True Legend

Race entries

Royal Ascot & The Cheltenham Festival, here we come - hopefully!

What’s The Plan

• In consultation with Ian, in the interests of making this horse the very best ‘dual purpose’ horse he can be, we’ve agreed the following

Long Term

• Essentially the plan is to procure a top class dual purpose prospect - with Royal Ascot 2025 firmly on the agenda - The Ascot Stakes on the Tuesday of the Royal meeting being the primary objective - followed by other, famous staying Flat races 2025. Going on from there, a Winter’s National Hunt action 2025/2026 should be on the cards, culminating in the the Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown Spring festivals, we’d hope.

So how do we get there ?

Short Term

• We have gelded him and will afford him a small break this side of Christmas. He’s been on the go, off and on, since his 2yo days, and whilst he remains reasonably lightly raced and open to further improvement, a pause to refresh can do no harm.

Medium Term

• He’ll be schooled up, ready to run by the late Winter, early Spring - we can envisage him debuting over hurdles late February or, more likely, into March time, where the objective will be to gauge a sighter as to his hurdling aptitude ie does he take to hurdling in the style of a useful Saturday handicapper, or does he look the real deal à la INGLIS DREVER, suggesting we need to target Graded races over jumps, going forward as the year progresses?
• We’d envisage 2 hurdles runs, en route to Ascot in June. We feel, the hurdling exercise will be doubly useful ie it won’t only inform us regarding his National Hunt future targets, as stated, it’ll prep him mentally, physically and particularly fitness wise - for his upcoming Flat campaign WHILST NOT IMPINGING UPON HIS FLAT HANDICAP RATING. Ian feels it important that he’s presented at Royal Ascot, without compromising his handicap mark from its current 92 - Ian’s plotted the route of 2 of the last 6 winners of the Ascot Stakes - & in Ian, we trust! We think that’s his 92 rating, is his sweet spot and we’re keen to protect it, as best we can. He ought to be a real contender come the 3rd Tuesday in June - that’s the plan, anyway. 

Cast your minds back a dozen years or so, to when our Horses In Training recruit JUNIOR became the first horse since the 1930’s to win at both the Royal Ascot & the Cheltenham festivals, proving it can be done - and, by us, at Middleham Park, making Junior an MPR ‘true legend’.

Around that time, too, the former Sir Mark Prescott inmate INGLIS DRIVER was operating successfully at 3 Cheltenham festivals, and therein lay the foundations of many a festival dream coming to fruition.

Having had horses for a decade now with the wily Baronet, Sir Mark, we asked him which of his many horses in training draft he would most highly recommend. Without hesitation, he replied, the aptly named TRUE LEGEND was the horse we should focus on. Being sold, only due to the conditions of the current ownership terms of the partnership, he arrives, with us, on a particularly upward curve, and, already, with a Timeform rating of 100 - open, still, to plenty of improvement, given he’s aged just 4yo - very young for a stayer of his ilk, and by leading Stallion in Europe by prizemoney CAMELOT, sire of this year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Bluestocking, dual Group winner & Irish Derby hero Los Angeles, as well as Irish Champion Stakes, and multiple Group 1 winner Luxembourg. Whose progeny just gets better with age ! 

TRUE LEGEND has never been out of the FIRST THREE in THREE VISITS to ASCOT, so he naturally, already, fits perfectly when looking ahead to races at Royal Ascot, like the Ascot Stakes, and the Queen Alexandra, with fantastic prizemoney on offer. IAN WILLIAMS HAS WON TWO OF THE LAST SIX RUNNINGS OF THE ASCOT STAKES AT ROYAL ASCOT. He goes on top of the ground and in soft - no matter how inclement the British weather gods are in June he’ll be revved up and raring to go to head to the Berkshire track. We suspect, if there were ante-post markets for such races, he’d be chalked up ‘fav’ or, at least be, very, very prominent in the market.

“He’ll win you a BIG one” - were Sir Mark’s words regarding TRUE LEGEND.

Races like the Cesarewitch (with £90,195 to the winner), the Northumberland Plate (with £81,000 to the winner) and possibly the Ebor (with £300,000 to the winner) spring to mind too.

However, we’ve only told half the tale, as yet. True Legend’s profile, befits perfectly, that of the likes of former Heath House inmates such as INGLIS DREVER & NO REFUGE - Sir Mark often boasts of the many Cheltenham festival winners that he has trained on the Flat, ahead of their second careers over obstacles, as he truculently puts it “I was their pre trainer, ahead of their Cheltenham glory”. It would very much be the aim to head over hurdles at some juncture, very possibly, sooner rather than later, under the expert tuition of Ian Williams who has trained over 300 winners in the last 5 seasons alone, including a winner at EVERY UK track - winners at both Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham Festival come alike including and latterly THE GRAND VISIR, RESHOUN (both Ascot Stakes winners at Royal Ascot), ENEMY, ONE MORE FLEURIE, Aintree Festival winners SOLAR IMPULSE & PARTY BUSINESS, Chester Cup winners MAGIC CIRCLE & BULWALK as well as Ebor runner up 2022 ALFRED BOUCHER to name but a few  - he's a perfect fit, we thought, for this exciting, potentially top class, in every respect, prospect.

Coming in at 140,000gns, he wasn’t cheap, we’ve had to dig really deep to see off Anthony Bromley of Highflyer Bloodstock, the underbidder, so it’s fair to say we were amongst good judges in the ring - let’s hope we’ve unearthed, another JUNIOR or another Cheltenham Festival winning MARIE’S ROCK, or Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye winner THE PLATINUM QUEEN - hopefully he’s another MPR - TRUE LEGEND!

He’s already settled in at Ian’s West Midlands, Gloucestershire yard. Ian already reported: "He’s a beautiful horse, with great size and scope for the future under both codes, he possesses a fabulous temperament with great manners. We may well geld him at some point but those decisions are not for today, they’re for tomorrow."