Sergeant Cecil: star stayer who made the impossible possible and became a fans' favourite

Hugely popular stayer Sergeant Cecil has died at the age of 25. On the retirement of Rod Millman's stable star in 2008, Steve Dennis looked at his history-making achievements and his special place in the hearts of racing fans

Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away. And so it goes with Sergeant Cecil, whose glorious career came to a close on the track at Goodwood.

He came home safe and sound, a veteran of eight campaigns, 53 races, ten wins, 20 places and earnings of more than £820,000. Numbers are a convenient way to estimate worth when days of glory are done, but in this case they tell not a fraction of the story. The only numbers you need to know about Sergeant Cecil are these: he is one horse in a million.

Unnoticed at two, uninteresting at three, unremarkable at four, understated at five – Sergeant Cecil burned on a slow fuse. When the flame finally reached the firework, however, the light produced would last a lifetime.

Uncommon at six. Unbelievable, unstoppable. Sergeant Cecil's deeds during 2005 will live forever, as long as horses race. And around these deeds was strewn the sort of fairy dust that seemingly makes a heartsweet fiction of the facts.

Sergeant Cecil was bred by an old-fashioned countryman in Don Hazzard, who was shrewd enough to get a discount for his selling hurdler mare when he sent her to be covered by the sprint stallion up the road. The bright chestnut foal resulting was sold for a little less than a song to Terry Cooper, neither an oil magnate nor a bloodstock tycoon but an ordinary chap who ran an office furniture company. Sergeant Cecil was eventually found a trainer in Rod Millman, a journeyman jump jockey whose success as a trainer was founded on hard work, not hard cash.

Sergeant Cecil in the winner's enclosure after winning the 2006 Doncaster Cup with Frankie Dettori, Rod Millman and Terry Cooper (right)Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

The sheer ordinariness of Sergeant Cecil's background was an endearing detail in the high-finance world of Flat racing. It struck a chord with the general public, the vast majority of whom will never own a horse but, through Sergeant Cecil, could relate to the human elements of the tale in a way that they could not with the stars of Ballydoyle and Godolphin.

Even his name was homespun.

Sergeant Cecil sounded like a name you could trust, a strong, ordinary, reassuring name. It was easy to remember, easy to reduce to the affectionate 'Cecil' or 'Sarge'. Cooper named his horse after his father, who had served in the First World War.

Everyone loves a story, one to make them laugh or cry, and Sergeant Cecil had a story all right. That was enough to win him a degree of public attention, but unless he could win races his fate would be to languish in the small print, just a foot-soldier in the footnotes of life. He did win races; in 2005 he won three. Those races changed his life, changed lots of lives.

Sergeant Cecil (Frankie Dettori, second right) scores his sole Group 1 win in the 2006 Prix du CadranCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

In June, partnered by a resurgent Alan Munro, he won Newcastle's Northumberland Plate. In August, he won the Ebor at York. Those two important, valuable victories prompted a change in Sergeant Cecil's status. Cooper still paid the bills and Millman did the training, but the horse was now public property.

When the Great British Racing Public take a horse to their hearts, they do so on a wholesale basis. It happened with Desert Orchid and Persian Punch and so it was with Sergeant Cecil, who by the time he went to Newmarket for the Cesarewitch in October, with history within reach, had his own vast army behind him.

Sergeant Cecil and Alan Munro add the Ebor to their tally in August 2005Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

No horse had won the Plate, Ebor and Cesarewitch, until Cecil came along.

Before the race it seemed almost inevitable that he would win, such was the weight of expectation behind him. He did not disappoint. In his completion of the 'impossible treble' he wrought an outpouring of joy from all corners of the racing world.

That winter, Sergeant Cecil's name appeared on the ballot paper for the Horse of the Year Award, alongside a Derby winner, a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, an Arc winner, a beloved champion chaser and the best staying hurdler for years.

It was a public vote. It was a landslide. The humble handicapper Sergeant Cecil was Racehorse of the Year. If there was a tear in Cooper's eye when he went up for the cup then no-one noticed, as everyone seemed to have something in their eye that evening.

Further victories, such as the following year's Doncaster Cup and Prix du Cadran, the latter a colossal effort to gain Group 1 laurels, were interspersed with several defeats, as for all his charms no-one entertained the belief that Sergeant Cecil was a truly great racehorse. There were many others better, but – as mentioned earlier – there is more than one way to estimate worth.

Sergeant Cecil's is found in the heart, not in the head, and only a very few horses inspire such a level of public affection. By the time his day was done he had a website dedicated to him and a book written about him.

He's not the sort who would adapt to quiet retirement, so the immediate plan is for Sergeant Cecil to divide his days between a paddock at Paradise Farm Stud near Blandford Forum, down the road from Cooper's house, and one at the National Stud, where those wishing to meet a living legend will have the chance during the stud's tour season, details of which are available on the stud's website.

Sergeant Cecil was an ordinary horse who did extraordinary things, and we loved him for it. On his retirement, an emotional Cooper said: "I'll never have another horse like him." Neither will we.

Read more . . .

'He was one of the toughest horses I've ever been involved with' - staying star Sergeant Cecil dies at 25 

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