Make A Stand (21 March 1991 – 22 November 2019) was a British

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

racehorse. In a career which lasted from 1993 to 2000, he ran thirty times, both on the flat and over hurdles, and won twelve races. His greatest success came in the 1996–1997

National Hunt In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: ...

season when he won nine races, including the 1997 Champion Hurdle.

Background

Make A Stand, a chestnut with a broad white blaze, was bred by R M West in 1991. His sire was the

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

runner-up Master Willie. Originally sent into training with Henry Candy in Oxfordshire, his best performances came after he was bought out of a claimer in 1995 and joined the stable of

Martin Pipe Martin Charles Pipe (born 29 May 1945), is an English former racehorse trainer credited with professionalising the British racehorse training industry, and as of 2021 the most successful trainer in British jump racing. The son of a West-Coun ...

Racing career

1993-1995: Flat racing

Making his debut in 1993, Make A Stand raced on the flat for three seasons. His only wins in twelve starts came in a maiden race at Newmarket in 1993 and a low-grade claiming event at Leicester two years later. Bought for £8,000 he was transferred to the Nicholashayne stable of

in September 1995.

1995/6 National Hunt season

His career as a jumper began with a remote ninth in a Novices' Hurdle at Exeter in October, although the fact that he was sent off 15/8 second favourite suggested than he had shown some potential. He was not seen on the course again for almost six months.

1996/7 National Hunt season

Beginning in May 1996, Make A Stand put together a sequence which saw him racing fifteen times in ten months, winning ten races and improving by fifty pounds on the way to the Championship. He took the lead from the start and generally stayed there. He began with a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

of wins in the space of twenty-four days, by an aggregate margin of thirty-six

lengths Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Intern ...

. Because the wins took place after 1 May, his

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

status for the following season was not affected. Returning to the flat in the summer of 1996, he recorded a win and two places from four starts. When the jumps season began in earnest in autumn, Make A Stand's career resumed where it had left off in May, with the gelding carrying top weight to an easy victory in a Stratford handicap, but he was well-beaten in his next two starts. Next time out, he led all the way to beat a high-quality field of experienced hurdlers in the William Hill Handicap Hurdle at

Sandown Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom with the resort of Shanklin to the south and the settlement of Lake in between. Together with Shanklin, Sandown forms a built-up area of ...

. Two weeks later, he won the Grade II Kennel Gate Novices' Hurdle at Ascot by five lengths and in January, he led from the start to win unchallenged in the

Lanzarote Hurdle The Lanzarote Hurdle is a National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Kempton Park over a distance of about 2 miles and 5 furlongs (4,225 metr ...

. A large rise in the weights made no difference as he then produced his best performance yet under 159 pounds in the Tote Gold Trophy. His run was described as an "astonishing display" as he "obliterated" the other runners to win by nine lengths. Pipe described him after the race as "a very good, tough horse, a real athlete". Tony Stafford, writing in the ''Sunday Telegraph'' called it "the most remarkable handicap performance in any hurdle race of my experience". At Cheltenham, he was sent off at 7-1 for the Champion Hurdle, against a field that brought together the best hurdlers in Britain and Ireland. Adopting his usual front-running tactics, he came home a five-length winner from Theatreworld. Alastair Down, writing in the ''Sporting Life'', described the performance as "a remorseless display of speed and precision hurdling", while Theatreworld's jockey,

Norman Williamson Norman Williamson (born 16 January 1969) is a retired professional jockey in the Irish National Hunt. He was top jockey at the Cheltenham Festival in 1995 with 4 wins. These wins includes the Champion Hurdle on Alderbrook and the Cheltenham Gold ...

said of the winner, "He is a true champion - he just annihilates you with his speed".

Later career

It seemed likely that Make A Stand was at the beginning of a long career as a top hurdler: in fact, he never won again. Three weeks later, he attempted to make all the running in the

Aintree Hurdle The Aintree Hurdle is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Aintree over a distance of about 2 miles and 4 furlongs (), ...

but tired into third in the straight and finished lame. Injury problems then interrupted his career, and he was not seen on the racecourse for almost three years. On his next and final start, he took the early lead in the 2000 Champion Hurdle but soon tired and finished tailed-off behind

Istabraq Istabraq (born 23 May 1992) is a retired Irish Thoroughbred racehorse who was most famous for his hurdling. He won the Champion Hurdle on three occasions. He was trained by Aidan O'Brien and owned by John Patrick McManus. Jockey Charlie Swan ...

. His retirement was finally announced in February 2001. Pipe said, "He looks wonderful...he just seems to have lost his enthusiasm".

Retirement

After his retirement Make A Stand was retrained by the charity Retraining of Racehorses and became a hunter. He took part in a parade of former champions at the 2010

Cheltenham Festival The Cheltenham Festival is a horse racing-based meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar in the United Kingdom, with race prize money second only to the Grand National. The four-day festival takes place annually in March at Cheltenham Ra ...

. His death at the age of 28 was announced on 22 November 2019.

Pedigree

References

{{Champion Hurdle winners 1991 racehorse births Racehorses bred in the United Kingdom Racehorses trained in the United Kingdom Cheltenham Festival winners Champion Hurdle winners Thoroughbred family 6-e 2019 racehorse deaths