The handicap hero who slipped through Spitting Mick's fingers

HAWKEYETHENOO
Trainer Jim Goldie
Biggest win Stewards' Cup 2012
Other highlights Victoria Cup 2011

Mick Easterby used to have him as a two- and three-year-old but they thought he was a bit of a monkey and told the owners to get rid of him. When he heard they were going to put him with me, though, he wasn't too happy and started telling me he was the worst horse ever to put his head through a bridle!

Of course he won for us first time – at Musselburgh in 2009 under Gary Bartley – and Mick's never quite forgiven me. There's nothing worse than the one that got away, but it's not as if we reinvented him – just a new broom, I suppose.