Racing Post Chase Memories: Gloria Victis

Gloria Victis (left) in the Henry VIII at Sandown.

In the latest addition to our series, Keith Melrose takes a look back at one of the most tantalising careers in racing's recent history...

At the heart of it naming a racehorse is a flight of fancy for its owner, the significance personal rather than predictive, but sometimes, out of pure chance, they turn out to be uncannily apt. There could not, for example, have been more fitting winners of the first Grand National (Lottery) or the Seagram-sponsored 1991 renewal (Seagram), while 'hardy' and 'brave' were certainly the correct adjectives to describe recent Champion Hurdle winners Eustace and Inca respectively. However, when it comes to coincidences in the naming of racehorses it's tough to match the tragic prescience of Gloria Victis, the Latin for 'glory to the vanquished'.

A French-bred gelding who'd made just four starts in Britain, winning three of them in fine style, Gloria Victis looked to have the world at his feet - or at any rate, the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at his mercy - approaching the 2000 Cheltenham Festival. Owner Terry Neill and trainer Martin Pipe decided to race their would-be star in the Gold Cup instead, and for much of the way it looked an inspired choice, Gloria Victis serving it up to the best around under an assertive, front-running ride. However, just as Looks Like Trouble and Florida Pearl loomed up two out, the long-time leader took a heavy fall and sadly suffered fatal injuries. 

Gloria Victis was mourned as though racing had lost a champion and it's near-impossible to contest such a presumption. He may not have won on that occasion (Timeform ultimately rated him level with runner-up Florida Pearl), but at the age of just six Gloria Victis would have come close to making all in a Gold Cup that yielded a course record broken only in 2011. Glory to the vanquished indeed.

Most of the 13 years since that Gold Cup have centred on the race itself and what might have been for Gloria Victis, whose peak years would likely have coincided with those of the year-younger Best Mate. What's less talked about are the extraordinary achievements that the six-year-old had racked up beforehand, so that we weren't at all surprised when he approached the second-last fence in a Gold Cup still firmly in the reckoning.

Bought from France without a win to his name, Gloria Victis announced himself on the British scene in the manner people would quickly become accustomed to, making all (if inclined to jump right) as he blew away a Newbury maiden field which included would-be useful sorts Windross and Beau. He was then brought back in trip, finishing third in the Henry VIII Novices' Chase at Sandown before it was decided that up in distance was the way to proceed. 

It didn't take long for that decision to bear fruit. Sent off at 2/1 favourite for the Feltham on his first try over three miles, Gloria Victis fairly thumped the field in what was an admittedly below-average renewal of the race, coming home 15 lengths clear of Zafarabad. Not asked to lead from the off, presumably due to unproven stamina, Gloria Victis nevertheless got to the front around halfway and was never in much danger thereafter. Although their charge was promoted the favouritism for what's now the RSA Chase in the aftermath, Messrs Neill and Pipe clearly felt sticking to novices in the meantime wouldn't be making enough use of Gloria Victis, so his next race was set as the Racing Post Chase back at Kempton in February.

The 2000 Racing Post Chase looked a renewal of rare quality beforehand. Novice Gloria Victis, rated 151 by the BHA and accordingly asked to carry top weight of 11st 10lbs, was sent off the 10/3 favourite. Next in the betting at 5/1 was Red Marauder, who would secure his place in racing folklore with a mud-spattered win in the following spring's Grand National but, at the time, was unproven over even a sharp three miles at Kempton. Brother of Iris, winner of both previous starts that winter, was next at 11/2, with last-time-out C&D winner Marlborough at 6/1 the only other runner at single-figure odds. All four entered the race with Timeform p's, as did 10/1-shot Scotia Nostra.

(race begins at 1m19s)

If you've been paying close attention, what happened next should be fairly predictable, but I ask you to watch it for the sheer spectacle. Ridden by Richard Johnson due to regular rider McCoy being suspended, Gloria Victis wrestled with Macgeorge for the early lead but soon got the upper hand and sealed his advantage with a huge leap at the first ditch. That was how things remained until they went out on their second circuit, at which point Gloria Victis' ebullient jumping started to stretch Macgeorge and others besides. By five out Marlborough, under Mick Fitzgerald, had started to emerge as the chief threat, with a tiring Macgeorge exiting at that fence and hampering the strong-travelling Wayward King.  

Turning in, the race was between Gloria Victis and Marlborough, the latter travelling the better but having a handful of lengths to make up on the long-time leader. As it happened, that would be as close as he got. Gloria Victis out-jumped Marlborough at the first two fences in the straight, through his own brilliance rather than any mistake by his opponent, and the race was sewn up by the time he cleared the last in equally emphatic style, eventually drawing 10 lengths clear as Johnson laid down his whip.

It was clearly a fine performance by Gloria Victis, though we would find out just how fine on the first day of that year's Festival. Marlborough, himself 10 lengths clear of anything else at Kempton and raised 5 lb for his efforts, won the National Hunt Handicap Chase by two and a half lengths from Beau, who by this point was in between wins in the Reynoldstown and Whitbread, the latter by a distance. To bring things full circle, four years later - and from a stone-higher mark than in 2000 - Marlborough would win the Racing Post Chase.

Of course, we'll be forever left to wonder what Gloria Victis might have achieved. In the years that followed, McCoy made no bones about the fact he regarded Gloria Victis as the best he'd ridden and Timeform figures largely agreed; in fact, to this day only Exotic Dancer and Denman have run to higher ratings with McCoy on their back than the one Gloria Victis looked set to achieve in that Gold Cup.

But conjecture is just that and ratings, though practical, are such cold comfort in an emotive case such as this. All we know is that, in Gloria Victis, we saw a champion at Kempton on that overcast February afternoon; the tragedy is that he didn't get to prove it.