La Landiere: the super mare who went from forgotten to fondly remembered

Fans' Favourites is a feature in the Racing Post Weekender every Wednesday in which we talk to those closest to racing's most popular horses and find out why they pluck on our heartstrings

The race programme for mares has increased significantly in jump racing, highlighted again by the addition of a mares’ chase to the Cheltenham Festival this year, and it would have been a perfect platform for the fondly remembered La Landiere. As a high-class performer with jumping prowess that was matched by her fighting spirit, she would have been an ideal fit.

No such opportunity existed back in her day, however, and undoubtedly the fact that she had to take on the boys for the big prizes – culminating in a hugely popular festival triumph in the 2003 Cathcart Chase – was part of the attraction for racing fans who followed every twist and turn of her remarkable story.

At the start of the 2002-03 season, La Landiere was a forgotten horse after her early promise over hurdles had dissolved in a losing run going back more than two years. Few would have expected her to end up at the festival as a hot favourite less than 12 months later, not least her owners Roger and Carol Skan.

Connections celebrate La Landiere's Racing Post Chase winCredit: Edward Whitaker

As Roger recalls, her long run of defeats was so dispiriting that he was ready to retire her. “She looked quite exciting to start with over hurdles, winning three times as a novice, but then she went a hell of a lot of races without another win,” he says.

“She would look as if she was going to win but then she’d start gazing around. For some reason it was as if she felt hurdles were slightly beneath her. She wasn’t interested at all and I started thinking about retiring her to stud.”

Then came a timely phone call from trainer Richard Phillips, who was in his early days at his Adlestrop yard in Gloucestershire. Skan says: “Richard told me Richard Johnson had been up and they’d decided to pop La Landiere over a couple of fences and she’d loved it. He said he was going to put her in a chase and see how she got on.”

That chase debut came on May 30, 2002, and it was the start of something special. La Landiere was beaten into second that day at Huntingdon – by Impek, who turned into a four-time Grade 2 winner – but two days later she made it to the winner’s enclosure at Market Rasen and never looked back.

Reflecting on that initial foray into chasing, Phillips says: “She was built like a chaser and we thought we should try that. After she did so well on her first run, I put her in again a couple of days later at Market Rasen. That wasn’t like me at all, but the race had cut up and we thought at least we’d get a win over fences with her. Little did we know how far she’d end up going.”

Having secured that first win, Phillips put La Landiere away for four months until the Chepstow meeting at the start of October. Her Market Rasen win had been a five-length stroll and her Chepstow follow-up was even easier as she scored easily by nine lengths. Seven weeks later she cruised home by 30 lengths at Wincanton and next came Kempton’s Christmas meeting, where she won by 12 lengths.

By now, she had captured the imagination of jump racing followers, who latched on to the story of the fast-rising underdog mare from a smaller yard. “I think a lot of people wanted us to do well,” says Phillips, who was establishing himself at Adlestrop following a short-lived tenure at Jackdaws Castle before his landlord Colin Smith sold up to JP McManus.

The developing fairytale had the added stardust of a royal connection with Zara Phillips working in the yard at the time. “Zara was riding out for us and doing a lot of physio work with La Landiere. She was a big mare and wasn’t always easy to keep right, and Zara did her bit,” the trainer says.

La Landiere and Richard Johnson win the 2003 CathcartCredit: John Grossick

La Landiere’s connections were swept along in the whirlwind of excitement. “It was unbelievable, you were in a dream,” says Skan. “Suddenly you realised you were expecting her to win easily every time. And she didn’t ever not win, so you just got accustomed to it, which was amazing.”

Phillips adds: “Going over fences just sparked her enthusiasm. She was a big, rangy mare and was definitely made for chasing. She got her confidence, she was winning races by a long way, and she just kept on improving. You could tell she was really enjoying it – travelling and jumping and landing and running – and she just seemed to build up an enormous amount of confidence.”

Given the dominance of her first four chase victories, connections could aim high after Christmas. Next stop was Cheltenham’s late January meeting and, on what is now known as Trials Day, she passed that test with flying colours, winning by six lengths.

