Looking Back 45) Free

 
                 Run For Free

Run For Free was another fantastic stayer for Pond House in the late 80’s and 90’s.  He was a dual National winner, winning the Welsh and Scottish races in the same season.  He was a 1984 born son of Deep Run and his dam was called Credit Card.  He began his career in the care of Andy Turnell and made his racecourse debut in a novice hurdle at Sandown in February 1988.  He then had two more runs that season, finishing well beaten, before being turned away for the summer.

The following season he had five runs and although he failed to get his head in front his form figures read 46342 and the second came in a 25 runner novice hurdle at Newbury in April 1989 with Peter Scudamore in the saddle.  Run For Free arrived at Pond House the following month in May 1989.

He made his stable debut at Newbury in November 1989 and again finished second in a big runner field. Two weeks later he recorded his first success, a novice hurdle at Southwell.  He won unchallenged with Jonothan Lower on board.  He went on to win his next three races making it four wins in a row.  Wins came at Cheltenham, Cheltenham and Warwick before he lined up in the 1990 SunAlliance novices hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.  He ran well to finish fourth but was no match for stablemate and winner Regal Ambition who we have already featured in this series.  He went on to finish sixth at Aintree, not beaten that far after this before going on his summer holiday.

His comeback run the following season was in a Grade 2 hurdle at Haydock in December 1990.  He won beating Mole Board by 3.5 lengths and then followed up with a success at Chepstow later that month.  He was then runner up to Bradbury Star next time out before returning to winning ways at Warwick in February in another graded hurdle.  He ran in the Stayers hurdle at the 1991 Cheltenham Festival and ran a blinder to finish a neck second to King’s Curate staying on strongly up the hill.  He went on to finish third at Aintree behind Morley Street after this before it was time for a holiday once again.

His comeback run was over hurdles at Cheltenham in December 1991 and he was a little disappointing finishing fourth of five runners.  He was switched to fences after this and made a winning chasing debut at Lingfield in January 1992.  He actually went on to win his first four starts over the larger obstacles.  He was the very easy winner on his second start at Newton Abbot and comfortable successes at Chepstow and Haydock followed.  It was then back to the Cheltenham Festival for the SunAlliance novices chase in March.  Jimmy Frost rode him to be third behind stablemate Miinnehoma and once again he headed to Aintree after this and finished third.

After his summer break that year he returned with three straight victories the following season.  The first of these came at Haydock in November where he beat Jodami by three lengths. He beat Miinnehoma in his next start at Chepstow and then lined up in the Welsh National back at the track in late December.  He was the impressive winner leading home a stable 1-2-3-4.  Mark Perrett was on board and they beat Riverside Boy and Mark Foster, Miinnehoma and Jonothan Lower and Bonanza Boy and Steve Smith-Eccles.  He was clear from five out and won easily.  He finished second at Haydock after this and finished eighth in the 1993 Gold Cup.  He was second at Aintree that year before heading up to Scotland to run in the Scottish National at Ayr in April. 

He won the 1993 Scottish National in remarkable style with Mark Perrett in the saddle at odds of 6/1 carrying top weight.  Chester Barnes and Alistair Lidderdale were sent down to the start with the horse as he had become a little troublesome.  He was not on his best behaviour this day and the comments in running read ‘started very slowly, well behind’.  Apparently the story goes that after the horses jumped off Alistair started running back towards the stands, Chester stopped him an said what an earth are you running for, we are only going to get a b*****king!!  They instead walked very slowly and so by the time they got back the horse had won the race and they avoided the telling off!!  

The following season as a ten year old he found it more difficult to scale the dizzy heights of the previous one but he was contesting the top races and he still put in some fine performances.  He was second at Haydock, third at Cheltenham and then ninth in the 1994 Gold Cup which was won by The Fellow.  This was his sixth straight appearance at the Cheltenham Festival and this is some achievement in itself and although he didn’t manage to win he ran admirably on every occasion.  The form book says ‘refused’ in the 1994 Grand National but this was not his fault as he was badly hampered by a loose horse at the 17^th fence and both he and Garrison Savannah were taken out.

He returned after another summer break to finish second at Wetherby and Haydock before uncharacteristically falling at Chepstow in the Rehearsal Chase in December 1994.  He had his final run for Pond House at Haydock in February 1995 where he finished fifth.  He went on have a successful time point to pointing after this in the care of Lawney Hill where he won two races and was placed eight times from twelve starts. His final run was in May 1998 and he then he enjoyed retirement before passing away at the age of 19 in 2003.

He was the winner of 15 races under rules from 41 career starts and these of course included to wins in two National’s.  He was also placed a further 20 times so you can see he was ultra-consistent at the highest level.  Rated 168 over fences at best he won over £219,000 in prize money.  He was looked after in the yard by Sue Lower who still works at Pond House today and she remembers him, like the rest of us very fondly, he was a real star.

Watch his win in the 1992 Welsh Grand National here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwJuejcYkTs

Watch his win the 1993 Scottish National here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_p6zUKimgE