Full-time trainer, part-time psychologist. It’s a delicate balancing act Sandy Thomson has mastered many times over in a career turning mad hatters into feathers in his tweed cap.
Seeyouatmidnight, a gifted but all-too-injury-prone staying chaser, may have been the horse who put Thomson’s Lambden Farm stables in Berwickshire on racing’s map. But it’s his work with Harry The Viking, Neptune Equester, Benson and the enigmas’ enigma that was Yorkhill that have forged his reputation as a kind of Doctor Dolittle to the lost and wayward.
Not one to let his white coat gather dust for long, Thomson is ready to remove the bubble-wrap from the latest equine oddball to make its way into his care, Mr Incredible, who is set to debut for his new connections in Wetherby’s Rowland Meyrick Chase on Boxing Day.
The eight-year-old is a classy operator on his day, as he showed when runner-up in last season’s Midlands National off top weight for Willie Mullins. But he has more than once demonstrated a reluctant streak - for Mullins and previous trainer Henry de Bromhead - which hints at a talent which may be destined to remain forever unfulfilled.
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The task of getting into Mr Incredible’s head and figuring out what makes him tick has now fallen on Thomson after he agreed a deal with Mullins and owner Paul Byrne to buy him during the summer. He will carry the colours of James Manclark, who hopes to realise a lifelong ambition to own a runner in the Grand National next April.
Thomson said: “The Rowland Meyrick has always been the first step on our journey,” before quickly adding, “although whether Mr Incredible is fully on board with it only time will tell!
“He has his quirks, for sure. And he’s a huge challenge. But then we’ve had plenty of horses like that come to us before and we’ve always managed to get a tune out of them."
Those horses include Neptune Equester and Harry The Viking, with whom Thomson plundered four consecutive Scottish Borders Nationals at his local track of Kelso. And Benson, who swooped fast and late under Ryan Mania to snatch last year’s Morebattle Hurdle from under the nose of Irish raider Colonel Mustard.
Yet top spot on Thomson’s resume of renegades is reserved for Yorkhill, another ex-Mullins’ maverick who the former permit holder, and Scotland B rugby star, coaxed back from leftfield to land Newcastle’s Rehearsal Chase in 2020 as the 66/1 rank outsider of the field. Quite literally, too, given the four-time Grade 1 winner’s increasing tendency to jump wildly to his left which contributed to a stark fall from grace during his time at Closutton.
While some of his contemporaries might baulk at the prospect of working with such tricky types, Thomson openly embraces it. He said: "Harry The Viking almost went up our gallop backwards when we first got him from Paul Nicholls. He really was that slow! But we got him going better with horses around him and, bit by bit, managed to sweeten him up.
“When he won his second Borders National in 2018, three weeks shy of his 14th birthday, he’d have run through a brick wall for you. Calett Mad was seven years his junior that day, but there was no way the old boy was letting him past him up the run-in.
“Yorkhill was a bit different. To be fair to him, he wasn’t really a problem horse. Although I did feel he was starting to go a bit ‘doggy’ on us before he won the Rehearsal on his second start for us.
“Ryan gave him an absolute peach that day. Whether we’d have got another performance like that out of him post-Newcastle, I’m not sure. Unfortunately he got an injury not long afterwards and didn’t run again, so we never got to find out.
“Horses like that have their challenges, but that’s the market we operate in. If they didn’t have their quirks, we wouldn’t be able to afford them.”
Which is how Thomson came to acquire his latest misfit. He added: “James asked me about three years ago if I could find him a horse for the National, but initially nothing came up at the right price. We also looked at buying Chemical Energy out of the Caldwell dispersal sale but he, too, proved beyond our budget.
“During the summer I compiled a list of potential horses and that’s when Mr Incredible came up as an option. I know Willie, so I phoned him to ask if Paul Byrne might be willing to sell. Having sold Noble Yeats just before he won the 2022 National, I wasn’t sure if he’d be open to letting another Grand National winner slip through his hands!
"But Willie spoke to Paul and said he would be, and thankfully we were able to agree a deal."
Mr Incredible has failed to get round in the last two Nationals, unseating Brian Hayes on both occasions. At least he decided to jump off at Aintree, something he hasn’t always consented to do
He’d completely refused to play ball when fitted with first-time cheekpieces in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown three years ago on his final run for De Bromhead; then dug his heels in and pulled himself up before the first fence of April’s Scottish Grand National on his penultimate start for Mullins.
Yet Thomson feels his newest recruit has been unfairly maligned in some quarters. He said: “You can’t pin any blame on Mr Incredible for either of his unseats in the National. In fact, he was desperately unlucky on both occasions. Two years ago, his jockey lost his irons and got bumped out of the saddle. Then this year Mahler Mission jumped across him at The Chair and he had nowhere to go.
“He’s still only eight, rising nine, so he’s got another two or maybe even three Nationals in him if we can get him to where we want him. He showed what a talented horse he is when runner-up in the Midlands National off top weight. That was a massive performance on soft ground with 12st on his back, especially as he hadn’t run for 11 months. So we know what he’s capable of when he’s on it."
Getting Mr Incredible in the right headspace will be the key to Thomson’s chances of unlocking all of his natural talent and letting it flourish. Which is why he and Mania, his stepson-in-law, have applied plenty of the kid-glove treatment to his training thus far.
Thomson said: “If Mr Incredible decides he’s not going to do something on any given day, he won’t do it. There’s no budging him, and there’s no point even trying to get him to budge.
“We’re getting to know his foibles now, his likes and dislikes. We take our lead from him, try to do what he likes and avoid what he doesn’t, and just humour him. That’s what I’ve found to be the key to these horses.
“When we first began to increase his training, Ryan would take him up into the hills around here and just ride him about. We’re very lucky to train where we do and it’s a great way to get some good work into him without him even realising it! He’s been out hunting a bit with Ryan as well. I’ve even ridden him myself occasionally, just to mix things up as much as we can.
“He’s a huge challenge, and some days go better than others. But it’s a challenge Ryan and I are thoroughly enjoying - although perhaps me a little bit more than Ryan!”
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