Pridwell v Istabraq: the famous Aintree head-to-head and its lasting legacy in jumps breeding

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Here, Martin recalls the shock of Istabraq being chinned by Pridwell and its influence on jumps breeding. Subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

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While the Baby Boomers are enjoying reminiscing about the battle royal between Red Rum and Crisp in the Grand National 50 years ago this month, members of Generation X and Millennials like me have another famous finish in Liverpool to look back on fondly on the silver anniversary of it taking place: Pridwell v Istabraq in the Aintree Hurdle.

That race in April 1998 was not only a thriller that will live long in the memory of those who witnessed it, but it likely also helped steer the direction of National Hunt breeding in the new millennium.

Istabraq, on a ten-race winning streak and fresh from a bloodless success over Theatreworld in the Champion Hurdle, was sent off the long odds-on favourite, while Pridwell, who had obvious talent but was often maligned for not giving his all when the chips were down, was rated a 6-1 chance.

Pridwell had just finished 14 and a half lengths behind Istabraq in fourth at Cheltenham and was adjudged to be 11lb worse than that rival on Racing Post Ratings on the evidence.

However, persistent heavy rain in Liverpool on Grand National day that year, and a sedate pace set by that season’s Christmas Hurdle winner Kerawi in the race, conspired to create conditions in which Pridwell was able to beat the generally much more able Istabraq.

Pridwell took up the running under Sir AP McCoy rounding the home turn, with Istabraq looming behind, ridden with utmost confidence by Charlie Swan. The pair popped over the third-last flight sweetly, but Istabraq clattered through the second-last hurdle, allowing Pridwell to forge on by around a length.

Istabraq soon gathered himself up and swept past Pridwell at the last hurdle, though, and his 11th straight victory looked like a foregone conclusion. However, the sticky ground quickly exhausted his stamina, and McCoy – at his most powerful and persuasive – convinced his mount to regain the lead on the line.

The pair had pulled 26 lengths clear of their closest pursuer Kerawi in that titanic struggle in the home straight, almost the identical distance that Red Rum and Crisp put between themselves and the third home L’Escargot in the Grand National 25 years earlier.

McCoy’s exploits earned him the Racing Post ride of the year award but also, it has to be said, a four-day ban for excessive use of the whip that was extended to six days when his appeal failed.

Pridwell wins at Wetherby in 1997 Credit: Abraham Dan/Sporting Life

Pridwell must have given all he had left to give that day, as he was well beaten on his three subsequent starts. Istabraq, on the other hand, resumed his position as the best hurdler of modern times by winning another 13 races including two more Champion Hurdles.

The reason why the Aintree Hurdle of 1998 was so influential in jumps breeding, despite it being dominated by two geldings, was that the first two were both by Sadler’s Wells. 

Pridwell, from the fifth crop of the Coolmore colossus, was bred by Hascombe and Valiant Studs out of Park Hill Stakes and St Simon Stakes runner-up Glowing With Pride, by Ile De Bourbon.

The family had a knack for coming up with dual-purpose stars, as the dam was a half-sister to Ebor third and smart hurdler Dreams End, and she also produced Cesarewitch winner and Grade 2-placed chaser Inchcailloch.

Not that Pridwell was any great shakes on the Flat himself; he was beaten out of sight on all of his three starts for Roger Charlton and Sir Philip Oppenheimer, before being bought by miracle maker Martin Pipe for 8,500gns at the horses in training sales.

Sir Philip’s son Anthony is still breeding classy performers from this family at Hascombe and Valiant Studs. His exciting unbeaten gelding Courage Mon Ami and last autumn’s Kempton Listed runner-up Purple Ribbon are out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Crimson Ribbon, whose own dam Victoria Cross was a Listed-placed Mark Of Esteem half-sister to Pridwell.

Istabraq was meanwhile from the seventh crop of Sadler’s Wells and was, as any serious student of breeding history will know, a three-parts brother to Derby hero Secreto, being out of Betty’s Secret, an unraced Secretariat half-sister to Prix du Jockey Club winner Caracolero.

He was bred by Shadwell, for whom John Gosden sent him out to win a Salisbury maiden and the Bogside Cup handicap at Ayr’s Western meeting, but it was the much-missed John Durkan who identified the horse’s true calling as a hurdler, and picked him out of the Tattersalls July Sale for just 38,000gns before he entered training with Aidan O’Brien.

Istabraq at Martinstown in June 2012

The Aintree Hurdle was actually the second prestigious jumps race in which Sadler’s Wells supplied the first two home that spring, as Istabraq’s immediate victim in the Champion Hurdle, Theatreworld, was a stablemate from the same crop. For good measure, that year’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner French Ballerina was a year-younger mare by the sire.Sadler’s Wells had been represented by useful hurdlers before, such as Blazing Spectacle (fourth in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle), Taos (second in the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle) and Viardot (fourth in the Coral Cup), but the simultaneous emergence of French Ballerina, Istabraq, Pridwell and Theatreworld, along with some of his early sire sons like Accordion beginning to bear fruit, convinced the industry in the mid to late 1990s that access to his male line was the must-have thing in jumps breeding.

Old Vic had been recruited to Sunnyhill Stud in 1997, and duly bred the Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Kicking King in his first season there, while the likes of Cloudings, Kayf Tara, King’s Theatre, Oscar and Saddlers’ Hall were all also either retired or repurposed into National Hunt stallion roles around the turn of the millennium.

No end of other Sadler’s Wells sons were signed up to stand as jumps stallions in the 21st century. Even some who were unraced or moderate, but were inevitably well bred for being by a multiple champion sire, were given a chance. And quite a few of those, like Court Cave, Gold Well and Saddler Maker, seized the opportunity.

Later, of course, his paternal grandsons by the likes of Montjeu and Galileo were also heavily mined by National Hunt mare owners, and continue to be immensely popular to this day.

Inbreeding to Sadler’s Wells has now become almost unavoidable without introducing bloodlines that have been developed in France or Germany, and this week’s Irish Grand National hero I Am Maximus is one of many stars whose tabulated pedigree features multiple appearances of the phenomenal son of Northern Dancer.

Really, you could write a book on the subject of Sadler’s Wells’ influence on jumps breeding. A morning bulletin that was supposed to be crisp and concise (ha!) could never hope to cover the enormous number of his sons, grandsons and great-grandsons who have sired high-class hurdlers and chasers or their maternal ancestors.

Suffice to say that the top three in this season’s National Hunt sire table, Yeats, Fame And Glory and Walk In The Park, are by Sadler’s Wells or Montjeu, and that Constitution Hill, the hot favourite for Thursday’s Aintree Hurdle – the race that served as a catalyst for this line’s astonishing explosion a quarter of a century ago – is out of a King’s Theatre mare. 

What do you think?

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Pedigree pick

Charlie Appleby fields two blueblooded Godolphin homebreds in the ten-furlong fillies’ maiden at Newcastle on Thursday (2.45).Joyful Act, who has the benefit of racecourse experience having finished a close fourth on debut at Wolverhampton last month, is by Frankel out of 1,000 Guineas, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks heroine Blue Bunting, making her a half-sister to the smart but sadly short-lived Blue Creek. She will be ridden by Harry Davies.

Sahara Mist, who is meanwhile having her first start for the stable, hails from the final crop of late Japanese supersire Deep Impact and is a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf victress Wuheida, out of multiple top-level winner Hibaayeb. Daniel Muscutt rides.A royal blue reverse forecast might be the order of the day.

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