Hughie Morrison reels from the 'desperate' loss of bumper scorer Supamouse

Hughie Morrison has paid tribute to his exciting bumper horse Supamouse after the four-year-old died following an impressive victory at Wincanton on Boxing Day.

Supamouse won the bumper at Wincanton by 14 lengths, beating the highly-regarded Confirmation Bias, before being found to have a perforated intestine the next morning.

He was unable to be saved, leaving Morrison devastated by the loss of not only an extremely exciting horse, but also a lovable character in the yard.

The trainer said: "We can hardly speak, it’s desperate. He had exceptional ability, but the tragedy was that he had the most wonderful temperament.

"He spent a lot of his summer looking after badly behaved two-year-olds, taking them around the downs, helping them to relax. He would just do anything for you, a sort of freak really.

"We were going to enjoy him as a personality as much as a racehorse, which makes the terrible shock of what happened so unjust.

"The world was our oyster with him. The Champion Bumper was on the radar, but we might have just given him one more run this season and then put him away because he had such a big future."

Watch Supamouse's exciting victory in the Wincanton bumper on Boxing Day

Morrison took Supamouse to the vet the morning after his tremendous win knowing something was not quite right, and he was left distraught with their findings.

"He perforated his intestine, potentially in the race, but we don’t know how. There was no reason for doing it, absolutely inexplicable," he said.

"We opened him up the following morning in the vets and hoped that it wasn’t that, but all the signs were there and it was found to be a perforated intestine which was inoperable."

Supamouse, who achieved an RPR of 124 after the second run of his career, was one of many in Morrison’s yard hitting fine form of late with the trainer enjoying a 50 per cent strike-rate over the last fortnight.

Morrison is attempting to focus on his exciting young crop of horses over a particularly sad period and is hoping his two-year-olds can bring some joy to a devastated yard.

He said: "These give us something to try and bury the sadness of Supamouse really. Kipps and Starcat, our two best two-year-olds, ran and won in December.

"They are very good horses and we waited for the right time to run them.

"Anything of mine that wins first time out as a two-year-old is usually a Group horse, so we can dream about both of them, and also With Respect, who won first time out at Newbury in October."

"We were having a great time but this has sort of ruined it; it’s terrible. You have to try to move on, but he won’t be forgotten. What an exceptional horse he was, with a beautiful temperament."

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