Top Cees, the Chester Cup winner who sparked a libel trial, dies aged 31

Top Cees, the dual Chester Cup winner who was at the centre of an infamous libel trial in 1998, has died just days short of his 32nd birthday.

He spent more than 21 years in happy retirement in Lincolnshire but was put down after showing signs of deteriorating in his old age.

Part-owner Rodger Sargent said: "You always know it's going to happen but it's never nice. We're trying to celebrate him rather than look on the sad side because he had an amazing 31 years. We're sure he wasn't in pain and it was definitely the right thing to do.

"He didn't wear shoes and he had to have soft food but right up until the end of last week, if the wind blew the wrong way he would still flik-flak around. But in the last few days he was basically shutting down."

Top Cees in retirementCredit: Rodger Sargent

Top Cees won the Cesarewitch on the Flat and the Coral Cup over hurdles but will always be remembered for his controversial first Chester Cup win in 1995 when he carried the colours of Alan Leonard to a five-length victory.

The Sporting Life accused jockey Kieren Fallon and trainer Lynda Ramsden and her husband Jack of "cheating" with the horse on his previous start, which led to a High Court libel case three years later.

The Life lost the case and had to pay £195,000 in damages, with costs of some £160,000. It was one of the episodes that hastened the closure of the newspaper later that year.

Jack and Lynda Ramsden at the High Court during the Top Cees libel trialCredit: Dan Abraham

Following his 1995 Chester Cup win, Top Cees ran in Robert Sangster's colours for the next three years and it was those famous silks he carried to his second victory in the race in 1997. Racing off a mark of 87, 15lb higher than for his first success, he won by ten lengths under Jimmy Fortune.

Having changed ownership again, he won the Coral Cup at the 1998 Cheltenham Festival and his final success came in the 1999 Cesarewitch, with Fallon back on board, although by then he was trained by Ian Balding after the Ramsdens moved to France.

"I got involved in Top Cees in 1997, after the infamous situation but before the court case," Sargent said. "He was the first horse I ever owned and I thought it was easy. Every horse that we've owned since makes you appreciate him even more.

"He was an exceptionally good horse. His legs were glass but if he'd had four good legs he could have been an Ascot Gold Cup/Stayers' Hurdle horse, I have no doubt."

Top Cees: the 'charming' Chester Cup winner who sparked the case of the century

Top Cees won 12 races and earned more than £275,000 in prize-money in a career that ended when he broke down at Chester in May 2000.

Sargent said: "I have a place near Market Rasen with about seven acres of paddocks and Tikram, my other Cheltenham Festival winner, was with him there, along with Dusky Warbler, who was third in the Supreme.

"Dusky and TC have been inseparable since Tikram passed on in 2014. My cousin and my parents worshipped him and they're very sad about what's happened but they can see what a fantastic retirement he had."

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