sergeant cecil.

​I am ashamed to admit that I had all but forgotten the admirable Sergeant Cecil. In fact when I was reading the book about him written by the excellent Steve Dennis, the outcome of the many big handicaps he ran in during his golden period were but hazy memories to me, which does me no credit as his name shall forever live on as the only horse in the history of flat racing to have won in the same season the Northumberland Plate, Ebor and Cesarewitch. The following season he successfully completed a different kind of hat-trick by winning the Lonsdale and Yorkshire Cup and the Prix Du Cadran. For Rod Millman, his trainer and Terry Cooper, his owner, he was the horse of a lifetime.
When Steve Dennis was building up the tension on whether ‘Cecil’ would be the first horse to win all three of the top staying handicaps by giving weight away all-round in the Cesarewitch, I was surprised to read that he won. I had no recollection of the horse winning the Cesarewitch. In fact, I would have staked big money on him having not won the Cesarewitch. When I googled the 2005 Cesarewitch, as if the interweb was serving to confirm my incredulity, nearly every Cesarewitch this century was listed except the 2005 renewal. But there it is in the form book: Sergeant Cecil, 9st 8Ibs, winning by ¾ length from King Revo, 8st 3Ibs, with Inchnadamph, 8st, 2-lengths third. 10/1 the winner, 20/1 and 50/1 the 2nd and 3rd. Vinando and Frankie were 4th at 25/1.
The horse who was bred for a song, sold for a song and who began his racing life by finishing 8th of 11, ridden by Sasha Righton, in a mile 2-year-old maiden at Kempton, has his place in racing history. That first race at Kempton wasn’t even a very good race, by the way. A great example of never losing hope.
‘Sergeant Cecil: the Impossible Dream: From Rags to Racing Riches’ by Steve Dennis is from the Racing Post publication stable, though the name Highdown appears on the spine. It looks and feels like a typical Racing Post coffee-table book. Not that is to denigrate it. It’s a good read, even if Steve Dennis reined in his journalistic impish style of writing he reserved for his much-missed column in the much-missed Racing Post, the book blighted by being published a year before Cecil ran his final race. Books on horses should never be written and published before they finish racing as such books always have a ‘what happened next’ feel to them.
In retirement Cecil went to, I believe, the British Racing School but he didn’t consider playing schoolmaster to young, inspiring jockeys, was really his thing. Nor was dressage. That was a particularly silly idea by whoever took that particular decision as anyone reading Steve Dennis’s book would know that a horse who liked his own way in life was never going to adapt to a discipline strong on the horse doing as instructed by the rider.
I would suggest that every new owner, or indeed owners struggling to find the horse that justifies the dreams and expense, should have this book on their shelves. It is a story that eloquently demonstrates that luck plays a huge part in racehorse ownership. As does perseverance. Terry Cooper dreamt of Cecil winning a race. He did. Then he just hoped Cecil might pay his way. He did. Then when Cecil strengthened into his frame and showed a higher level of form, he hoped he might win him a big race one day. He did. And he carried on winning big races and big cups. He was seven when he won the Group 1 Prix du Cadran.
He was given the opportunity by his trainer and owner to develop mentally and physically in his own time. A lesson to every owner in the world, I think.
As far as I am aware the horse remains in retirement at his owner’s farm. I hope he is still alive and fit. He deserves a long and happy retirement. He certainly does not deserve to be forgotten, as I, shamefully, did.