ISSUE 178 RACING AHEAD 53winning 13 of her 20 starts, a record
which still stands today. It was a mas-
terful training performance by Hills as
fillies, especially that young, rarely
hold their form for long and Nagwa
also did it the hard way by running in
some better quality races during the
season and finished with a rating only
8lbs shy of the best two year old fillies
that year.
Five years later Mark Prescott sent
out Spindrifter 19 times under the
jockeyship of George Duffield and
they came home first in 13 of those
races, three of them at Pontefract
where he was also second twice,
matching Nagwa in setting a modern
day record for two year olds. A firm
favourite with race crowds and kept
almost entirely to the smaller northern
tracks Spindrifter was never out of the
first two until finally upped in grade at
Doncaster, the only time he was
unplaced.
Prescott believed he had trained on
and was hopeful of picking up more
races with Spindrifter during his three-
year-old season. That began in 1981
when placed in a handicap before get-
ting back to winning ways in an
amateur riders race. Sadly Spindrifter
then suffered a broken leg when
kicked by another horse at morning
exercise and had to be put down.
By far the best modern exponent of
multiple winning juveniles was Bill
O’Gorman, who for the best part of 15
years had been producing horses who
often notched up seven, eight or nine
wins in a season. In 1984 he had a per-
fect partnership in Tony Ives and
Provideo a brown colt by the brilliant
Godswalk.
Starting his sequence of victories on
the first day of the season in the
Brocklesby Stakes just like The Bard,
although now run at Doncaster,
Provideo won by four lengths and
ended a long season with a final victo-
ry at Redcar on November 1. During
this time Provideo notched an incredi-
ble 16 victories from 23 races,
including the Spindrifter Stakes at
Pontefract. He was third only once and
second in all his other races, including
the Group 3 Champagne Stakes at
Goodwood in his only race beyond six
furlongs when bested only by the
future King George winner, Petoski.
Provideo had beaten Nagwa’s andSpindrifter’s joint 20th Century record
of victories by a two year old and
equalled that of The Bard. In deference
to such an outstanding achievement
Provideo was named Timeform’s
Horse of the Year ahead of the likes of
El Gran Senor and Secreto.
An aggressive and strong willed colt
he often played up in the paddock,
being mounted on the course more
often than not and one unlucky stable
lad even spent time in the local hospi-
tal after startling the horse in his
stable. Not surprisingly he didn’t train
on and was unplaced in two of his
three races the following season
before being retired to stud in Tasma-
nia where he died on 7 September
2000.
Six years later, in 1990, O’Gorman
unleashed yet another multiple win-
ning two year old in the chestnut colt,
Timeless Times under the vastly
underrated Alan Munro.
On 9 April he opened his account at
the first time of asking at Wolver-
hampton and notched up an unbeaten
five victories in less than a month. Put
up to six furlongs for the first time and
without Munro in the saddle for the▲Provideo
(far side)