have a tilt at the Derby. A month later he won the July Cup and he went on to add the Sprint Championship over five furlongs at York!

It was a special era, when you throw in the older horses like Sharpo, Committed, Never So Bold, Double Schwartz, Cadeaux Genereaux and Soviet Song.

Best wishes all.

Robert Torrie: One of my favourites was SHARPO... She needed cut in the ground. But I thought Jeremy Tree trained her to perfection. She won at all the main meetings. In fact she was champion sprinter. What a sight to be hold cutting them down in the final 100yrds. LOCHSONG was simply brilliant also. The other one was a handicapped Mummy’s Pet. But racing’s moved on. With race times getting faster. Which training facilities are better prepared. With watered gallops and woodchip gallops, makes for far better training.

Dave Yougman: Two sprinters I loved were both trained here at Newmarket by Robert Armstrong at St Gatien Stables on the All Saints Road. MOORESTYLE, how Lester Piggott excelled on this horse. NEVER SO BOLD was another inmate of the Armstrong yard to do so well, especially as he had fragile legs and was not always sound.

Tony Harbour: I have a soft spot for two. I got into racing during early nineties and PARIS HOUSE was a favourite of mine. He finished 2nd in the Nunthorpe as a 2yo and was very good indeed. The other is COASTAL BLUFF who dead heated in a Nunthorpe and was a brilliant winner of a stewards cup ridden by one of my favourite jockeys Jimmy Fortune.

David Parker: My favourite Sprinter of all time is LOCHSONG. Catch me if you can start to finish, did she ever miss the break when the stalls opened? I don’t think she ever did. 1994 Kings Stand stakes is the race I will always remember, great ride by Frankie Dettori he didn’t move on her until the final 100 yards. Great mare and trained to perfection by Ian Balding.

Dave Chapman: Lake Coniston and DAYJUR for me though I also had a soft spot for Moorestlye too.

Jen from BSE: The first sprinter I fell in love with was SILVER FLING. She was by The Minstrel out of a Buckpasser mare and her breeders must have hoped she would be a classic contender. After an unsuccessful effort in the Fred Darling she was quickly dropped back in trip. She ran in a conditions race at HQ, the same day that Cadeaux Genereux won the Coral Sprint. Those 2 met in the William Hill Trophy at York on Timeform Charity Day. Silver Fling had to give 16lbs to Cadeaux Genereux, the latter was sent off odds-on for one of the most competitive sprints while Silver Fling was 16/1. Conceding that much weight to a top class sprinter was probably her best performance and it required a good Pat Eddery driving finish to prevail by half a length. After that I pretty much followed her over the cliff. She won the Palace House the day of Nashwan’s Guineas the following season (she had grown well from 3 to 4) and eventually gained a deserved success in the Abbaye by the narrowest of margins. She was not an outstanding broodmare but she was game and was one of those horses we all fall in love with.

Coming up next week...

Stable Tours coming up on Sporting Life
  • Richard Fahey Stable Tour
  • Mark Johnston Stable Tour
  • David O’Meara Stable Tour
  • Kevin Ryan Stable Tour
  • Karl Burke Stable Tour
  • Tim Easterby Stable Tour
  • Michael Dods Stable Tour
  • Jedd O'Keeffe Stable Tour
  • John Quinn Stable Tour
  • Brian Ellison Stable Tour
  • Ben Haslam Stable Tour
  • Phil Makin Stable Tour

More in the series...