Yorkhill: the efforts to revitalise an enigma wrapped in a mystery

He may have a new owner, new yard and a new horizon ahead, but like an unruly teenager Yorkhill is still proving that nobody is the boss of him.

A charismatic enigma of a horse, the now ten-year-old has proven to be as loveable as he is volatile during a memorable career which has taken in ten wins from 26 starts, including four Grade 1s and a pair of victories at the Cheltenham Festival.

Although nobody realised at the time, Yorkhill’s peak may have already come and gone when justifying 6-4 favouritism to win the JLT Novices’ Chase in 2017, a year on from his fantastic battling victory over Yanworth in the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle.

At that point, Yorkhill had the world at his feet and regular rider Ruby Walsh was dreaming of a tilt at the Gold Cup. However, the memories of those glory days in the colours of Graham and Andrea Wylie and under the stewardship of Willie Mullins are growing ever more distant after things swiftly began to unravel following an infamous display in the Ryanair Gold Cup at Fairyhouse a month later. It has been a downward spiral ever since for a superstar who, at his peak, was one of the best horses in training.

But in 2020, as it is for most things, it's all change.

Yorkhill has spent much of the year at the home of new owner Dave Armstrong, the north east businessman who has enjoyed solid success with the likes of Donna’s Diamond in recent years, but who now boasts some real star power in his ranks after becoming the main beneficiary of his great friend Wylie’s decision to step away from ownership to concentrate on his business interests.

Ruby Walsh gives Yorkhill a pat after the JLT Novices' Chase at Cheltenham in 2017Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

In September, Yorkhill travelled to his new yard at trainer Sandy Thomson’s Lambden Farm in the Scottish Borders.

The question is: can his true ability, which has seen Yorkhill earn more than £300,000 in prize-money, be coaxed out of him?

Armstrong prefers to take a wait-and-see approach, but one aspect which certainly remained during his seven-month stay at his new owner’s base in Northumberland is his rather difficult, if somewhat endearing, attitude.

"He’s a bit of a bugger in his stable, he likes his own company and he’ll take the hump with you no problem, he’ll just scowl at you!” says Armstrong. "If you turn your back he might have a go, so you just have to watch what you’re doing around him.

"He tells you what he needs and you know when he’s not a happy boy because he'll let you know."

It’s not been an easy task adjusting to the demands of such a mercurial talent, but keeping him guessing by changing his daily routine is key. And like many of us over the difficult summer period, Armstrong revealed a simple day out to the beach was able to relieve a lot of the stress.

"He’s the sort of horse that needs sweetening up all the time," he says. "There were times when he was working at home and he wouldn’t even grab the bridle, he was just going through the motions and someone would get off his back and say ‘he’s just not right today, he doesn’t want to do anything’.

"One day we went for a hack and put him over some poles, then the next day we went to the beach and when we brought him back to the gallop he was full on. He was a totally different horse. Like watching a 90-rated horse turn into a 150 one."

Armstrong adds: "You can’t keep him in a routine, you’ve got to give him a little bit of something different. Other horses will get fed, get in the water, go up the gallop, come back, get fed again and get put back in the box. If you do that with him every day he’ll just go sour on you."

Yorkhill and Ruby Walsh after their Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle victory at Cheltenham in 2016Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Yorkhill was joined at his new surroundings in Bebside, near Blyth, by former Mullins stablemates Bellshill and Voix De Reve, who will all now bear Armstrong’s black-and-white striped silks, chosen in tribute of his beloved Newcastle United.

"A great present" was how the owner described it when Yorkhill touched down in Northumberland on February 14, yet he revealed it’s been a long process just getting him back to full fitness, let alone to the level that saw him win nine of his first 11 starts, graduating from the Irish point-to-point scene to become a 164-rated chaser. It may have been Valentine’s Day, but this was no romantic first encounter as it quickly became apparent Yorkhill was far from a picture of health.

Reflecting on those difficult early weeks, Armstrong says: "He was a bit sour when he came to us initially. I had a fair idea that he wasn’t kind of right or at his best so I sent him straight to my vet and he was there for ten days. He did a few things with him and he came back home, but unfortunately he picked up an infection and went off his food for a while and really wasn’t himself.

