| Within the world of horse racing, Sara Bradstock needs little introduction: the co-trainer of Gold Cup winner Coneygree and promising stayer Mr Vango, an accomplished horsewoman and the daughter of Injured Jockeys Fund founder Lord Oaksey. ‘It was my dad’s life. Most of the things he did were for the Injured Jockeys Fund, so it was a massive part of my life’, Sara explained, ‘I think it is very important to recognise the people, not the ones we’ve all heard of. It’s the ones nobody has heard of that have two or three rides and end up with life-changing injuries. And I think it’s vital that there’s something there to support them’. Sara had a riding career of her own before turning to training alongside her late husband Mark. Together, they prepared Coneygree to win the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup, ‘It was all just a fairytale. We bought the mare to breed something for Dad when he retired expecting to breed something that might win a race. Carruthers Hennessy Gold Cup winner] was the first one and then Coneygree and there was a wonderful horse called Flintham as well. They were all incredible and Coneygree winning the Gold Cup was just the icing on the cake’. Nico de Boinville, when he was still only a conditional, rode Coneygree to beat Djackadam by one and a half lengths. The horse was, famously, a novice over fences, but Sara and Mark were never dissuaded by the discussion of whether a novice should run in the Gold Cup, ‘We knew the horse we’d got, we knew what he was and we thought he could win it and that he might not get another chance to win it. So, to me, there was no contest in the decision’. Since that fairytale day, Coneygree has returned to Cheltenham Racecourse on many occasions for the benefit of racing fans as a part of the Retraining Of Racehorses parade, which Sara believes is a valuable initiative, ‘You’d like to think that they want to see them because they are incredible horses, they are legends, but I think it is also important for us to prove to the people who accuse us of not looking after horses that we love them. It doesn’t matter how retired he is, he is still going to be looked after like that forever’. And, how is the legend enjoying retirement? ‘He still thinks he’s a champion, he’s quite fat and he loves the parading and has done a bit of RoR [Retraining of Racehorse] showing, but he’s getting a bit bored of that. He does a bit of this, and a bit of that, wanders around the yard telling everyone what to do’. Coneygree seems to have passed some of that valuable will-to-win onto his stablemate, and Sara’s current star, Mr Vango. Mark Bradstock and Marcus Collie bought him as a three year old for £30,000 and this son of Ocovango has repaid their faith. He led them a merry dance in the 2024 National Hunt Chase to finish a fantastic third behind two Irish runners, ‘He’d very much cheered Mark up when he was very ill, when he won by so far at Exeter and Mark had literally just died, but he was very certain that he wanted us to go on, so it was lovely for him to be the best of the Brits. Now it’s a novice handicap, we’d have been a certainty!’ ‘I couldn’t have been more proud of him. He’s not got any particular Ferrari-type gears, but he is just a sweet, big fellow with a lot of strength and stamina’, Sara explained. Mr Vango showed that at both Sandown in the London National, under Coneygree’s old friend Nico, and at Haydock for the prestigious Peter Marsh, ‘He really put his best foot forward the last time because that was only three miles in the Peter Marsh, so hopefully he is improving!’ Unfortunately, despite these two victories, it doesn’t look like Mr Vango will be rated high enough to run in the Grand National and the Kim Muir at the Cheltenham Festival is unlikely – unless the heavens open and the ground becomes heavy for the Thursday of the Festival, ‘He’s 18 hands and he’s got quite sensitive feet. He wants heavy ground to make the others go slower, but also because you couldn’t run him on good ground, he’d hurt himself. It all depends on the ground. We will more likely end up in the Midlands’ National, unless some miracle happens and we’re going to get into the Grand National’. There are many challenges to being a racehorse trainer, but Sara does not lose sight of why this is her life, ‘It’s hard, as everybody knows, to make it go and we’ve been lucky enough to have some incredible horses who have won Gold cups and all sorts. We’ve never had enough horses. It’s always difficult to make it pay, but we love the horses. I love the horses, I want to be with them and I want to make sure that every one of them is the best version of them as they can be. That’s what drives me really’. Sara works alongside her children, Alfie and Lily, ‘It’s vital [to have her children involved] for many reasons: one, because you can’t get good staff in racing and racing is struggling for staff. But, to have your children who have been brought up with the same ethos of everything is based around the love of the horse is vital because it is everything we stand for. Lily works incredibly hard because she wants our horses to be well cared for’. That care is what led to Coneygree winning the Gold Cup and Mr Vango being the best of the Brits in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham last year. Whilst Sara may not have a runner this year, racegoers will be treated to seeing Sara and Coneygree parade at the Festival and reflect on what a star he was for the Bradstock team at this very special racecourse, ‘It’s a wonderful four days of very, very good horses and knowing that you’ve got a horse that won the big one is… I don’t think I probably believe it really!’ |