'You don’t have to go out and spend fortunes' - the story behind £2,400 buy and Hunters' Chase winner Sine Nomine

Fiona Needham hopes her Hunters’ Chase success with bargain buy Sine Nomine can inspire more small-scale British trainers to take on the big guns at the major spring festivals.

Sine Nomine was a £2,400 purchase as a three-year-old at Goffs UK in 2019 and the eight-year-old grey mare stayed on best to beat 11-8 favourite Its On The Line, trained by Emmet Mullins and owned by JP McManus, by three-quarters of a length in the 3m2½f event at the Cheltenham Festival last week.

Needham's father Robin Tate owns Sine Nomine, with the victory coming 22 years after they combined successfully with Last Option in the same contest during the Catterick clerk of the course’s race-riding days.

The celebrations following Sine Nomine’s win under John Dawson on Friday continued into the weekend, with Needham taking the impressive trophy to the local point-to-point at Hutton Rudby the following day, while the trainer's mobile has not been short of notifications. 

Needham said: “When I won the race as a jockey the fax machine ran out of paper, whereas now it’s been a flurry of WhatsApp messages, emails and you name it!

“It’s a lot more nerve-racking training than it is riding. As a rider you get on, you’re focused and you’re calm when you're out there, but when you're standing there watching it’s a different experience.

“It was a very big success for British point-to-pointing and hopefully has given smaller stables hope that they don’t have to go out and spend fortunes and they can take on the bigger trainers. The Irish point-to-point model is well known for selling future stars, but we have some very good horses over here too.

“That sometimes gets overlooked and hopefully her success, along with recent others, has highlighted we are capable.”

John Dawson celebrates Hunters' Chase success on Sine Nomine (left)Credit: Patrick McCann

Needham and Tate received a couple of inquiries as to Sine Nomine’s availability following her early success in point-to-points but stood firm – a decision that has very much been vindicated.

“We did have a couple of offers for her when she had won a couple of point-to-points,” said Needham. “It got discussed very briefly with my father. If we had taken the money, all we would have done was spend it on trying to find another as good, so we’re glad we kept her and ultimately breeding will be an option with her.

“She wasn’t very expensive and she wasn’t the biggest, which is possibly why a lot of people overlooked her, and they hadn’t started the Great British Bonus scheme then, so fillies weren’t as popular. We were hoping she was a bit of value as she had quite good breeding.”

Sine Nomine will not bid for a Cheltenham-Aintree double, a hunter chase feat achieved in the same year only by On The Fringe since 2000, with a return to Cheltenham in May her likeliest next port of call.

Needham said: “She’s come out of it very well and she’s very bright. I won’t enter her for Aintree and we’ll see how she is. Cheltenham and Stratford are the obvious possibilities, and it will depend a little on the ground. 

"The handicapper has put her on 133 and we did run Last Option in the Scottish National, but I’d want to keep John on, so we’ll see.”

Read more . . .

'That's a dream come true' - Fiona Needham wins Hunters' Chase again 22 years after success as a jockey 

2024 Grand National: assessing the top six contenders for the big race at Aintree 

'It’s been a very emotional decision' - conditional Thomas Willmott retires from the saddle more than a year after last ride 

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