"He went very thin on me, and it took nearly three months to get him back to himself. He was in the stables all the time, being fed certain things because the grass hadn’t come through at that time yet. Once the grass came through that was when he started sorting himself out. We continued with some veterinary bits and pieces and once he started putting the weight on you could tell he was getting happier.

"He started misbehaving a bit more, and I took that as a good sign because he actually got worse in his stable the healthier he got!"

As his strength returned, the spacious and expert facilities Armstrong owns allowed Yorkhill to be eased back into his work when his pre-training began in July.

"I’ve got all my own facilities at the back of my house," says Armstrong. "We started getting him out in the field with his mates in mid-July.

"We were very gentle with him knowing what he’s like, because I didn’t want him melting on me again. We pre-trained him here until the first week of September and he was probably about 75 per cent fit by then and starting to get it together."

Yorkhill achieved his peak Racing Post Rating of 166 in March 2017 following that triumph in the JLT. For context, that mark can only be bettered by two other JLT winners since the race’s inception in 2011, the outstanding Mullins chasers Vautour and Sir Des Champs.

Ruby Walsh celebrates victory on Yorkhill (right) in the JLT Novices' Chase at Cheltenham in 2017Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

An indication of his abundant talent and bonkers personality was evident from day one, however. He was in the lead and cruising to victory on his debut run in a point-to-point at Toomebridge when he inexplicably began heading to the wrong side of the rail, unseating his rider after clearing the second-last.

He hasn’t become a gentler ride as the years have gone by. His tendency to jump left was at its most striking in the aforementioned Fairyhouse Gold Cup. Running keenly throughout, barely a fence went by without Yorkhill skewing to the outside of the right-handed track with Walsh doing well just to remain on board. After another mistake at the last, what should have been a comfortable win for the odds-on favourite turned into a neck defeat behind Road To Respect.

Since then, and having had to make the transition out of novice company, his 15 subsequent starts have brought about only one win – in a chase at Galway last August. Hopes of a revival after that victory have proved fruitless as, in five subsequent starts, he has been pulled up three times, fallen once and put in just one decent performance when fourth in a Grade 2 at Gowran Park a year ago.

Having been sent off at no longer than 7-2 for a near three-and-a-half year spell from his debut through to the 2018 Cheltenham Festival – including a run of ten wins from 11 starts at one point – Yorkhill’s decline now sees him regularly sent off at 16-1 or bigger, most recently when pulled up as a 28-1 shot on his latest outing in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree on Sunday, a track where he landed the Grade 1 Mersey Novices' Hurdle in April 2016 on his only previous run there.

Yorkhill pitches on landing after jumping out to the left at the final fence of the 2017 Ryanair Gold Cup at Fairyhouse, handing victory to Road To Respect (left)Credit: Alain Barr (racingpost.com/photos)

Armstrong revealed the decision to race at Aintree was borne out of necessity because of the difficulty of finding a spot for a horse who may no longer retain the ability his rating suggests.

He said: "Being honest, did I want to put him in a Grade 2 at Aintree first time out? Probably not. I’d have rather had something quieter after such a long time off and the past issues with him. But unfortunately he’s still rated 148 and there’s not many other places to go. If he went in an open handicap he’d probably be top weight anyway, whereas in the Roan he was carrying 10st 10lb. He’s never carried such a small weight before when racing in Britain or Ireland."

Nailing Yorkhill down to an ideal trip has been part of the problem. While Walsh was proclaiming him to be a Gold Cup contender, Mullins seemed to consider him more suited to the Champion Hurdle. For now, don’t expect to see him moving too far away from trips around the two-and-a-half mile mark – and he will be going nowhere near any right-handed tracks.

"We’re very much taking a wait-and-see approach with him," Armstrong says. "I’d like to think he still retains his ability. He’s shown us at home he has otherwise he wouldn’t have been entered at Aintree.

“We’re going to try to make it as easy as we can for him. You’ve got to choose where you send him very carefully and he’ll never race on a right-handed track as long as I’ve got him. There will be plenty of opportunities for him at two and a half miles – that’s his best trip, but he could probably get three miles.”

Whether Yorkhill can once again give the public a glimpse of his old magic remains to be seen. Even if he can’t, the endearment cultivated in his time with Armstrong in the north east means there may be a few more scowls and trots along the beach to come.

Armstrong finishes by saying: "I love the horse and believe me even if he doesn’t do anything else in racing he’s got a home for life here."

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