Oh This Is Us: 'No-one loves this horse as much as me - he's my favourite'

Fans' Favourites is a weekly feature in the Racing Post Weekender in which we talk to those closest to racing's most popular horses and find out why they tug on our heartstrings. This week's subject: Oh This Is Us

Eight years ago four friends from London took a punt and embarked on a journey that would take them around the world, competing on some of the biggest days in the Flat racing calendar, thanks to the remarkable Oh This Is Us.

Now aged nine and with 88 runs under his belt, the horse affectionately known as Otis at Richard Hannon's yard has made himself a firm favourite not only with owners Team Wallop but with many racing fans. His trademark late rattle is a sight to behold, earning him more than £700,000 in prize-money with 16 wins and 24 places.

Richard Hannon (right) and Tom Marquand after victory for Oh This Is Us at EpsomCredit: Mark Cranham

"No-one loves this horse as much as me," Hannon says. 'He's my favourite and has been for some time – he's been an absolute star for me. He was the first of mine who won outside Europe. He's won 16 races, the owners are stars and it's been a pleasure to be associated with him all the way along.

"I've never known a horse try so hard and be such a pleasure. He won a Group 3 and thoroughly deserved that. He's given a lot of people a lot of pleasure. The amount of people who come up to me at the racecourse knowing the horse is unbelievable."

The story began when the group now known as Team Wallop decided to extend their love of going to the races into owning a racehorse and introduced themselves to Hannon. In conjunction with bloodstock agent Ross Doyle, the trainer found them Oh This Is Us at the 2014 Goffs Orby Yearling Sale.

The son of classy sprinter Acclamation out of Shamwari Lodge – a mare who landed a Group 3 and two Listed wins for Richard Hannon snr in 2010 – cost the group of London oil traders the not inconsiderable sum of €110,000.

It would have been understandable if Team Wallop had been slightly worried with their first purchase after the start of his career in 2015. He managed three runs as a two-year-old, finishing almost last on his debut at Windsor and winding up with third place in a Wolverhampton maiden, earning him a mark of 70 that would prove to vastly underestimate his quality.

"He's never been sound in his life," Hannon says. "Every time he went to the races, he went down with a vet's certificate saying he kind of had stringhalt behind, but it looked worse than that. His first three runs were awful, absolutely awful, but the owners stuck with him."

Oh This Is Us taking the Greatwood Stakes at Goodwood under Tom MarquandCredit: Mark Cranham

Improvement came quickly in his three-year-old campaign when Oh This Is Us opened with three straight wins, the last of them in the Greatwood Stakes at Goodwood under Hannon’s then 18-year-old apprentice jockey Tom Marquand. This was the start of a fruitful partnership between horse and rider that has yielded eight victories.

"He was the first good horse I bumped into," Marquand says. "He won a £100,000 handicap at Goodwood when I was a 3lb claimer and nearly every year since I've managed to pinch a big one on him. He's been an incredible horse and a great flagship for the Richard Hannon yard."

Victory at Goodwood meant a first big day out for Team Wallop and put Royal Ascot on the agenda. The winning run ended there, with Oh This Is Us finishing down the field in the Britannia Stakes, but this was the first taste of much more top-level competition to come.

He ended his three-year-old season with five wins from ten runs, earning more than his purchase price and improving 35lb in the handicap. Having reached a three-figure rating midway through the season, he didn't drop below that level for more than five years.

Oh This Is Us (purple) is narrowly denied in the LincolnCredit: Getty Images

A winter trip to Dubai almost brought international success when he was third in a desperately tight finish to a seven-furlong handicap, and there was more frustration on his return to Britain when he was beaten a neck into second in the Lincoln at Doncaster.

He was soon back on the upward curve, however. A handicap win at Bath paved the way for a first step into Listed company at Haydock, where he was reunited with Marquand. This time Oh This Is Us was on the right side of a close finish, getting his head down to take the Spring Trophy by a neck, giving both horse and jockey their first black-type success.

By now up to a rating of 110, Oh This Is Us had become an established competitor at a high level. His next win came on his second trip to the Dubai Carnival when he took a seven-furlong handicap – Hannon's first victory outside Europe – and back home in the summer of 2018 he scored a second Listed victory and won a Chester handicap under top weight from a high draw.

A trip to Longchamp on Arc weekend to finish second in the Group 2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein added to his ever-growing prize purse and he wound up the season in Italy, finishing a respectable sixth in the Group 2 Premio Vittorio di Capua.

There was further high-profile success early in 2019 when Oh This Is Us took the All-Weather Mile Championship at Lingfield, one of three wins that year, but the following season brought only a solitary victory at Chelmsford. A slipping handicap mark seemed to suggest his best days were behind him, but nothing could have been further from the truth.

Last year, at the age of eight, Oh This Is Us was sent back into Listed company for the first time in 12 outings in the Paradise Stakes at Ascot, where he was easily the oldest runner in the field and was made the outsider of nine at a staggering 66-1.

With Marquand back in the saddle, the pair rolled back the years with an extremely determined display, both horse and rider giving everything to prevail by a head.

Oh This Is Us (right) gets up to win the Listed Paradise Stakes at Ascot at 66-1Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

Talking about the Marquand partnership and that win at Ascot, Team Wallop member Stuart Finch says: “He has a really great relationship with the horse. He brings out the best in him and vice versa. We're always excited to get Tom.

“None of us are serious gamblers but I would always have a bet on him, even if he looks out of his depth. That horse should never be 66-1 based on what he’s achieved over the years. But it’s not really about that. Whether he wins at even-money or 66-1 it’s just a massive thrill to see him win. We're really privileged to have him.”

A few weeks after that Ascot victory, Oh This Us was tried again at Group level, having not been successful in 13 previous attempts.

Seeking to go one place better than 2019 in the Group 3 Diomed Stakes on Derby day but on unfavourable ground – good to soft – he was largely overlooked at 18-1 in the seven-runner field, but again he defied the odds with a typically tenacious display.

He travelled supremely well in behind the leaders but was found wanting for room on the Epsom camber in the straight, allowing 2-1 joint-favourite Century Dream to get first run. Finally in the clear approaching the furlong marker, Marquand sent his ever-willing partner in pursuit and they hunted down Century Dream to join him right on the line.

Oh This Is Us records his first Group victory by a tongue!Credit: Racing TV

An oh-so-tight photo showed Oh This Is Us, with flapping tongue, had won by a nose, giving him a deserved Group victory on his superb CV.

"He never fails to surprise me," Hannon says. "He has been a star in every way. The more trouble he meets, the better he travels and the more he finds. He had never won a Group race before, so although there was a Derby that day, that was probably mine. He won a Group 3 by sticking his tongue out!"

On what it means to the owners, Hannon says: "Every time the horse runs it's like a family wedding. They'll all be round each other's houses with all the kids watching it. It's something they do together. They sit there and have an absolute ball, they love it.

"They've been there when he has won but the horse doesn't seem to mind either way. He's got enough supporters on track, he doesn't really need owners!"

For Team Wallop, the attraction of horse ownership was about taking their love of going racing to the next level. From humble beginnings to Royal Ascot, Derby day, Glorious Goodwood, Meydan, Longchamp and San Siro, Oh This Is Us has taken them higher than they could ever have imagined.

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