The People's Champion? Why I think this horse should be named the winner

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It was his season as a novice chaser that really got my attention. Fifteen races from September to April and his best efforts were at the very end of that packed winter. Young Hustler had a toughness that helped him achieve beyond the limitations of his physique and that's the main reason why I think he should be named the People's Champion at the end of the Racing Post's new campaign.

"We want to find out who is your favourite," Lee Mottershead wrote on Friday, launching the project. He was clear that we're not looking for the best horse, which could be reduced to a matter of ratings. 

Popularity is what's going to count, as the winner will be decided by a series of votes through August. Just now, we're looking for nominations and this is mine. 

Back in the early autumn of 1992, Young Hustler made a modest start over fences, getting beaten at odds-on by one of Peter Cundell's. He'd set off in front and got tired, not for the last time.

By the time mid-November came round, he was already having his fifth run of the season when Nigel Twiston-Davies sent him to Worcester for a Grade 2. Soft ground wouldn't have helped him but it was still disappointing that he trailed the winner (Barton Bank) by 53 lengths.

He got a lot closer to that one at Cheltenham a month later. Then in January came the start of a five-race winning run that rocketed him up the ratings and into the affections of many, me included.

He beat Dublin Flyer by a dozen lengths at Newbury. He bounced around Wincanton ahead of 16 rivals. He hacked up in the Great Yorkshire at 9-2. All that happened in the space of three weeks.

The Saturday after Doncaster, he was down at Sandown, landing the Grade 1 Scilly Isles. Seven days later, he was out again, beating Cogent and Second Schedual (and Beech Road) at Newbury.

He was pretty obviously going to be a leading fancy for the Sun Alliance Chase at the Cheltenham Festival but there was still time to squeeze in another Grade 2 run at Worcester – another defeat, but by a much smaller margin.

Maybe he just didn't like that place. Thankfully, he had no problem with Cheltenham, beating Superior Finish by three lengths after doing his usual thing of showing up prominently from the off. 

It was the most Twiston-Davies season ever. Thirty years later, there is basically no chance of any horse being campaigned in such a swashbuckling manner and we're the poorer for it.

But there's always a price to pay. Young Hustler was by then rated to the peak of his ability, so handicaps were going to be really difficult. Moved into Graded races, he would usually find at least one rival too good for him.

You couldn't have blamed him if he didn't have much to give after such a busy season, some of it on ground with very little juice. Instead, he raced for the next five years and was kept busy for almost all of that time.

The best moment was when he was a hugely game third in the Gold Cup, beaten only by Jodami and The Fellow, giants of staying chasing in the early 90s. Bradbury Star, Docklands Express and Miinnehoma were among those behind him that day.

He was a bit unlucky in the National, getting brought down by a loose horse one time. When he was fifth in the 1996 race, he was giving lumps of weight to those ahead of him and carried a stone more than Rough Quest, the winner.

It was immensely pleasing that he'd had a last hurrah over those fences in the Becher Chase that season, when he gave two stone to literally all the other runners and was never going to do anything but win.

"He would run through a wall for you," Peter Scudamore once told me. "He wasn’t big but he was the right shape, a ball of muscle. Anything he lacked in ability, he made up for in heart."

"He could be a stroppy little sod," was the Twiston-Davies verdict. "But he was the most unbelievable horse ever, so tough and brilliant."

It was one of the great pleasures of my time hanging around racing that I got to meet Young Hustler in retirement, cosseted at a small stable in Gloucestershire, the pride and joy of his owner, Gavin MacEchern. He lived to be 32.

The People's Champion should be a horse like him, not some flashier type, so blessed with ability that turning up is the same thing as winning. Some of the best Flat horses just seem to sail through life.

It wasn't like that for Young Hustler, who always had to struggle and was beaten more often than not but never got discouraged by it. You had to love him. 

So I'll be nominating him and perhaps, if enough of you do the same, he'll make our not-very-short short list of 80. 

To nominate him, or some other racehorse, this is how you get involved:

By post
Send the name of your horse and make your case to:

The People's Champion, Racing Post Editorial, Floor 7, Vivo Building, South Bank Central, 30 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9LS.
Letters must reach us by no later than Tuesday, August 1.

By email
Get in touch at peopleschampion@racingpost.com.

Online
Click here and follow the instructions.

Three things to look out for on Monday

1. Connections have evidently decided it's time to get a win out of Dorothy Lawrence, whose presence is possibly part of the reason for a small field in the 5f juvenile maiden race at Ayr (3.05). She was beaten just half a length in the Marygate, turning around the form with the horse who'd beaten her on her debut. She was then third in a French Listed race, one place ahead of the Lily Agnes winner. Karl Burke's filly is in the Lowther next month but she'd want to be winning this handily if she's to take that up. Slower ground takes the emphasis off raw speed but her best run was on a quick surface and she doesn't look the safest medium for odds-on punting.

Dorothy Lawrence15:05 Ayr

View Racecard

Jky: Daniel Tudhope Tnr: K R Burke

2. If it's Monday at Ayr, it must be See My Baby Jive. As recently as 15 days ago, the seven-year-old mare was a maiden but the fitting of blinkers seems to have done the trick; she won a low-grade sprint handicap a fortnight ago and then followed up last week. Now she goes for the hat-trick with a 4lb penalty (4.15). There was only a neck in it last week but she was strong at the line and a softer surface may help her. Jason Hart, aboard for both her wins, rides for John Quinn this time, so Danny Tudhope gets the leg-up on Donald Whillans's runner.  

See My Baby Jive16:15 Ayr

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Jky: Daniel Tudhope Tnr: Donald Whillans

3. Interesting Debutant of the Day is Airman, one of three juveniles that Richard Fahey has entered for next month's Gimcrack and the last of the three to make the racecourse. The colt's second dam is Irish History, third in the Coronation Stakes on just her third appearance and closely related to Echo Of Light, a dual winner of the Strensall Stakes – so there's York success in the family. Airman makes his debut in a winnable-looking 5f maiden at Beverley (5.55). Fahey's two-year-olds were scoring at a rate above 20 per cent through May and June but have slowed down to 11 per cent in July. 

Airman17:55 Beverley

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Jky: Oisin Orr Tnr: Richard Fahey

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.