Review of the Year: Frankie Dettori and Tiger Roll helped make 2019 a vintage

The final year of the decade was another remarkable one for the sport of horse racing, with Tiger Roll becoming the first horse since Red Rum to win back-to-back Grand Nationals and Enable bidding for a record third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Here, we look at an eventful 12 months in pictures:

Altior won his 17th successive race on January 19, making light work of Fox Norton and Diego Du Charmil to claim a seven-length victory in the Grade One Clarence House Chase at Ascot.

Paisley Park breezed to a 12-length victory in the Cleeve Hurdle for trainer Emma Lavelle and owner Andrew Gemmell. A quality field included Black Op, Sam Spinner, Unowhatimeanharry and Wholestone – all easily swept aside.

Bryony Frost and Frodon continued their successful partnership when teaming up to take the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham.

On February 7, all race meetings in Britain were cancelled after three equine influenza tests returned positive from horses at Donald McCain’s Malpas yard. As McCain had recently sent runners to various racecourses and the horses in question were vaccinated, the BHA feared that a strain of the virus resistant to vaccination could spread. On veterinary advice, no racing was held in Britain for six consecutive days, as extensive testing was carried out at racing yards across Britain. The ban was eventually lifted on February 13.

In late February, a number of trainers coordinated a three-day boycott of Arena Racing Company-owned racecourses, owing to dissatisfaction over prize-money figures.

Paul Nicholls’ Cyrname became the highest-rated jumps horse in training after winning the Ascot Chase by a runaway 17 lengths, handed a handicap mark of 178 for the effort – some 3lb higher than Nicky Henderson’s stable star Altior was rated at the time.

Altior defended his Queen Mother Champion Chase crown on the way to his 18th successive victory, seeing off Politologue by a length and three-quarters, a narrow winning margin compared with the previous season’s seven-length success.

Bryony Frost became the first female jockey to win a Grade One race over jumps at the Cheltenham Festival, piloting Frodon to success in the Ryanair Chase. The victory topped an impressive week for women in racing, with Rachael Blackmore claiming two winners and Lizzie Kelly also getting on the scoresheet.

Paisley Park was a fairytale winner of the Stayers’ Hurdle on the third day of the Cheltenham Festival. The gelding, who nearly died two years prior because of a severe bout of colic, is trained by Emma Lavelle and owned by Andrew Gemmell. Gemmell was born blind and relies on the race commentary to follow the horse’s performances.

Noel Fehily announced his retirement from the sport after winning the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle aboard Eglantine Du Seuil, on the third day of the Cheltenham Festival.

Al Boum Photo gave Willie Mullins is first winner in the Cheltenham Gold Cup when he was steered to victory by Paul Townend. The Festival showpiece had previously evaded Mullins, who had saddled the runner-up no fewer than six times.

Tiger Roll became the first horse to win the Grand National in successive seasons since Red Rum when retaining his title over the big Aintree fences. Starting as 4-1 favourite, the remarkable nine-year-old was level with 66-1 shot Magic Of Light until the final fence, where the latter blundered, leaving Davy Russell’s mount to pull away for a famous two-and-three-quarter-length victory.

Paul Nicholls sent out his 3,000th British jumps winner in April, making him only the third trainer ever to do so. Nicholls, who has held the champion trainer title 11 times, joined Martin Pipe and Nicky Henderson in achieving the landmark.

Australian wonder mare Winx bowed out at the top after claiming a third Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick – her 33rd consecutive victory. The seven-year-old enjoyed 25 of those successes at Group One level, earning more than £14million in prize-money across her career.

Immediately after winning the Punchestown Gold Cup aboard Kemboy, Ruby Walsh announced his retirement from the sport. Walsh, who rode more than 2,700 winners through his 24-year career, is associated with some of the jumping greats – such as Kauto Star, Denman, Master Minded, Big Buck’s, Hedgehunter, Hurricane Fly, Quevega and Annie Power.

Aidan O’Brien’s Hermosa completed the Guineas double in May, claiming both the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket and the Irish version at the Curragh. The filly was a 14-1 winner of the first leg, but that length victory earned her favourite status in the Irish version, where she triumphed by an emphatic four lengths.

Michael O’Leary announced his intention to scale back his Gigginstown House Stud racing operation. O’Leary is one of the biggest racehorse owners in the world, with well over 3,000 Irish runners wearing his colours over the past five seasons. Gordon Elliott has been the biggest beneficiary of O’Leary’s involvement, not least through dual National winner Tiger Roll and Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Don Cossack.

Aidan O’Brien celebrated his seventh Epsom Derby winner when Anthony Van Dyck held off Madhmoon by half a length to claim the premier Classic. The victory made O’Brien the first modern-day trainer to saddle seven winners of the race, the last to do so having been Fred Darling in 1941.

The Charlie Appleby-trained Blue Point completed a remarkable Group One double at Royal Ascot, winning the King’s Stand Stakes on the first day of the meeting and the Diamond Jubilee on the last. In doing so, he emulated Choisir -who completed the same feat in 2003.

Frankie Dettori notched seven winners across the five days of Royal Ascot, almost 23 years after achieving the ‘Magnificent Seven’ that saw him claim all seven winners on a September card at the same track. Dettori took the first four races on the Thursday, winning the Norfolk Stakes, the Hampton Court Stakes and the Ribblesdale Stakes before steering Stradivarius to a second consecutive Ascot Gold Cup victory.

On July 5, journalist and broadcaster John McCririck died at the age of 79. McCririck first appeared on television screens in 1981 when he joined ITV Sport’s racing coverage, later featuring for many years on Channel 4. As per his request, he was cremated and his ashes were spread at the site of the furlong post at the former Alexandra Park racecourse in London, where he first fell in love with racing.

