Some of the Sporting Life racing team recall their dual-purpose heroes and we want to hear yours as well - get involved and email in.
What are your favourite recollections of some of our finest dual-purpose heroes? Share your thoughts with us via racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and they will appear at the foot of the article.
Mike Vince - Mullins ace stopped in full flight
Lockdown has meant eyes down for Quiz time for many, so here’s a question...
Which horse have Frankie Dettori and Patrick Mullins both ridden to Group 1 glory?
The answer? The amazing Wicklow Brave, who we lost so sadly in the American Grand National last autumn by which stage, at the age of 10, he had won 17 of his 59 races and more than £900,000 in prizemoney.
The world first heard of Wicklow Brave back in 2013 when he beat 19 rivals to win a bumper at the Galway Festival, and then two years later it was Cheltenham Gglory in the County Hurdle.
But it was in the summer of 2016 the horse trainer Willie Mullins was later to describe as ‘utterly unique’ really hit the headlines.
Wicklow Brave hit the flat circuit, chasing home the Queen’s Dartmouth at Chester and from a distance at Royal Ascot.
With talk of a Melbourne Cup run he went to Goodwood for the Cup and then to York for the Lonsdale before Mullins made a big call - the Irish St Leger, a race no longer restricted to three-year-olds. He'd been placed behind Order of St George the year before after narrowly losing out to Litigant in the 2015 Ebor when ridden by a 7lb claimer Jack Kennedy.
Just four went to post. His old rival Order of St George, fresh from his Ascot triumph, was sent off the 1-7 favourite and Trip to Paris, the previous year's Ascot winner, was also in the field. Frankie Dettori’s ride was sent off at 11-1 and made just about all, lasting home by a diminishing half length.
It was next stop Melbourne - and not the happiest of trips.
All that was forgotten the following April. In that thrilling battle to be Champion Trainer against Gordon Elliott, Mullins threw the kitchen sink at the Punchestown Festival and Wicklow, with Patrick Mullins up, was the outsider of the four Closutton runners, with Ruby Walsh on their main hope Vroum Vroum Mag.
I still regard it as one of Patrick’s finest hours, he led from halfway and hard though Aidan Coelman on My Tent or Yours tried, he couldn’t catch him. I have never seen Willie Mullins so proud and emotional afterwards. This was the finest hour for a horse who was the ultimate dual-purpose competitor who had been given one of the great Punchestown rides.
So fences beckoned, a Grade Three win achieved before tragedy struck.
Surely it was only a matter of time before Grade One Chase success was secured and the ultimate racing treble achieved.
So sad it wasn’t to be.
Matt Brocklebank - Risky business
There have been some magnificent dual-purpose performers through the years, from Sea Pigeon, to Vintage Crop, Kasbah Bliss, Overturn and Khyber Kim.
Champion Hurdle winner Sublimity was a dual Listed scorer on the Flat before taking to timber and is often overlooked when it comes to this particular category of stars.
Celestial Halo is another likely lad having been second in the Melrose for Barry Hills before joining Paul Nicholls and winning the Triumph Hurdle among 10 victories in total over the obstacles, while revisiting this piece in a year's time could be embarrassing given what Gary Moore's Goshen promises to achieve.
He was in the process of producing one of the most memorable Cheltenham performances in recent times before agonisingly unseating Jamie Moore at the last, prior to which he'd won three juvenile hurdles by an aggregate distance of 68 lengths.
On the Flat Goshen didn't cut much ice at two but it quickly became apparent he was a well-treated three-year-old when rising from a BHA mark of 64 to 88 following three straight wins last year before his attention was switched to the jumps game.
With the Sky Bet Ebor and Melbourne Cup no doubt among his targets on the level this time around, and a potential Champion Hurdle bid in the offing next spring, he appears to have the world at his feet in spite of that heartbreaking moment in March.
But this strikes as a perfect opportunity for a nod of respect to surely one of the greatest dual-purpose trainers in David Elsworth.
Not many handlers have enjoyed the kind of success Elsworth has witnessed from his bases in Newmarket and, before that, Whitsbury.
Elsworth was champion jumps trainer in 1988 and before focusing on the Flat game saddled winners of the Grand National (Rhyme ‘N’ Reason), Queen Mother Champion Chase (Barnbrook Again) and other significant races on the National Hunt scene.
He also oversaw the career of a certain Desert Orchid, the four-time King George, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Irish Grand National hero.
There is no shortage of ammo when it comes to firing off a list of his major winners on the Flat either, featuring In The Groove, who won the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Juddmonte International, Champion Stakes and Coronation Cup.
There was also the chestnut Persian Punch, a real darling of the staying division around the turn of the millennium, while Snoqualmie Boy (2006 King Edward VII Stakes), Barshiba (2007 Sandringham Handicap, 2009 & 2010 Lancashire Oaks) and Arabian Queen (2015 Juddmonte International) have since reminded us all that the now 80-year-old Elsworth still has the desire and the ability to make it happen when afforded the right kind of horse.
Oh So Risky doesn't command quite the same reputation but was one of the better horses that did it in both codes for Elsworth.
He was highly promising on the Flat before going jumping and really took off in that sphere during the 1990/91 campaign, culminating in a 12-length Triumph Hurdle win not too dissimilar to that which Goshen was about to deliver this spring.
He was second to Royal Gait in the 1992 Champion Hurdle, fifth the following year behind Granville Again and went to on to win the 1994 Grade Two Ascot Hurdle as well as a novice chase at the same venue.
But his most prestigious subsequent success arguably came back on the Flat, storming home by two lengths in the Michael Tabor silks to win the 1993 Group Three Prix Gladiateur at Longchamp.
He went off at around 4/1 for the Prix Du Cadran there the following month but only beat a couple home on ground which evidently went against him.
Send us your views
Send in your favourite memories of dual-purpose heroes and other contributions to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com while if you’ve any ideas for more topics you want covering over the coming days and weeks, please let us know.
Feedback from readers
David Strong: Anybody else out there remember a horse called Magic Court? I remember her (?) winning both the Cesarewitch and the Champion Hurdle somewhere around 1964.
Dave Parker: Caracciola trained by Barry Hills and Nicky Henderson a good horse over both disciplines.
He won two races chasing, four races over hurdles and nine over the flat. The one I remember most, when he was 11 years old and he won the 2008 Cesarewitch at 50/1 being the biggest priced winner of my betting career.
I have always followed jumps trainers when they enter the big handicaps , Nicky Henderson, Donald McCain and Alan King in recent years.
Then there was Kribensis which was trained by Sir Michael Stoute.
Kribensis won the triple crown of jump racing no mean feat! And I believe he still holds the record for the fastest mile ever ran at Ayr over the flat so he was obviously a useful horse over both disciplines.
I look forward to seeing Goshen and The Cashel Man running on the Flat when racing resumes.
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