Lough Derg: 'You knew you were going to sleep well the night after riding him, that's for sure'

The popular and doughty hurdler Lough Derg turned 23 on Wednesday. Read below for a piece on his career in our Fans' Favourites series in the Weekender . . .

Resolution and stamina are key attributes in any jumps horse and big-race regular Lough Derg had both in abundance.

The Pond House stalwart, whose stable name was Douglas, was a 12-time winner from 61 starts under rules and provided the Pipe family, jockey Tom Scudamore and owner William Frewen with many memorable days, most notably a breakthrough Grade 1 success in the Long Walk Hurdle in 2007.

For all his class, it was Lough Derg’s running style that gained his popularity over the years. He wore his heart on his sleeve, leading early, quite often dropping back mid-race, before powering home when it mattered most.

He was a thrill to watch, but just what was he like to ride?

Lough Derg and owner William Frewen (centre) with jockey Tom Scudamore and trainer David Pipe after winning the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in 2007Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

Scudamore, who enjoyed eight wins from 45 rides on Lough Derg, says: “It was tiring! You knew what you were in for but if you kept asking he kept responding.

“He probably wasn’t as good, but he was very similar to Anzum, one of Richard Johnson’s first Grade 1 winners. He was a similar type and ran in the big staying Grade 1 hurdles, normally somewhere near the front, would drop back a little bit and then stay on again at the end.

“You knew you were going to sleep well the night after riding him, that’s for sure.”

Martin Pipe trained Lough Derg for his first three seasons. He beat Exotic Dancer by eight lengths in the Relkeel Hurdle in his second campaign, then Pipe’s son David took over the licence and inherited a potential flagship horse. He proved to be just that.

While Lough Derg was the epitome of grit and determination on the track, he had a rather laid-back approach at home, where he was looked after by Pipe’s now fiancee Leanne.

David Pipe says: “He wouldn’t have set the world alight at home! My fiancee Leanne used to look after him and ride him and he used to pull out of his stable in the morning like an old man. He probably raced a little bit like that as well, but when he got into top gear he was a hard horse to get past.

“He was very playful in his stable and always looking for trouble – he was mischievous – but on the track he was one of the toughest horses I’ve trained and always will be. He never made his races pretty to watch but more often than not he got the job done.

“His popularity rose as his career went on. He received fan mail and there was even his own Facebook fan page. He had a following and the way he went about things and went down with all guns blazing if he did get beat only boosted his popularity.”

David Pipe keeps a close eye on Lough Derg at his Pond House stables in 2009Credit: Edward Whitaker

If there was a big Saturday stayers’ hurdle event between late 2006 and 2011, Lough Derg was no doubt lining up and Scudamore felt that only helped in boosting his popularity.

“He was a regular runner and people like those horses,” says Scudamore. “He’d run at least once a month during the season, loved his racing and was able to maintain his form. He had such good records around Ascot and Cheltenham and people became familiar with him.”

Lough Derg was a four-time winner from 18 starts at Cheltenham, including a most unlikely rallying win over No Refuge in 2009, but it was at Ascot where he arguably excelled.

Three wins, two seconds, four thirds and £180,000 in prize-money was accrued by Lough Derg at the Berkshire track, with his total prize-money earnings marginally short of £375,000 across his eight years in training.

Scudamore says: “Ascot can often suit front runners and he loved that pull out of Swinley Bottom. He was able to run flat out from there to the winning line and not many horses could do that.

“It really played to his strengths and I knew if I jumped the third-last in front he was going to be very hard to pass. He could basically sprint from there to the winning line and it’s a long, long way to be able to do that – he was able to draw the sting out of all the other horses.

“He could do that on the New course at Cheltenham too, maybe not as strongly as he could at Ascot, but that was why he loved those places.”

Lough Derg’s first two starts for David Pipe cemented his flagbearer status, finishing third in the Coral Hurdle and a 50-1 second in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot in 2006.

One year on, Lough Derg went one better from the front when an unchallenged nine-length winner of the Grade 1 event. The measure of his success can be gleaned from the horses in behind – Hardy Eustace, Black Jack Ketchum and Kasbah Bliss.

Pipe says: “His first two runs at Ascot were special days and to have runners in the big races so early on was massive. He helped me and Scu get recognised and he was the kind of horse that every stable starting out needs.

“They were typically gutsy performances and he did us proud, but it couldn’t have got any better the following year when winning a level weights Grade 1. That was a memorable day. Ascot suited him very well and it was a big day for everyone involved.”

Lough Derg and Tom Scudamore on their way to winning the 2007 Long Walk Hurdle at AscotCredit: Gerry Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

That memorable day in December 2007 was a first top-level success for Pipe and Scudamore, with the rider returning to action from injury just days before.