Enable returned to action to win the Coral-Eclipse, having not run since her Breeders’ Cup Turf victory the previous November. The performance was the mare’s 10th consecutive win, with old foe Magical coming home three-quarters of a length behind the five-year-old.

John Gosden’s stable star was then pushed to her hardest-fought win to date when facing Crystal Ocean in the the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. In one of the most gripping battles of the season, the horses remained shoulder to shoulder until Enable just surged clear in the final 100 yards.

Khadijah Mellah, 18, became the first British Muslim woman jockey to ride in a race and the first to wear a hijab when she was triumphant in the Magnolia Cup at Goodwood. Mellah, who hails from Peckham in South London, learnt to ride at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton – an inner-city community riding centre aimed at some of London’s most disadvantaged youths. The teenager had ridden a racehorse for the first time in April, just four months before steering Haverland to victory in the ladies-only charity contest.

Stradivarius won the Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million for a second time in August, securing a £1million bonus.

Frankie Dettori enjoyed his 15th Group One success of the season when winning the St Leger aboard John Gosden’s Logician. The victory was a sixth triumph in the world’s oldest Classic for Dettori. The grey colt was the 5-6 favourite and enjoyed an easy passage through the race, hitting the front more than two furlongs out to win convincingly.

Enable shone on what was believed at the time to be her last performance on British turf when taking the Darley Yorkshire Oaks for the second time. Magical was again relegated to the runner-up spot as the superstar mare claimed a two-and-three-quarter-length victory in preparation for her third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Sir Anthony McCoy made a winning one-time return from retirement when triumphing in the Pat Smullen Champions Race For Cancer Trials Ireland at the Curragh. McCoy beat Ruby Walsh when steering Quizzical to victory – with a stellar line-up of Paul Carberry, Charlie Swan, Joseph O’Brien, Johnny Murtagh, Richard Hughes, Kieren Fallon and Ted Durcan all taking part behind.

Anapurna shone for Frankie Dettori when winning the Oaks in June – and was the toast of the ever-popular Italian later in the year as she secured him a 17th Group One success of 2019. It was a new personal best, eclipsing the figure he recorded in 2001. He would claim two more before the year was out, with Star Catcher and Alson.

Enable’s bid for a record-breaking third consecutive Arc was thwarted by Andre Fabre’s Waldgeist. Starting as the 4-6 favourite and pulling clear of the field in the final furlong, she began to tire in the testing conditions and was eventually edged out by 16-1 shot Waldgeist – fourth in last year’s race and beaten by Enable on each of their three previous encounters.

Pinatubo protected his unbeaten record with a two-length victory in the Dewhurst at Newmarket. A winner of each of his five previous starts, the Charlie Appleby-trained colt cemented his position at the head of the juvenile division and is even-money favourite with several bookmakers for the 2000 Guineas.

Enable’s owner Khalid Abdullah announced in October the five-year-old would remain in training for another season. It was widely assumed the mare would retire after Longchamp, but Abdullah sportingly decided to give his star another season and a shot at immortality with a third Arc win.

The two highest-rated jumps horses in training met at Ascot on November 23 as Cyrname and Altior contested the Christy 1965 Chase. Cyrname’s Ascot Chase win last term saw him rated higher than Altior, which raised some eyebrows, as his rival had won 19 consecutive races before the clash – including 10 Grade One contests. That rating was justified, however, because the Paul Nicholls-trained gelding was a two-and-quarter-length winner as Altior was defeated for the first time since 2015.

Donnacha O’Brien, the youngest son of trainer Aidan, announced his decision to retire from the saddle on November 24. The 21-year-old was this season’s champion jockey in Ireland, defending the title after first achieving the feat the previous season. O’Brien followed in the footsteps of his father and his older brother Joseph by taking out a licence to train, and is now based at David Wachman’s former yard in Tipperary.

Hollie Doyle rode her 107th winner of 2019 on December 5, setting a new record for female jockeys in the process. Doyle’s tally is the highest ever reached by a woman in a calendar year, with Josephine Gordon’s count of 106 the previous marker.

Drama at Sandown saw seven jockeys handed 10-day bans and the London National Handicap Chase declared void, after riders failed to pull up following the waving of a yellow flag, which was deployed because of a stricken horse ahead. The seven jockeys subsequently appealed and had their suspensions quashed.

The Ladbrokes King George VI Chase was billed as a near match between rising stars Cyrname and Lostintranslation – in the absence of Altior. But that was reckoning without returning title-holder Clan Des Obeaux. Sent off very much his yard’s second string in the market, after Harry Cobden chose Cyrname and left Sam Twiston-Davies to ride Clan Des Obeaux, the new partnership flourished while others faltered round Kempton’s three miles – and had 21 lengths to spare from his stablemate at the line.

As Chepstow hosted British racing’s second Christmas showpiece – the gruelling Coral Welsh Grand National – the expanse of time since the most recent home victory had stretched well beyond half a century. But Potters Corner and his Glamorgan trainer Christian Williams rewrote history, with a little help from another young Welshman in the saddle – 7lb claimer Jack Tudor, 17. Part-owned, for good measure, by Wales rugby union star Jonathan Davies, Potters Corner delivered tenaciously by a length and three-quarters at 8-1 – sparking raucous celebrations all round.

Nicholls ended 2019 with one extra reason to celebrate as it was announced, just a day after Clan Des Obeaux’s second King George triumph that he and great rival Henderson had both received an OBE in the New Year Honours list. Champion trainer 11 times and five times respectively, Nicholls and Henderson have been responsible for many of the modern-day winners of all Britain’s highest-profile jumps races.