6 minute read
Cover Up
Take Cover was bred to be a middle-distance horse, but instead the 11-year-old is a 5f sprinter so fast he is still able to take the best off their feet and mix it at Group 1 level.
Connections have made the decision to retire him, so Sally-Ann Grassick meets breeder Andrew Hollis and trainer David Griffiths to find out all about the veteran who was named Take Cover for a reason and, even now as he heads into the pastures, is not a straightforward individual
In our industry we have a tendency to get a little blinkered when it comes to breeding. Everyone wants to produce yearlings who light up the sales ring, precocious two-year-olds or Classic-winning three-year-olds.
The racing public however grow to love the old stalwarts who march into battle time and time again at top-class meetings the length and breadth of the country and beyond.
They might not be retired to stud at a young age to pass on their bloodlines to future generations, but they capture our hearts.
In case we ever forget, these war horses serve in their own way as a blatant reminder of the thoroughbred’s tenacity and determination that drew us all to this breed in the first place.
Many of these “old boys” tend to be quirky sprinters and when it comes to that category one horse is definitely in a league all of his own.
Some horses are named on an owner’s whim, some as an amalgamation of their parent’s names and some as a direct reference to their own unique personality. When you come across a horse from the latter category named Take Cover, you know from the outset that you are in for a bumpy ride!
“Take Cover was an absolute nightmare in the early days,” explains Andrew Hollis, who owns and bred the 11-year-old gelding at his Norcroft Park Stud, near Mansfield.
“That is how he got his name, because you had to dive for cover when he lost the plot!
“He has calmed down a bit with age, but he still has that mad streak. He only has two speeds: stop and fast. We nearly gave up on him so many times in the early days, but it was worth it in the end.”
Breeding is a funny old game and even with the best knowledge and all the research in the world, horses can make fools of us all. Take Cover is the perfect example of this.
His dam Enchanted won a Class 2 race over 7f at Ascot and Hollis decided to send her to Singspiel with the aim of producing a middle-distance horse.
He ended up with the dual Group 2-winning, 5f sprinter Take Cover, who is so fast that even now in his teens he usually is one of the first out of the gate and puts the pace to the first half of the race.
“That just shows what breeding is like, you try so hard to produce something, but you end up with him! It really is pot luck, but I suppose otherwise it would be easy and Coolmore and Godolphin would win everything,” surmises Hollis.
Hollis continues to pursue the dream on his 70-acre stud in Nottinghamshire with 15 broodmares, including the dam of Take Cover.
“Enchanted is 19 now and she is getting on
a bit, but we might give her one more go. She has a two-year-old colt by Nathaniel, who is broken and riding, as well as a yearling filly by the same sire.
“I tried to replicate the same Singspiel cross in the hope that it will work as well again.
“She also has a three-year-old colt by Sepoy and her daughter Enchanted Dream has an Epaulette filly, both of whom are in training with Take Cover’s trainer David Griffiths.
“They are both going the right way, but David hasn’t asked any questions of them yet so you never know what they will be.”
The road to glory has never been filled with more potholes and speedbumps than in the case of Take Cover.
“He was so difficult to handle that we had to geld him as a three-year-old. After that we sent him into training with Jane Chapple- Hyam. There was an Australian jockey riding out for her at the time and she wanted to lease him to ride in races.
“We were all for it as he was showing nothing, but she got injured in the stalls one day so the deal didn’t go ahead.
“It worked out in our favour in the end, but that was one of the many times we almost gave up on him!
“He then had some time off before joining George Margarson for whom he won three races over 6f and 7f. He was still misbehaving in the stalls and being a real handful in general so I decided to send him to David Griffiths, who is local to me.
“From the early days there David kept telling me he thought this horse could be a 5f sprinter, but I didn’t believe him. David has done an amazing job handling him and has looked after him unbelievably well.”
Ex-Flat jockey Griffiths, who trains 26 horses at Martin Hall Farm on the outskirts of Bawtry, may have seen the sprinting potential of Take Cover when he arrived in his yard six years ago but it was far from an easy task to relase that potential.
“I know him inside out now after six years, but you still have to be on the ball with him all the time. I could tell that he had ability, but it was a question of trying to keep the lid on him.
“He goes out with a lead horse every morning and in the early days that horse used to go racing with him as well.
“He has grown up a bit over the years and has quietened down at the races now.
“He canters every day when he is in full work, you don’t have any choice otherwise when it comes to him. I may have always thought he was a sprinter, but I did think he wanted cut in the ground and we waited for a long time for rain before we ran him. He proved me wrong on that point and we now know he likes quick ground; horses make fools of us all!”
At the age of 11, Take Cover produced an unexpected performance to finish second to Battaash in the Group 2 King George Stakes at Goodwood.
“He had been a bit quiet in himself early in the year,” commented Griffiths, “and that makes you worry that age is catching up with him, but he came alive three days before he ran at York in July.
“He ran okay that day, and we changed a few things afterwards, then he was back to his old self before Goodwood.”
Hollis adds: “I wasn’t expecting it because David’s horses had been a bit out of form, but Take Cover loves Goodwood. People were even suggesting on twitter afterwards that he should have a race named after him there! “I used to stress when he ran but I am enjoying it so much now.
“The plan is to retire him after his run at Newbury. We would have retired him at the end of last year, as he owes us nothing, but he ended the year with three wins in a row, two Listed and a Group 3. He will come back home for a well deserved retirement on the stud, which has really kept going all these years thanks to him.”
After his great performance when second in this year’s Group 2 King George Stakes, he put in a fine effort to finish sixth in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes (a race he had
finished third in the year before behind Lady Aurelia), he then added a second Listed Beverley Bullet sucess to his CV in September.
Initially, Griffiths had half been hankering to train him for another year, but after the Bullet the decision was taken to retire him in the autumn subsequent to running in Newbury’s Group 3 World Trophy Stakes, a race that he also won last year.
“The journey has been amazing. He has won two Group 2s, a Group 3, multiple Listed races and been placed in Group 1s. To come back year after year at that level is massive,” says Griffiths in admiration.
“We don’t have a large string so it is nice to go to those meetings with a real chance. Everyone at the yard will miss him when he retires, horses such as him don’t come around very often.”
The quirky but lovable Take Cover will indeed be a difficult horse to replace both for his connections and for his multitude of fans in racing.
David Griffiths with Take Cover at Goodwood back in 2014