Scudamore says: “I dislocated my shoulder before Cheltenham’s November meeting and he was one of the reasons I wanted to get back. I rode at Exeter on the Thursday before, Uttoxeter on the Friday then rode him on Saturday.

“The feeling of riding a first Grade 1 winner and that it had all worked out well was brilliant. All the hard work in getting back for the race had paid off and it was great to do it for David and his owner William, who has been a great supporter of mine.

“I rode one of my first winners as an amateur for William and he’s probably the owner I’ve ridden the most winners for, so it was a very special day.”

It was not just Ascot and Cheltenham where Lough Derg did his high-profile winning as two of his most memorable triumphs came in the National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell in 2008 and 2009.

His first National Spirit success, in which Lough Derg looked more likely to pull up than win going down the back straight, led to emotional scenes in the winner’s enclosure, none more so than for jockey Tom Scudamore.

On his tears that day, Scudamore says: “I was just tired I think! Elusive Dream and My Way De Solzen took each other on a long way out and it set the race up for us. We were tailed off going down the back straight on the final circuit, but in the conditions he just outstayed them and we were able to pick up the pieces.

“I think probably his best performance was in the next year’s National Spirit against Pierrot Lunaire and several others – he was as good as ever that day.”

That second National Spirit victory in 2009 proved to be Lough Derg’s final win, but he ran many gallant races in defeat including when second to Big Buck’s in the Long Distance Hurdle and Long Walk Hurdle, plus two fine thirds off big weights in the Holloway’s Handicap Hurdle at Ascot – a race he landed twice.

A few point-to-point runs for Melanie Duff followed before a happy retirement for Lough Derg. Scudamore will never forget the impact he made on his career.

Tom Scudamore with Lough Derg in his box at Pond HouseCredit: Edward Whitaker

Scudamore says: “I owe him an awful lot. He was the first Grade 1 horse I regularly got to ride, and any jockey always needs that horse to take them to the next level.

“He was a proper Saturday horse, ran in all the big races and won plenty too. He was a massive part of the start of my career.

“I really used to enjoy riding him and he was a great credit to David and Martin as he was able to hold his form all the way through. He enjoyed his racing, was a real favourite in the yard and was an absolute pleasure to be associated with.

“I remember when he first arrived as a three-year-old he was a small, scrawny, little horse and he turned out to be a Grade 1 winner. He was an owner’s, trainer’s and jockey’s dream.”

Bravery was his big asset

A race that sticks in the memory for Lough Derg fans is one when commentator Richard Hoiles described his mammoth weight-carrying performance perfectly.

Off a mark of 160 and giving the best part of two stone to many of his rivals, Lough Derg led at a good clip in a 2m3½f handicap hurdle at Ascot in February 2009 but was hard pressed from some way out.

Turning into the straight he appeared a sitting duck and his rivals swamped him after the last. What came next was fairly remarkable.

As the runners reached the final half furlong, Hoiles said: “They go inside the final 150 and it’s Serabad, Dancing ­Tornado and Lough Derg. It’s Serabad and Lough Derg – I don’t believe it. He’s fighting back. At the line it’s Serabad and Lough Derg – he does not know when to lie down and has given himself a chance in the photo.”

Lough Derg (right) is reeled in by Serabad (grey, near) at Ascot in 2009Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

The photo went the way of Serabad by a head but it was an almighty effort from the ­ultimate tough cookie. The Racing Post analysis of the race read: “The line came a bit too soon and he was narrowly ­denied a fourth course win, but this was still a magnificent ­performance.”

Scudamore recalls the race: “He was running off a mark of 160 that day and it was one of the biggest weight carrying performances in a handicap hurdle. It’s not really something that is done very often with horses rated as high as he was as they have conditions races and Graded races to cater for them.

“I remember it as a normal Ascot race for Lough Derg ­really. The race went like ­clockwork and we did our ­normal thing. Everyone was queuing up to take us on going to the second last and one by one they fell away, but Serabad was good enough to get past him.

“Serabad came to us at the wrong time really halfway up the running and he didn’t get a chance to fully respond. ­Serabad was a very good horse, so there was no disgrace in ­losing to him.”

For Pipe this race, in which Lough Derg recorded a joint ­career-best Racing Post Rating of 161, epitomised his stable stalwart’s battling qualities.

Pipe says: “That was an ­unbelievable race. He had a big weight but he never knew he was beaten. He’d always fight back in situations where you thought a normal horse would be beat – and that was one of those races.”

More from our Fans' Favourites series:

Faugheen: Why 'the machine' will be a very, very hard horse to replace

La Landiere: the super mare who went from forgotten to fondly remembered

Un De Sceaux: 'You're going to go a million miles an hour into a fence – do not move'

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.