£6,000 Tedburrow ridden by leading jockeys including Frankie Dettori, winning £889,000, racing in Hong Kong, Italy, Dubai and UK
- Quote: He’ll most probably outlive me! quipped veteran trainer Eric Alston, 76, as Tedburrow celebrates 29th birthday
By Andrew Atkinson EXCLUSIVE
Retired racehorse Tedburrow, who won 21 races winning approaching £1m in prizemoney during an illustrious career, celebrated his 29th birthday on January 1.
“He’ll most probably outlive me!,” quipped veteran trainer Eric Alston.
“Tedburrow is 29 now,” Eric, based at Edges Farm stables in Longton, Preston, Lancashire, preparing for the 2021 Flat season, with 14 horses under his reign, told me.
“Tedburrow is still here at Edges Farm and goes out in the field every day – he’s still a ‘silly old bugger!’,” laughed Eric.
Former jockey Eric, 76, who rode a rag and boneman’s cart and delivered milk on a horse and cart for his father, took over his father’s dairy farm with wife Susan, taking out a trainer’s licence permit over four decades ago.
Tedburrow, bred by Lady Matthews, was ridden by leading jockeys including Johnny Murtagh, Willie Supple, John Egan, Dean Mckeown, Ted Durkan, Michael Hills, Tony Culhane, Jason Weaver and Frankie Dettori, during 1994-2004.
He won £889,000 prizemoney from 21 races, 15 of them under Eric’s helm, becoming the oldest horse to win a pattern race, when winning a Group 3 at Newcastle in 2002, aged 10.
Tedburrow, who cost a paltry £6,000, ran at the Sha Tin Racecourse, Hong Kong, in 1999, and also ran in Italy and Dubai. He last raced in 2004 in a Class 3 Conditions Stakes over 6f at Doncaster, aged 12, finishing fourth.
“If the weather is bad, Tedburrow doesn’t have his daily outing in the field and goes on the treadmill indoors,” said Eric, also famed for stable stars Stack Rock and Reverence.
After selling the cows on the farm Eric trained Stack Rock, booking leading Flat jockey Kieren Fallon to ride, winning nine races and finishing second to Lochsong in the 1993 Prix de l’Abbaye.
Reverence – who won ten-times notching up £542,000 prizemoney – notable victories include the 2006 Nunthorpe Stakes and Betfred Sprint Cup.
Reverence, narrowly beaten in the 2006 Prix de l’Abbaye, a British champion Thoroughbred racehorse, career spanned from May 2005 until August 2011, running 42 times.
In 2006 he won two Group One races; the Nunthorpe Stakes at York and the Sprint Cup at Haydock, named European Champion Sprinter at the Cartier Racing Awards. Reverence ran his last race in August 2011.
Other notable horses are Ridge Ranger, winner of a Group 3 in 2016, Maid In India, winner of five of 12 races, and eight times winner Lydiate Lady: “Maid In India has gone to stud,” revealed Eric.
On the COVID-19 situation Eric said: “We are keeping okay during the coronavirus – along with Tedburrow – and just starting to put everything together ahead of the 2021 Flat season.”
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