Flashback: The horse Simonsig left behind - sad end to an equine love affair
By Andy Stephens
Last Updated: Thu 21 Dec 2023
The article below was first published on November 16, 2016.
Triolo D
Do racehorses grieve or pine for one another? The next weeks and months at the yard of Nicky Henderson may reveal the answer as it dawns on one horse that his best friend is not coming home.
Simonsig and Triolo D’Alene were always a source of fascination at Seven Barrows, as well as at Hillswood Stud, in Wiltshire, where they would spend their summer holidays. They were racing’s odd couple, joined at the hip.
Where one would go, the other would follow. Where one stood, so would the other. They grazed and played together, lived in the same box and spent their holidays as one. Inseperable, according to Henderson.
This was a delightful and most unusual equine love affair between a chestnut and a grey, which came about quite by chance. Henderson recalled with clarity at a media event at Newbury on Tuesday where and when the friendship first blossomed.
“It goes back to about four years ago when they were among ten horses we turned out for their summer holiday at Hillwood Stud," he said. "It was an amazing field of stars with others like Bobs Worth and Finian’s Rainbow in there.
“When we went back the next morning we found the eight bays together and the other two [Triolo D’Alene and Simonsig, or Simon as those closest to him called him] at the opposite end of the field. It went on and on like this. For the whole of that summer they never met; eight one side, two the other.
“Simon and Triolo went off on their own - the grey and the chestnut. I don’t know whether they’d been pushed out by the bays or they had just decided they were different, but it was the most extraordinary thing.
“It was always the same. Any time you went there there was just the two of them together, even though they were themselves cheese and chalk in character.”
Hillswood Stud is run by Charlie and Tracy Vigors. They have witnessed most types of unusual thoroughbred behaviour, but nothing quiite like this.
Mirror image: The pair often seemed to strike the same pose (Tracey Vigors)
“They knew each other inside out and had a special bond," Tracy said on Wednesday. "They would spend their days playing and scratching in the field, and would eat out of the same feed pot. They were an amazing sight.
“They were always 100 per cent happy with themselves - lovely, easy horses to have around and proper gentlemen.
“They had a perfect partnership with no hierarchy. They were on level terms through and through - best mates at all times.
“Bobs Worth did try to get in on the act at one stage. He was in there for a little bit, but did not quite master it. I think it was a case of two’s company, three’s a crowd.”
Henderson was not inclined to split the pair up when they returned to his yard, not least because the pair had respiratory issues which required lots of fresh air.
“We realised that when they had married up like they did in the field, we may as well keep them together,” he said.
Initially, they were turned out in a big indoor school during the winter. They were equipped with more rugs than others, to keep them warm, but Henderson became so trusting of their relationship that he eventually left their hind shoes on.
Usually this would be inviting trouble because horses can kick out ferociously and hurt one another, especially when armed with steel plates. “But I knew they would not touch each other,” he said.
Later on, they moved into a big barn box. Their routine of being turned out in a field together once they had worked always remained the same.
The two mates share another moment together (Sarah Henderson)
“Off they would go, as soon as they had done their work,” the three-time champion trainer said. “That happened every day unless it was pouring down with rain.
“They would be together, side by side, day in and day out. And when they came into their stable they would still be side by side.”
On Sunday, amid sombre scenes at Cheltenham, the union came to a tragic end. Simonsig fell for the first time under Rules, broke his leg and could not be saved.
Just minutes before the Henderson team had already been a whirl of emotions after Sprinter Sacre had paraded in front of bulging stands following shock news of his retirement.
One of the greatest two-mile chasers to have graced the turf was clapped and cheered continuously during four or five laps of the paddock, with videos of his magical wins and Andy Williams' The Impossible Dream playing as a sound track.
The other horses for the Shloer Chase were walking around at the same time, so Simonsig witnessed and heard all the adulation. The dual Cheltenham Festival winner might have even thought it was for him.
Henderson and his staff were still processing all this when the beautiful grey came down and, moments later, took his last breath. It left them, and many others at the racecourse, totally shattered.
The immediate thoughts of Henderson were not for himself but for Dave Fehily, the lad who looked after Simonsig, Ronnie Bartlett, the owner, and last, but not least, Triolo D’Alene.
“What’s Triolo going to say,” Henderson mumbled to himself while talking to the media.
Now, a few days on, the pain slightly less raw, he was able to expand.
“We were going through all these emotions, all the people involved, and then it occurred to me: hang on, Triolo. What’s going to happen to him?”
Henderson believes the 2013 Hennessy winner would have had an inkling that something was amiss when the horsebox and its hushed passengers arrived back at the yard on Sunday evening.
Horses at his stable, and those at others, communicate with each other when the lorries pull up returning from the races. The familiar sound of the engine, voices, followed by doors clattering open and shut and then the clip clop of hooves always triggers excitement among those who have spent the day at home.
Like dogs barking at the return of an owner, they want to make themselves heard.
“He knows that horsebox coming back up the drive and, I promise you, he will have expected Simon to come back with it. He really would have,” Henderson said of Triolo D’Alene. “They start whinnying for each other.
“And then the horsebox comes back and his great friend isn’t there . . . ”
Henderson’s eyes became moist and it felt like intruding on his grief, but he continued: “How much does that affect a horse? I just don’t know. It’s something nobody can tell you, but you can’t help feeling it would affect him.
“I’m probably being stupidly sentimental but those two horses? They were quite something.”
The Vigors family enjoyed looking after Simonsig and Triolo D
There are precedents. Scroll through horse forums and you will find owners who have noticed a marked deterioration, at least for a time, in one horse after surviving a long-time companion.
Some can go off their food, become subdued or lose condition. Others have continually charged around their surroundings, as if searching for their mate.
The legendary Man O’ War, also a chestnut, died a short time after his longtime groom, Will Harbut, passed away. The horse apparently stopped eating when Harbut no longer appeared at his door and many believed he succumbed to a broken heart, although the supreme American champion was 30 years of age.
Horses and humans are wired very differently but a study this year showed our four-legged friends can recognise emotions in our faces.
Triolo D’Alene will have seen many sad ones in recent days but will not lack for Polos or pats over the weeks ahead.
Tracy Vigors said: “We texted a couple of guys at Nicky’s on Sunday night and said ‘go and give Triolo a hug, he’s going to be missing his mate tonight’."
But she also offers hope that the lone horse will get through any confusion he might be suffering.
“When you wean a foal off a mare, they have a few days of panic and stress and then life goes on," she said. "It's harsh but, like humans, horses can be resourceful. They get on with their working lives and hopefully there will be no long-term problem.”
On Tuesday the nine-year-old had an away day at Newbury. He galloped in the company of two stablemates.
"He had a nice gallop round and you could not say he looked miserable,” Henderson said. “But, whooa, you think of all the people this is going to affect, and then you suddenly think of him. Horses have to be close to human, don’t they?”
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