The Long Journey of Pheidippides - From the Gimcrack Stakes to a Selling H'cap

Marathon career for the talented and fleet-footed entire Pheidippides; Ask the Anorak.

Byline: John Randall

From the Racing Post May 26th 2006... 

I remember a horse called Pheidippides racing in the 1960s, ridden by a very young Pat Eddery - Les Thompson Newport, Gwent

The Anorak says: Pheidippides was one of the most remarkable horses of the post-war era, for he was good enough to win the Gimcrack Stakes in 1957 and was still winning as a 14-year-old entire in 1969.

Initially trained by Charles Elsey for Phil Bull, Pheidippides was named after the first marathon runner but proved a precocious juvenile sprinter in 1957, winning at Epsom's Derby meeting, flopping when odds-on for the New (now Norfolk) Stakes at Royal Ascot, and triumphing in the Gimcrack by a length from Pinched, with Pall Mall third. He was rated 6lb below the top-weight in the Free Handicap. Pheidippides won two minor events as a three-year-old but failed when it mattered most, running unplaced behind Pall Mall in the 2,000 Guineas and second to Pinched in the St James's (now Diomed) Stakes.

He was then retired to stud but proved infertile, so he was sent back into training with Vic Smyth in 1960 and finished third in the Royal Hunt Cup, beaten two necks. Pheidippides was then sold to a patron of Michael Pope's stables at Streatley, Berkshire, and stayed there for the rest of his career. A tough customer, he gradually lost his speed, but was an ideal mount for an apprentice and kept his enthusiasm to the end, becoming one of racing's much-loved old friends. In his memoirs All Such Fun, Pope wrote: "The horse proved to be a perfect gentleman, a pleasure to train and not in the least randy, despite having had a bevy of beauties at his beck and call. He had only one fault: he took a fierce hold and once in top gear it was 'goodnight nurse' for the unfortunate passenger."

Pheidippides was still an entire horse when scoring his 15th and final win at the age of 14, in a selling handicap at Doncaster in May 1969. He was ridden by a 7lb claimer, Pat Eddery, who had notched his very first victory on the veteran's stablemate, Alvaro, at Epsom only a month before.