Red Rum over five furlongs and Istabraq at Chester: when racing greats appeared in the most unlikely of places

The Front Runner, Chris Cook's popular daily email, was recently named the specialist/regional newsletter of the year at the Press Gazette's Future of Media Awards. Written principally by our award-winning senior reporter since its launch in 2021, it has become a beloved part of our Racing Post+ package.

Here you can read a free sample of the award-winning newsletter, normally available exclusively for Racing Post+ subscribers and today written by Sam Hendry.

Subscribers can get more great insight, tips and racing chat from The Front Runner every Monday to Friday. Those who aren't yet signed up for The Front Runner should click here to sign up and start receiving emails immediately!

Not a Racing Post+ subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.

Regular racegoers at Lingfield on Friday had some real quality to look forward to with the appearance of the 118-rated Maljoom, who was by far the classiest horse on show across the cards. 

He was beaten at odds-on by Tyrrhenian Sea, but the presence of such horses on hitherto unheralded cards did prompt some lively discussion in Racing Post Towers (more of a large open space in a London office block than a tower being honest) on great horses who have run at the most unexpected of venues or in peculiar races. 

Horses who, at the time, racegoers would have barely batted an eyelid over, but in years to come those same racegoers can look back and say ‘I was there’.

There were too many fantastic examples raised to mention them all, but I’ve listed six of my favourites below.

It is a handy reminder that if you are ever in doubt about whether to go racing or not - just do it. No matter the size of venue or calibre of race, you never know who you might end up seeing.

1. Red Rum in a five-furlong seller at Aintree

Okay, if you wanted to watch Red Rum in the flesh then Aintree would have been the obvious starting point, but surely not in a selling race over a distance almost four miles short of his optimum?

Yet there he was as a two-year-old in 1967 making his debut over the minimum sprint trip, having not long before been purchased for the princely sum of 400 guineas by trainer Tim Molony. He dead-heated for first and had a couple more runs on the Flat, before finding his true calling with Ginger McCain and creating jump racing history. In another life perhaps he would have gone on to complete a Nunthorpe hat-trick rather than slogging it around the unforgiving National course.

Red Rum: three-time Grand National winner was first seen in a five-furlong sellerCredit: Getty Images

The Front Runner sincerely hopes there were more than a few people in attendance that day who were also able to witness his three most famous of victories - if so, we salute them.

2. Istabraq in a maiden at Chester’s May meeting

It is highly unlikely anyone attending Chester on May 9, 1995 would have walked away thinking the 11-1 shot who finished eighth in the 1m2½f three-year-old maiden would soon go on to become arguably the greatest hurdler of all time.

Half an hour before future Japan Cup and Juddmonte International winner Singspiel was beaten in the Chester Vase, Istabraq, then trained by John Gosden and ridden by Willie Carson for Hamdan Al Maktoum, was busy recording the lowest Racing Post Rating of his career at a measly 59.

Istabraq: beaten in a Chester maiden on debut before finding his true callingCredit: Pat Healy

He continued to trawl up and down the UK for the next year, recording wins in some Class 4 handicaps at Salisbury and Ayr, but I suspect without leaving lasting impressions on those present. Some bells may have been rung by the time he landed his third Champion Hurdle five years later.

3. Sprinter Sacre in a bumper at Ayr

All horses have to start somewhere, but you might not have expected Nicky Henderson to send his future champion on a near-400-mile journey north for his second start.

The legendary trainer has had only five bumper winners at Ayr in his career, but one of them just happened to come courtesy of Sprinter Sacre on Scottish Grand National day in April 2010.

Sprinter Sacre: chasing great made his first start at AyrCredit: Michael Steele (Getty Images)

He scored easily at odds of 13-8 and only once in the next half-a-decade would he go off at an SP bigger than that as Scottish racegoers got a rare glimpse at a bona fide racing great in the making.

4. Enable on the all-weather at Newcastle

There is not a Gosden newcomer who gets sent to the all-weather at Newcastle anymore who goes unnoticed, thanks in no small part to Enable announcing herself to the world there on a cold Monday afternoon in late November 2016.

Enable: seen her making a winning debut in a Newcastle maidenCredit: John Grossick

It is hard to envisage a massive crowd having been through the gates for the first division of the mile fillies' maiden at 1.20pm, but those that were will certainly remember the successful debut of a superstar mare who the Racing Post analyst team stated afterward "looks capable of going on to better things". You can say that again.

5. Stradivarius in a Class 4 handicap at Beverley

A track most associated with five-furlong sprints was the unexpected venue for the handicap debut of one of the modern staying greats as Stradivarius kicked off his three-year-old season there in April 2017.

An inadequate mile-and-a-quarter trip proved little hindrance as the 9-4 favourite, rated just 78 at the time, asserted his authority over rivals much his inferior. Less than four months later he won the first of his quartet of Goodwood Cups.

Stradivarius: staying star won a 1m2f Beverley handicap off a mark of 78Credit: Edward Whitaker

Connections picked up £5,040 for that Beverley win, or 0.14 per cent of the £3,458,968 he earned in total by the end of his career.

6. Labaik on the beach at Laytown

Before you say it, no he doesn’t qualify as a great, but Labaik’s road to the 2017 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle was so eccentric he had to be included. 

After eight winless runs on the Flat in France and a swiftly aborted spell with Owen Burrows which featured (of course) an RR on the form book, Labaik rocked up to the beach at Laytown of all places for a 7f handicap in September 2016. 

Labaik: Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner had a somewhat unorthodox career Credit: John Grossick Racing Photography

Predictably, he refused to race again, so it’s unlikely there were any shrewdies bolting off to fill in a slip for the Supreme. Little did they know that just six months later (and with two more refusals to his name in between) Labaik would stun Melon in the festival opener. 

Read this next:

Newbury's Super Saturday card has featured 14 Cheltenham Festival winners since 2010 - who might add to the tally this weekend? 

'Fire in his belly' - when Maximise achieved the improbable in the Kim Muir to give student a winning Cheltenham debut 

Britain's richest handicap hurdle has a new sponsor - but I'll be hoping for a 'Wow' on Saturday whatever you call the race 

The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Racing Post+ subscribers. Chris Cook provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Racing Post+ subscriber? Join today