Looking Back 55) Tiutchev

 
                      Tiutchev

Tiutchev was another horse that came to Pond House at the age of nine having already had an amazing career which continued while he was here at Pond House.  He was a 1993 born bay gelding by Soviet Star and his dam was Cut Ahead.  He began life on the flat for Roger Charlton in 2003 and had three runs as a three year old, improving with each start finishing sixth, fifth and third on his final start for the trainer.  He was then sold and bought by the Liars Poker Partnership from Newmarket sales for 31,000 guineas.

He moved to Henrietta Knight to begin his hurdling career and finished fourth on his debut at Warwick in February 1997.  He had six starts that season and his form figures read 4FUU23 and during the summer he was moved to the care of trainer David Nicholson.

He made a winning stable debut for him at Exeter in October 1997 and followed up that with a win at Cheltenham in November with Adrian Maguire in the saddle on both occasions.  He was then absent for just over a year before returning with a second at Newbury and then winning on his second start at Cheltenham in December.  He won the Lanzarote hurdle at Kempton that season, was sixth in the Tote Gold Trophy, sixth in the 1999 Champion hurdle behind Istabraq and finished off that season by finishing runner up in the Welsh Champion hurdle.

He changed stables again that summer and began a novice chase campaign in the autumn of 1999 trained by Nicky Henderson.  He had four runs and four wins that season, including big wins in the 2000 Arkle Novices Chase at the Cheltenham Festival beating Cenkos by 8 lengths and also winning a Grade 1 Novice Chase at the Punchestown Festival.

The following season he found things a bit tougher but he was taking part in all the blue riband events.  He had five runs and recorded one big victory in the grade 1 Mitsubishi Chase at Ascot in February 2001.  He had just four runs in the 2001/02 season and was a winner at Sandown before finishing fifth in the Queen Mother Champion chase and then fourth in the Melling chase at Aintree.

It was in the autumn of 2002 that he arrived at Pond House.  He made his stable debut at Sandown in February 2003 and finished second.  Two weeks later he went to Ascot and won the Grade 1 Ascot Chase beating Geos by 12 lengths with A P McCoy on board.  He was an early faller in the Queen Mother Champion chase in March but then went on adventure to Japan to run in the Nakayama Grand Jump Chase the following month.  Rodi Greene went over to ride him and although he completed he was never really involved in the race.

After a summer break he returned to action with a fourth place over hurdles in the Tote Silver trophy hurdle at Chepstow in November.  It was then back over fences and he ran some mighty races to finish second to Beef or Salmon  in the John Durkan chase at Punchestown and then he finished second in the 2003 King George behind Edredon Bleu, only beaten 1¼ lengths. He was a faller at Ascot on his next start but then finished third in the 2004 Queen Mother Champion chase behind Azertyuiop and Flagship Uberalles.  He got back to winning ways at Aintree winning the Martell chase off top weight, beating First Gold by 5½ lengths.

This proved to be his final win as he suffered a little injury and he was never quite the same horse again.  He did have three more runs; he pulled up lame in the King George in 2004 and his final ever race was at Aintree in 2005.  He moved to a friend of one of his owners to enjoy his well-deserved retirement.

Looking back, I arrived at Pond House at what was the end of his career and only now writing this do I appreciate what such a good horse he really was over a variety of distances; only the very best can do this.  He was very good a Pond House in his twilight years but he had already achieved so much before even arriving at these gates.  He has a very impressive CV.  Tiutchev won 12 races from 44 career starts which include four Grade 1 victories and a Grade 2, and he was placed 13 times as well.  Rated 167 at best he won over £445,000 in prize money.   

Watch his win in the 2003 Ascot Chase here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVe_aftVaW8

Watch his win in the 2004 Martell Chase at Aintree here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ3GGrW605A