Four weeks later she faced a tougher examination when she was sent back to Kempton for the Racing Post Chase, stepping up to three miles for the first time, and again she earned top marks.

Her chase wins up to this point had been from 2m3f to 2m5f and there was another change too, with regular partner Johnson switching to the Philip Hobbs-trained Gunther McBride, who was bidding for back-to-back successes in the race.

Still there was no stopping La Landiere. Warren Marston, who had won on the mare in her early novice hurdling days, was called up for the ride and was assured by Phillips that his mount would stay the trip.

“I always thought she’d get three miles,” the trainer says, “but Warren thought she wasn’t going to take the step up and that he’d be on a hiding to nothing if her winning run came to an end.”

There was no danger of that, with La Landiere ranging alongside Gunther McBride in the straight and then kicking clear to win by three lengths from her fellow joint-favourite. She carried 11st 7lb, conceding 13lb to Gunther McBride, and this was another impressive step up the chasing ladder. Her official mark now stood at 155 and her best Racing Post Rating was 160, a massive improvement from the 97 she recorded in her first chase win.

The final challenge of her phenomenal campaign was the Cathcart, back at 2m5f on the final day of the Cheltenham Festival. Rated by Ladbrokes as one of their most expensive losing days in festival history, the afternoon had already brought victory for three heavily backed favourites – including Best Mate in the Gold Cup and Baracouda in the Stayers’ Hurdle – by the time La Landiere lined up with Johnson at a red-hot 5-4.

Phillips certainly felt the pressure of getting the hugely popular mare ready for one last push. “I sensed she was needing a break by then. We didn’t have a clear run up to Cheltenham – she had a bit of a snotty nose a couple of weeks before – but we got her there,” he says. “She was one of the shortest-priced favourites at the festival and you felt you were going to let people down if she didn’t perform.”

La Landiere wasn’t at her best but she still did the business to take her winning run to a magnificent seven.

“I think her toughness was one of the reasons the public took to her,” says Phillips, still so proud of her after all these years.

“Her will to win – along with Dickie’s, they were a great match – got her there.”

The day remains fresh in the memory.

“You never forget the moment you train a festival winner,” says Phillips – and so does the night. “We had a marquee and everyone came to join us – staff, owners, friends,” the trainer recalls. “The marquee was so full we took down the dividing wall.

“The hospitality guy came up to us and Colin Smith asked for champagne. The man said ‘how much would you like?’ and Colin said: ‘All of it!’ We certainly celebrated that win.”

La Landier owner Roger Skan is congratulated by Zara PhillipsCredit: John Grossick

Skan remembers it well too. “I had to go off to collect the trophy and by the time I walked back down the hill they’d taken the side wall of the marquee down. There must have been 120 people in there and you should have heard the noise when I walked back in with the trophy. We made whoopee for a couple of hours and later on we ended up in a pub in Snitterfield. That night was something else.”

La Landiere’s amazing season was certainly worth celebrating. Surely she would have blazed a similar trail through the mares’ programme that exists now, but perhaps she earned more fans in her day doing it the hard way against male rivals.

“We pitched her in against the boys, but in some respects she looked like a gelding herself,” says Phillips. “She didn’t look like a weedy mare, and she was tough with it.”

Unfortunately, La Landiere’s physical issues became harder to manage over time. She could not maintain her fantastic run the following season, when her elevated rating forced her into races like the King George VI Chase, and her career ended with a tame sixth in her Cathcart defence at the 2004 festival.

Much worse was to follow. Having made her delayed entry into the broodmare ranks, she was in foal to Classic Cliche when tragedy struck. “She was a long way gone carrying a colt when she was found in her paddock with internal injuries, possibly having been kicked by another mare. She couldn’t be saved,” says Skan. “It was a very sad day, I remember it vividly.”

The bloodlines live on, however, and a top-class prospect has emerged from the family in the Paul Nicholls-trained Monmiral. Out of a half-sister to La Landiere, he advertised his quality with a Grade 2 win at Doncaster last month and is being aimed at Aintree in the spring.

Eighteen years after La Landiere’s memorable win, that rich French blood might yet produce another magical moment at a big festival.

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