Rod Millman Racing
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Sergeant Cecil
From humble beginnings, Sergeant Cecil became a horse you could only dream about. By King’s Signet, a Stewards Cup winner which hadn’t been that successful at stud and out of Jadidh, a six-time winning hurdler, he had an intriguing pedigree that certainly didn’t scream out Group One winner.
He was initially trained by Seamus Mullins and showed promise with mid-field finishes on his first six outings but arrived at the yard in July 2002 with a mark of 63 and no prize money. On his debut for us, ridden by a certain Pat Eddery, he finished runner-up in a Chepstow h’cap and it would set the tone for the rest of the year, as he was narrowly denied by less than two lengths in his next four outings.
He emerged a stronger horse in 2003, but yet again he was beaten the shortest of short heads on his seasonal debut at Windsor but made amends on his third outing over fourteen furlongs at Sandown under Richard Hughes off a mark of 76. He followed up under the same conditions six weeks later and rounded off his season with a strong second in the Shergar Cup under Kieran Fallon.
Things didn’t go to plan during 2004, as a viral infection meant he tailed himself off on his seasonal debut at Epsom in April and he took a long time to fully recover. But by July he was back to his best and this time he was on the right side of the photo finish as he beat Cutting Crew a short head at Ascot. With his mark having risen to 89, we now attacked some of the bigger, more valuable handicaps and he kept finishing second at Glorious Goodwood, the St Leger Meeting and the Old Borough Cup at Haydock, each time beaten less than a length and each time he went up the handicap and we feared he’d lost the chance of landing a ‘big one.’
However, in 2005, Alan Munro made a comeback to race-riding and was associated with the yard and they struck up a race-winning partnership together. Promising efforts at Newbury and Epsom set him up nicely for the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle, Europe’s richest two-mile h’cap worth over £104,000 to the winner. Everything went right, there was a strong pace and all the gaps opened at the right time and he ended up winning by a length and a half from Tungsten Strike. Finally, he’d won his ‘big one!’ Yet more was to come, after finishing third at Glorious Goodwood, he came from nearly last to first to take the Ebor, the beginning of a love affair with York. We then stepped him up to Group Company for the Doncaster Cup and he only found a resurgent Millenary too strong. The season ended up with the Cesarewitch, with nine stone eight on his back and a field of thirty-four runners, it wasn’t going to be easy. Nothing was going to stop him, however, and he became the first horse to complete the historic h’cap treble and gained adulation from the public. In 2005, he was voted ROA/Racing Post Horse of the Year, finishing ahead of illustrious horses like Motivator and Kicking King, an amazing achievement from a horse trained in a relatively small yard in the West Country.
With a rating of 112, h’caps were out of the question and the Cup races were his main objectives. Early in the season he finished second in the Yorkshire Cup and finished fourth and fifth behind Yeats in the Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup’s respectively. He was running some great races but was just coming up short until he returned to the Ebor meeting for the Lonsdale Cup. Unfortunately, Alan Munro suffered a convulsion on a flight to Deauville and was stood down by the Jockey Club. We had a very able deputy in Frankie Dettori and the pair gelled immediately. Success in the Lonsdale was followed by the Doncaster Cup (held at York) and finally the Cadran, a Group One on Arc Day at Longchamp, the pinnacle of our training career so far. It was a brilliant day and the roar from the crowd when he returned to the winner’s enclosure was amazing. He ended the season with a third in the Royal Oak, in yet another Group One.
The following year started with a promising effort when fourth in the John Porter at Newbury under his Group One penalty. He then returned to York for the Yorkshire Cup and made amends for getting beat by Percussionist the previous year, this time beating the useful Geordieland by three quarters of a length. Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite right thereafter, following his sixth in the King George, he suffered from a viral infection and never really recovered. To compete in the top company you have to be a hundred per cent and with age probably dimming his powers, he was retired after a disappointing effort in the 2008 Gold Cup. At the end of his career, he had WON TEN races and over £828,127 in prize money. What a horse!
Sergeant Cecil has a site of his own, and the Book can be purchased from www.amazon.co.uk
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Hawkridge Prince, with Jim Crowley,
winning the Jockey Club Cup |
