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David and I bought Hoof It as a yearling. David signed the sales docket but I maintain I pointed him in the right direction.
Hoof It made his debut at Doncaster in June 2009 where he finished fourth and won for the first time at Newcastle in August. After that we put him away for the season with a three-year-old campaign in mind. His Newcastle win didn't amount to much as it was a very poor race but he'd won as a juvenile and that was probably more than had been expected.
Hoof It thrived during the autumn and winter and the following year he recorded wins at Beverley, York, Haydock Park and Doncaster. I knew he'd be even better at four and I wanted to run him first time out at York's Dante meeting in May. I ran two horses, Hoof It and Thirteen Shivers, at York on 13th May 2011. It was not a good omen for the superstitious, Friday 13th and a horse with the name 'Thirteen', but it turned out to be a marvellous day. Thirteen Shivers won his race. He was owned by a syndicate who all worked at the yard, including the electrician, joiner and handyman. I've seen some happy owners over the years but to see these lads singing “There's only one Thirteen Shivers" was quite something.
Next up was Hoof It, who completed the double, winning under Kieren Fallon. There was much delight at Hoof It's win but much more would follow.
Hoof It won again at York in July, landing a nice touch to with the Skybet Stakes. He almost lifted the roof off the grandstand as he passed the post under Kieren Fallon. The York crowds always love a York winner and especially when they money is down. Every man and his dog were on Hoof It that day.
There was more to come, and a few weeks later he trounced a quality field in the Steward's Cup at Goodwood. Ridden by Kieren Fallon had carried top weight of ten stone, including a six-pound penalty, and it was as good a weight carrying performance as I have ever seen in a top sprint handicap.
Kieren said to me afterwards that he thought the horse was a monster, but he was still a big baby and had an even bigger future. He was sure that Hoof It would be a Group 1 horse one day. Chubby Chandler said there were 27 Amir Khans and one Mike Tyson at Goodwood and Hoof It was our Mike Tyson because he was a brute.
The ease of Hoof It's win took us all by surprise, and we wanted to pitch him into Group 1 company, but unfortunately he hadn't been entered in the Nunthorpe at York and to put him in at such a late stage would cost £20,000.
Chubby and Lee were proper sports and decided to stump up the cash and Hoof It was supplemented for the Nunthorpe. He finished a creditable sixth in the race, beaten just two lengths, and we got four grand of the money back. Another Group 1 beckoned in September, and a third-placed finish in the Haydock Park Sprint Cup. Hoof It was beaten only a quarter of a length in possibly the best run of his career to date. He got shoved left in the final furlong at Haydock and if he'd been able to stay straight he'd have most likely won. Graham Gibbons rode him that day and I don't think he's ever watched the replay.
Hoof It's four-year-old season was a hard act to follow and unfortunately in 2012 he would see more of the vet than he did the racecourse. He was by now blind in his left eye and would only race twice in 2012 but he was still kept in training as he was lost soul without his daily routine. Many people don't understand how racehorses work. So many horses live by their routines, and once you take away their daily schedule they go to pieces as they don't understand what's happened.
Hoof It was wired to be a racehorse and like many a good one he was quirky. He would be the first horse out in a morning for a canter up the hill, as that was how he enjoyed his life. He knew exactly what to expect and before exercise he'd stretch like a proper athlete. Once out of the yard, if there was anything new on the gallop that he'd not seen before then he'd plant himself and that was it, back to the yard, as he'd refuse to go any further.
Hoof It didn't win a race for the next three seasons, and it wasn't until September 2015 that he won at Doncaster, some 1,505 days after he'd taken the Stewards Cup at Goodwood! Some of the staff were in tears as he came back into the winners' enclosure. If you haven't worked with racehorses you cannot imagine the hard work and effort that had gone into looking after that horse and to see him win again was special. However, his resurgence was only starting and more would follow.
The following year Hoof It won at Haydock Park, on soft ground. He'd always been a fast ground horse but as he'd got older he was able to let himself down on the softer surface. Four weeks later, he returned to the scene of his Steward's Cup victory and won the Steward's Sprint Stakes with my apprentice Nathan Evans riding, landing an enormous gamble, backed from 22-1 to 8-1, and everyone was on.
How that horse did what he did I'll never know. He was a freak, a battle hardened warrior who would run his blood to water for you. Despite being full of metal plates and bearing the scars of many operations he was a professional racehorse and he knew it.
Hoof It won over £375,000 in prize money, a return on his purchase price that you wouldn't get at the bank. Sadly the battles inevitably caught up with Hoof It and he was retired in 2018.
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