- br h In the Wings – Glorious Song (Halo)
- Races: 22, Wins: 9
- Foaled: 25 Feb 1992
- Breeder: Sheikh Mohammed
- Trainer: Michael Stoute
- Owner: Sheikh Mohammed
Singspiel Irish-bred Thoroughbred Racehorse and Sire
The career of Singspiel ranks alongside the greats of the turf. The son of In The Wings was foaled in 1992 from the mare Glorious Song. His first run as a two year old was at Leicester where he was fifth in a maiden. He scored in his second racecourse visit at Chester in September 1994.
Singspiel won two of his eight starts as a three year old, including a listed race over a mile and a half at Doncaster, but was followed with creditable seconds in five of his next six starts before ending the season with a win.
It was Singspiel’s third season that elevated him to stardom. The campaign began with victory in the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes at Sandown, whilst in September he collected the Select Stakes at Goodwood. Later in the month, he won the Canadian International at Woodbine.
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Singspiel’s international reputation was growing as he plundered races across the continents, and his 1997 season started in the same manner. On Thursday 3rd April 1997, the globe-trotting Singspiel, ridden by Jerry Bailey, captured the $4 million Dubai World Cup. This was the son of In The Wings’s finest hour, defeating leading American hopes Siphon and Sandpit, on their favoured surface.
Back in England, Singspiel won the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom.
Singspiel’s final race was the Juddmonte International at York, where he turned over odds on favourite Bosra Sham, Irish Derby winner Desert King and the Epsom Derby Winner Benny The Dip. Singspiel and his jockey Frankie Dettori were greeted by Sheikh Mohammed and a cheering Yorkshire crowd. Dettori celebrated the victory with his flying dismount before pronouncing Singspiel the “undisputed heavyweight champion on the world”.
Singspiel’s last target was to be the Breeders Cup Turf, before an honourable retirement. Singspiel headed the market and the preparation was going well until tragedy struck. In an early morning canter in the fog only days before the race, Singspiel’s magical acreer was cruelly ended. As Singspiel cantered down the back straight, out of sight of his trainer due to the fog, work rider Kevin Bradshaw felt him bobble. He was immediately dismounted and hobbled back to the stables. Singspiel had fractured a leg and was scratched from the race and a new battle began, a battle to save the life of the globe trotting hero.
The next few days were crucial, as the team fought to save Singspiel. Fortunately, with the best veterinary care, the fracture was repaired and after a stay in America, he headed back to Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket, England to stand as a stallion.
Singspiel was retired as the leading European trained earner, amassing £3,671,039 in prize money in his remarkable career.
SINGSPIEL RETURNS HOME
THE wounded hero from Hollywood is back in Britain. Singspiel’s emotional homecoming to Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket came in a flurry of snow yesterday, eight days before Christmas.
The conqueror of four continents finally finished a year-long expedition around the world. During that time he entered the record books as the leading European-trained earner of all time, with his Japan and Dubai World Cup wins topped up by the Coronation Cup and Juddmonte International in Britain. He amassed a staggering £3,671,039.
Sheikh Mohammed’s five-year-old, who was literally returning home, having been bred at Dalham Hall, shrugged off the dramatic change of climate and rigours of a day-long journey from sunny Los Angeles to freezing Newmarket. The difference was not only 70 degrees but also the air of optimism compared to the depressing days in California after the trackwork fracture 48 hours before his scheduled Breeders’ Cup Turf swansong on November 8.
The wounded warrior, triumphant in Britain, Canada, Japan and Dubai, returned for his matrimonials with a confetti of snowflakes greeting him at Dalham Hall along with Coral Pritchard-Gordon, his trainer Michael Stoute’s partner, plus Stuart Messenger and Mick Blair, who had made the ill-fated trip alongside him to the Breeders’ Cup.
Beneath a splendid framed chart of his lineage and a security camera, the son of In The Wings has Halling as his next-door neighbour, with Polish Precedent, Machiavellian, Shareef Dancer, Mark Of Esteem, Lion Cavern and Wolfhound close by. While they stood bare-backed, Singspiel had a third rug added to the two padded coats in which he arrived, but he was hardly huddling in a corner as his lad Mick Blair took a long video-picture of his old companion.
After the protective straps and bandages had been removed, it was clear Singspiel had “filled out a little” according to his former custodians. He bore just a healing six-inch scar on the outside of his off-fore, the legacy of the work by America’s finest vets in the aftermath of his fractured cannon-bone.
There were broad smiles as Singspiel stepped briskly down the ramp of the horsebox, in stark contrast to his efforts at Hollywood when the horse ambulance arrived to take him for treatment. Mrs Pritchard-Gordon recalled: “He was such a good, sensible patient, and going into the horse ambulance to go for the operation he wasn’t going to be fussed or hurried.”
Gilbert Farrell joined Singspiel’s fan club after he was drafted in from the Sheikh’s Kildangan Stud to nursemaid him at Hollywood. He said: “It was just him and me for five weeks and we’ve done some talking! He’s been hand-grassed morning and evening for an hour. He’s a perfect gentleman. Lorries and cars sped past on the freeway near him when he was picking grass but he never noticed.”
Remembering the trauma of watching the horse’s surgery, Blair said: “They were very quick“the operation only took an hour“and he was back in his box three hours after the operation, eating hay. I was very sad to leave him but the guv’nor has kept me informed.”
Justin Wadham, managing director of Darley Stud Management, summed up the mood when he said: “It’s great to have him here.”
