Prince Of Arran: 'horse of a lifetime' who never disappoints at Flemington

Inspired by Scotland, developed in Newmarket, hailed as an unlikely hero in Australia, admired around the globe. That’s Prince Of Arran, who this week achieved the remarkable feat of finishing placed in the Melbourne Cup for a third consecutive year.

No wonder Charlie Fellowes, the trainer who has nurtured him from naughty boy to globetrotter extraordinaire, was proud as punch after Prince Of Arran’s close third behind Twilight Payment and Tiger Moth in Tuesday’s race.

Fellowes, who watched the race from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, said: “To finish third in a Melbourne Cup is remarkable even on its own. To place for a third year in a row is a really great achievement and one very few horses have done before.

“I’m unbelievably proud of my horse, of [groom] Aled Beech, who’s done a fantastic job with him, and proud of Jamie Kah, who was riding in her first Melbourne Cup and rode a beautiful race.”

Prince Of Arran has actually been third past the post in each of his Melbourne Cup runs – although on the second occasion he was promoted a place – and Fellowes is already eyeing a fourth attempt.

Hopefully the build-up to next year’s race will be more straightforward. It is difficult enough for British trainers in a normal year to send a horse to Australia, but this year posed an extra challenge due to Covid-19 protocols. Not that Fellowes’ seasoned traveller seemed at all perturbed.

Prince Of Arran finishes fast for third in the 2019 Melbourne Cup. He was later promoted to secondCredit: Daniel Pockett (Getty Images)

“He couldn’t have taken this trip any better,” Fellowes says. “They stopped four times on the way – at Shannon to pick up the Irish horses, then it was on to Doha, Singapore and then Melbourne. It makes the hard journey even longer for them, it’s already a long old way.

“But we were confident he would have no problems. He loves being on his travels, he comes alive when he’s abroad.”

From Melbourne to New York, Riyadh to Hong Kong, Prince Of Arran has visited places the most ardent travellers would be envious of, and has thrust his trainer on to the global stage.

“I genuinely don’t think I could put a value on how special he has been to me and my yard,” Fellowes says fondly. “He’s put my name on the map in ways I could never have dreamed of.”

Fellowes always had an inkling the son of Shirocco could be a star, but there was pressure to find a classy sort for his owner, Saeed bel Obaida, who had waited for the right horse to bestow with a special name.

“Saeed rang me up and said ‘when you get a good one for us, I’ve just been on holiday to the most beautiful place in the world, the Isle of Arran. I’d really like to name a horse after it, but I want it to be good’,” Fellowes says. “I rang him a few months later and said ‘this horse is quite nice, why don’t you name him that?’”

To start with, Prince Of Arran was not exactly a dream horse, as Fellowes recalls. “I loved him as a juvenile but he was so naughty. He was a handful to deal with, kept finding ways to lose, and it gave him the excuses not to put in 120 per cent. It took me a long while to get the best out of him.”

Prince Of Arran lands the 2018 Lexus StakesCredit: Vince Caligiuri / Getty Images

In the middle of his three-year-old season, Prince Of Arran finished tailed off in three consecutive starts. It was a worrying downward spiral and something needed to be done to turn his career around. Fellowes took a gamble and gave him the dreaded cut.

It worked wonders on Prince Of Arran, who rocketed through the ranks, rising from a mark of 83 to 107 in less than 12 months. Fellowes’ first roll of the dice had paid off spectacularly and now it was time for the second, far riskier roll: the first venture abroad.

Dubai was the destination and the Arabian sun helped Prince Of Arran blossom into a Group-race performer. Four starts at Meydan yielded a lucrative handicap victory, a narrow defeat and a respectable effort when midfield in the Dubai Gold Cup, beaten less than six lengths. Fellowes then began to hatch the ambitious plan to go down under for the first time.

The plan was precise: take in three races during the summer of 2018, then go into quarantine before a prep run in Australia to get him qualified for ‘the race that stops a nation’.

Prince Of Arran broke new ground when he was third in a Grade 2 at Belmont Park in the US and then finished second in the Northumberland Plate on home soil. It was all going so swimmingly, but then the plan hit choppy waters.

The first run of his 2018 Australian adventure was pencilled in: Caulfield racecourse for the Herbert Power Stakes, a Group 2 handicap over a mile and a half. He ran the first of many races of his life with a fast-finishing third. Fellowes should have been ecstatic with the performance, but he was sick with agony.

“We went out there knowing we had to win a race. Third was the worst place we could finish,” Fellowes says. “It’s not like in Britain where if you finish second and pull 20 lengths clear of the third, the handicapper will clobber you. In Australia only the winner gets a penalty.

“His great performance made no difference. We had gone all the way out there and still weren’t in the Melbourne Cup.”

