Winning a 46-55 handicap at Wolverhampton on a Friday night isn’t usually something that I’d be sitting down and writing about but Red Cape’s success under Jimmy was something special.

Grandad bought Red privately from Jane Chapple-Hyam after he was led out of Tattersalls February sale unsold in 2008.  Red was five and had already won three races including a Lingfield handicap off a mark of 92.  Grandad didn’t often have horses vetted but did in this case as he hadn’t seen Red and he was costing more money than Grandad usually spent!  The vet rang and said that’d he’d passed but had Grandad seen his front legs as they weren’t the prettiest!  Grandad said he’d already won races with them so they’d be fine!

Red was delivered and 50% was sold to Middleham Park Racing and the other half to Mum and Dad.  Red was rated 98 on the all weather and 89 on the turf and was disappointing for the most of 2008 but his mark dropped drastically as a result!  In 2009 he came good again and won four races, his first at Catterick off a mark of 63.  In total Red won four races at Catterick but he also loved Wolverhampton were he was first home 9 times.  He was definitely better on a quicker surface but showed his versatility by winning on soft ground too.

Red wasn’t all sweetness and light!  He’s been pretty quirky at home and has come back to the stables on his own many times!  If his rider rode long to sit his lightening quick spook at some imaginary monster in the hedge he’d pull hard and they wouldn’t be able to hold him but if they rode short so to stop him going too quick he’d whip round and unseat them!  Red was also partial to taking a chunk out of you with his teeth when being saddled at the races, groomed or tacked up at home and he wasn’t the easiest to clip at times either!

Despite Red’s unusual front legs I couldn’t remember ever having a lameness issue with him so Edmund did a quick check of his records to confirm that Red had a soft pallet op in the summer of 2008 but did not receive any veterinary treatment other than his routine annual flu vaccination.

On my birthday, Friday 25^th September Red went to Wolverhampton for his 167^th outing and won his 20^th race!  Jimmy gave him a peach of a ride letting the front runners go off too quickly and circling the field to win by 2 lengths going away!

It was the perfect time to Tweet Jason Weaver and Luke Harvey in the ATR studio to announce his retirement! Just to top it off Red was our 43^rd winner of 2015 passing last year’s total of 42!

Horses as hardy and consistent as Red don’t come along very often and he has been an absolute pleasure to train.  He’ll now be spending his time babysitting Mum and Dad’s youngstock at Farnleigh Gardens and I’m sure Dad won’t be tempted to take him team chasing!