Following his brave effort when running 3rd at Worcester this evening, the DTTW Partnership have decided to retire their veteran grey chaser …
These are the words of DTTW partner, Simon Adcock
Here are some highlights of his time with us since we purchased him at the Cheltenham sale in early 2019.
Before today, 33 runs for us following the point to point he won before we purchased him. 5 wins, 4 seconds and 3 thirds. A win rate of 15% or if you exclude the last year a win rate of 5/26 or 19% which is on par with any good horse. A record 9 pulled ups too – when he didn’t fancy it he let the jockey know and conserved energy!
He ran at 17 different racecourses. His top rating was 125. He won £64k in prize money. He cost £55k so paid for himself…..other than the training fees!
His proper full debut for us was 31 October 2019 in which he ran extremely well to finish second at Stratford. He was leading, then seemed to slow down a bit towards the end. After the race it was discovered he had a piece of birch from a fence sticking out of his front knee and it was covered in blood. And yet he ran on valiantly for second despite that. What a tough horse and trier, as Ian commented.
The knee issue kept him out for the rest of that season. He wasn’t a horse that liked box rest, twice he managed to escape his box at the yard via a window and was found wandering round.
He came back in 2020 for his novice hurdle season. Even though we knew he would be a chaser he scored a memorable debut win over hurdles at Ascot in November 2020 which we watched from home in the midst of Covid. Seeing Charlie Todd racing over the line wearing a face mask is something I will never forget.
His 2021 season as a novice chaser started slowly including a decent place at Exeter in a Class 3 on New Years Day (which Dom and I attended despite not feeling great after NYE), second at Market Rasen and a second at Wincanton. Then on 23 March 2021 Ian decided to run him at Ludlow for the first time. TT had found his home!
He bolted up and won a class 3 handicap chase by 6 lengths. Ian called me and said he had come out the race fresh and fancied going back to Ludlow the next week for a go at the Boyne Cup, a valuable race. I was sitting in the office in London that morning and suddenly had a ‘feeling’ I should be there. So I coughed a little and said it could be Covid and jumped on a train to Ludlow. He won by a short head with Ian and I screaming him home from the top of the grandstand. One of my best moments as an owner.
Ludlow made a big fuss that he’d won twice in a week there (we won another one of their hampers with their famous stale brick cake). The Boyne Cup is one of the major trophies at Ludlow and if you ever go racing there go to their trophy room and you will see Tide Times name engraved on it. He won £11k for winning, the second time he won £11k in a week. He finished the 2021-22 season rated 125 with 8 runs, 2 wins and 3 places.
The 2022-23 season started with a warm up at Cheltenham, we knew he wouldn’t win but it was a bloody good day out and lunch. He then had three runs at Ludlow finishing second, first and third. When he won there on 6th January 2023 it was the first time I had spoken to Venetia, she came over to Ian and I and said “congratulations, but will you stop beating us at Ludlow with that horse”! She had her revenge the next time though, beating us into second.
Tide Times had a couple of little niggles this season and a wind op but still finished it with 6 runs, 1 win and 2 placed. We also ran in the Edinburgh National, which was a disaster from start to finish with the horse not enjoying the travel to Scotland, the jockey giving him a shocking ride and poor Dom trekking all the way up to Musselburgh to support him for what turned out to be a non event.
The 2023-24 season started encouragingly with a decent warm up round Hereford then a win in December at……Ludlow. Again in a class 3 and again in a competitive race where I nearly lost my voice as he led three times and went behind before just getting up to win on the line. Nobody will ever know what TT then said to himself over Christmas 2023 because he came back in Jan 2024 on the back of that win and decided he’d had enough.
He ‘ran’ 5 times in calendar year 2024, pulling up 4 times and refusing once at Ludlow in November. A new one for DTTW, our first refusal! He was in third place when he refused to jump the last…
His final race was today at Worcester. He led from the start, jumped brilliantly and ran on for third. He could win again, but unfortunately we can’t justify the £25k a year running costs and I think he deserves a nice retirement.
Some thank yous.
Thank you to Ian for getting the absolute best out of an averagely talented horse.
Thank you to Charlie Todd for being a great jockey on a rather challenging horse. He won all 5 times on him and also knew when TT’s heart wasn’t in a race so pulled him up and kept him safe rather than pushing him too hard.
Thank you to Simon Christian for advising us to buy the horse – I still remember Simon saying we wouldn’t be able to afford him, but I’d a few drinks before the sale and that gave me courage to bid a tad beyond the £50k limit we had set ourselves.
Finally thank you to Alex at the yard. He has looked after TT every day since the start and treated him like his pet. I am sure Alex’s nurturing of TT has contributed to the success. Alex has agreed to take Tide Times home and look after him in retirement.
Alex is pictured riding work on Tide Times last week