An emergency Plan B was put into action in the Lexus Stakes three days before the Cup. Win and he was in. If he lost, the dream would be shattered.

Prince Of Arran delivered in the hour of need. The bravery and determination that had made flickering appearances earlier in his career now burned bright. In a driving finish he repelled the favourite Brimham Rocks to win the Lexus and cement his place in the Melbourne Cup field.

One final obstacle threatened to scupper it all: the weather. It is typically dry spring weather when the Flemington showpiece comes around. Not this time though, as the weather gods brought a deluge of rain. Fellowes was certain Prince Of Arran would hate the ground. He was distraught.

“It was a horrible day. We woke up to torrential rain, I’ve never seen rain like it,” Fellowes recalls. “I remember driving to the racecourse and watching rivers of rainwater flowing down the sides of the road.

“I had my head in my hands in tears. I couldn’t believe that after every hoop we’d tried to jump through to get in the race, it was going to be scuppered by the Australian weather, which we thought was going to be beautiful.”

Prince Of Arran responded with another magnificent performance. The black beauty ran out of his skin to finish third behind Cross Counter and his three-length defeat was toasted like a victory. A horse who had the odds stacked against him had defied them brilliantly to warm his way into the hearts of many racing fans.

Looking back, Fellowes thinks the result could have been different. “I’ve got to admit that two furlongs out I thought we were going to win it,” he says. “He cruised into contention and looked like he was going to win, then Marmelo on the inside and Cross Counter on the outside swooped by. He ran such an amazing race.”

Fellowes was determined to go back to Melbourne for another crack the following year. There was the annual Dubai sojourn, followed by a three-race spell at home before Prince Of Arran jetted back down under. The Herbert Power was once again targeted as the race to secure his Melbourne Cup place.

By now, Fellowes knew things wouldn’t run smoothly. If there was a worse position to finish than the third place he managed the year before, it was second. Of course, Prince Of Arran occupied that spot.
It was another gallant effort, however, and there was no sense of panic. “Although there was a good chance we might have snuck in, we had to go out there and win,” Fellowes says. “I changed our route into the race to give him a bit longer to get over his previous runs. I decided to go for the Geelong Cup because you have two weeks from there to the Melbourne Cup. And he won.”

Having secured his place again, Fellowes’ globetrotter went mighty close to winning the big one too. He passed the post in third place again but this time he was much closer to the winner, Vow And Declare, beaten a nose and a head. Following the demotion of Master Of Reality, he ended up in second place.

“He couldn’t have been in better form,” Fellowes says. “But he got a little bit unlucky because the race wasn’t run to suit. He needs a more even tempo and not a sprint. However, how good was he? He got within a head of winning.”

Charlie Fellowes with his globetrotting star Prince Of ArranCredit: Vince Caligiuri (Getty Images)

Another frontier was broken a couple of months later when Prince Of Arran hit the frame in a lucrative handicap in Saudi Arabia, before the pandemic threatened to end hopes of a third attempt at Melbourne Cup glory.

But this is Prince Of Arran. Where there is a will, he finds a way. He made it back down under and warmed up for the big race with a storming performance to finish fourth in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup, cementing himself as one of the favourites heading to Flemington.

It was not to be the year the Prince finally became the Melbourne Cup King, but he produced a mighty effort for the third year in succession. Once again the race did not entirely go to plan, as he had to be switched to the outside at a crucial time. He was flying towards the winning post and was beaten only three-quarters of a length into third.

“It’s hard not to look at the race and wonder what might have been,” Fellowes reflects. “If we’d have had a clearer run around the bend might we have finished better than third? It’s hard to say. I just couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Unlike the last two years, Prince Of Arran is set to return straight to Newmarket and not race in Hong Kong next month, with Fellowes keen to build around Australia’s most famous race again next season.

“I need to talk to the owner and the owner’s racing manager but while he’s healthy, happy and loving his racing I see no reason to retire him and I’m sure the owner will feel the same,” Fellowes said.

Many racing fans will feel that way too. Prince Of Arran may not have secured a coveted Group 1 success, and indeed he has only six wins to his name, but his global fairytale has yielded more than £2 million in prize-money and no-one would begrudge him the extra ounce of luck that could help him to make the breakthrough at the top level.
How Fellowes feels about Prince Of Arran is in no doubt.

“He’s a lovely horse to be around,” he says. “He’s very kind and a bit of a joker, but a real gem. He’s an utter gentleman and I’ll miss him when he’s gone, whenever that is.

“The owners are always over the moon with pride in him. I’ll be eternally grateful to them for sending me this horse. They don’t come around very often and there’s a very high probability I’ll never get a horse like him again. He’s the horse of a lifetime.”

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