Looking Back 18) Boxer

                 Unsinkable Boxer
      (Picture courtesy of the Racing Post)

Unsinkable Boxer was a 1989 born bay gelding by Sheer Grit out of a mare called Softly Sarah.  He started his career as a four year old in Ireland and ran in six bumpers without ever troubling the judge.  The closest he got behind a winner was 14.5 lengths until there was a bit more promise in his sixth start in a bumper.  He finished seventh of 29 at Navan in May 1994 but he was only 4.5 lengths behind the winner that day.

He then had one run over hurdles where he finished third of 20 at Tipperary and then he returned to bumpers and ran consistently well that summer.  His form figures read 2235 before he won his first race, a bumper at Tipperary on 2^nd October 1994.  He then had one further run in a bumper in Ireland where he finished third. 

He changed ownership to Paul Green and changed trainer and came to England to Nick Walker (Paul Green’s stepson) and ran twice in the spring of 1995.  Brendan Powell rode him and he finished midfield both times in hurdle races at Cheltenham and Ascot.  He then was not seen on the racecourse for 670 days returning to action in January 1997.  He finished third at Folkestone and then finished third at Newbury after this.

Unsinkable Boxer arrived at Pond House in August 1997.  He was a lovely horse but he had physical issues and the hardest job was training him and keeping him sound. He made a winning Pond House debut at Plumpton in December 1997 with A P McCoy in the saddle.  He won a novice handicap hurdle very easily off a mark of 94.  He followed up with another win later that month at Fontwell and then made it a hat-trick of wins when scoring at Doncaster in January 1998.

He then went to the Cheltenham Festival in 1998 and ran in the Unicoin Homes handicap hurdle over three miles (now the Pertemps handicap hurdle) and he raced off a mark of 136.  There was a lot of confidence behind him that day from MCP and the team at home which has been well documented.   The betting public joined in with the gamble and he was backed down from 9-2 to 5-2 favourite.  Tony McCoy, writing in his autobiography, recalls a conversation with MCP as the pair headed down the chute towards the racecourse: "He [Pipe] looked up at me. I'll never forget it. He looked me straight in the eye without breaking stride, and he lowered his voice. 'This horse,' he said in a measured even tone, 'is the biggest certainty that will ever walk out onto this racecourse'." AP was just worried that day that he was the only one that could muck it up!  I think the Racing Post comments from the race tell you all you need to know “Held up and behind, steady headway 8^th, led approaching 2 out, canter”.  The run-in was a triumphal canter. “I hardly broke sweat, he hardly broke sweat, and we cruised up the hill,” recalls McCoy in his autobiography.  “For years it was spoken about as one of the biggest handicap hits at Cheltenham – even now it is one of the biggest handicap gambles landed,” said Coral’s director of communications Simon Clare.  He then went onto Aintree afterwards to sun in the Sefton novices hurdle and beat Brackenheath by 10 lengths.

After a summer at grass he returned that autumn for a novice chase campaign and he made a winning debut at Uttoxeter in December 1998.  He unfortunately fell next time out at Cheltenham when looking likely to win but he regained the winning thread by winning at Warwick after this.  He ran in the 1999 Gold Cup and was only a 14/1 chance but unfortunately he broke a blood vessel and was pulled up, See More Business was the winner of the race.  He was moved from Pond House in the summer of that year and although he did return to the track in 2001 for Louise Alner he was not the horse of old and then he eventually returned to Ireland with his original connections.

Rated 150 at best he won eight races from 30 career starts and he was placed eight times and won over £80,000 in prize money.  He record when trained by MCP at Pond House was 7 wins from 9 runs.

Watch his 1998 Cheltenham Festival win by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BMt_0oCY88