Retirement of Canford Cliffs stirs reviving memories
A horse gallops with his lungs, perseveres with his heart and wins with his character, has very rightly been said by Tesio and it is nothing short of what Canford Cliffs symbolized.
The tremendous energy that he brought to the tracks and the hardcore competition that he gave to those sharing the tracks with him was really astounding. His dynamic aura and charm would always rule the tracks, making him an unparallel legend.
He was foaled in 2007 in Ireland and was a thoroughbred racehorse who took training from Richard Hannon. Canford Cliffs was born to Tagula, grandsire Taufan and Mrs Marsh, damsire Marju.
According to his trainer, Richard Hannon, Canford Cliffs was no doubt the best horse that he had had trained in over forty years as a trainer.
It would be quite an understatement to intone that Canford Cliffs was trained only rather it is more appropriate to connote that he was practically ‘brought up’ by Richard.
The beauty had been drilled discipline in it, almost as if it were in build. Another amazing attribute was that once he was ahead of the pack there was no going back, it stayed in front throughout the race then or let’s say there was no one who could pass
him.
There a nearly tangible relationship between the colt and his trainer, the neat progress that the horse made with each coming up race was significant and worth noting. This all portrayed strength work, training regime and that everything went as planned.
The icing on the cake is that he was a five time Group 1 winner!!! Other than this he had three outstanding wins at Royal Ascot and quite a long list of successes.
Canford Cliff's very first race was on 15th May, 2009, it was a sort of sprint try out for Hannon to judge how the colt performed over a short and fast race. The debut was six furlongs which produced a seven length victory. The upcoming star enjoyed
his ecstatic moment thoroughly and became popular almost instantly.
His last race on the tracks was at the Glorious Goodwood, where a lot of records and expectations were meant to be set or broken regarding the Group 1 race. All the horses in this particular race were exposed to lucrative opportunities, especially Frankel
who actually ended up winning the race, setting a record and the event marked an end to Canford Cliff’s career, which really can be considered as a mixture of making and at the same time breaking of records.
Canford Cliff’s rider, Richard Hughes has been reported to have said that Canford looked better than ever. He thought that Canford was a little bit like Sea the Stars-he would just do what he had to.
However, as unfortunate as it is, Canford Cliffs went through an injury, a scan revealed incipient damage to his left-fore ankle which was severe to an extent that on veterinary advised against any further racing at all. He suffered the injury while finishing
a five length second to Frankel in the QIPCO Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.
When Richard was paying tribute to the legend, he went on saying that it was a shame and heartbreaking but he did not want to see him end up with a bad injury.
He has now been retired to the Coolmore Stud. Even the nation has expressed deep sorrow upon the loss of such an exceptional winner but then legends are only born once, the rest that follow are only replicas.
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