Looking Back 85) Flo

                      Salut Flo

Salut Flo is a 2005 bay gelding by Saint Des Saints and his dam was called Royale Marie.  He only had a very short spell here at Pond House but once again showed his best form when he was here and he was a Cheltenham Festival winner in 2012.  Owned by Allan Stennett he began his career in France over hurdles.  For his first six starts he was in the care of trainer Emmanuel Clayeux and his races yielded one win at Lyon Parilly in 2009.

He had a further seven starts for another French trainer, Richard Chotard which included a win on his stable debut over hurdles at Auteuil and then a win on his final start for the yard, a chase at Cagnes-Sur-Mer in January 2010.

Salut Flo came over to England and arrived at Pond House the following month.  He made a winning debut for the yard by winning a handicap chase at Doncaster off a mark of 118 with Hadden Frost on board.  He was an easy winner, scoring by 12 lengths having made just about all of the running.  He held Cheltenham Festival entries that year but unfortunately was not rated high enough to get in any of the races.  He instead went to Haydock in April and off a stone higher rating he ran another really good race and battled on well to finish a close second to the Howard Johnson trained Prince De Beauchene. Unfortunately this day he picked up a tendon injury which meant he was not seen back on the track again until December 2011.

His comeback run was in the feature race at Cheltenham in the 2m5f handicap chase and Conor O’Farrell was on board.  He was running a cracking race and held every chance when making a terrible mistake three from home in which he was lucky to stand on his feet and all chance was lost so Conor looked after him after this.  He was then not back on the track until the Cheltenham Festival in March 2012. 

He was sent off the 9/2 favourite for the Byrne Group handicap chase.  He made all under Tom Scu and stayed on strongly to win unchallenged.  He beat The Cocknye Mackem by six lengths in a time that was just two seconds slower than the Ryanair chase off a mark of 137. 

Salut Flo was a very talented horse that loved his racing and was quite a favourite of everyone at home in the yard.  Unfortunately he was plagued by injuries and health issues and was a horse that suffered from bouts of colic a lot.  He actually only made the track once more after his festival success back at Cheltenham in December 2013 where he pulled up and was retired.  Sadly we probably never got to see the very best of him but he won five races from 17 career starts.  He was also placed four times and rated 144 at best he won over £121,000 in prize money.  He his remembered fondly for giving us all a very special Cheltenham Festival victory. 

Watch his Cheltenham Festival win here: https://www.racingtv.com/racecards/cheltenham/88237-byrne-group-plate-grade-3-handicap-chase?show_all=true&sort=price&non-runner_display=false