Altior ‘has the life of Riley’ in retirement with Mick Fitzgerald

The great remains the pride of Lambourn as he continues to enjoy his retirement with Mick Fitzgerald.

The gelding, who was trained by Nicky Henderson and is now 14, was an exceptional racehorse who claimed a remarkable 19 successive triumphs during a winning streak that began with his hurdling debut in 2015.

That campaign was capped by victory in the Supreme at Cheltenham, the first of four Festival successes, as he would go on to land the Arkle and then two renewals of the Queen Mother Champion Chase in the following seasons.

In 26 starts, he was the winner 21 times, including 10 Grade Ones, placing on four further occasions and earning owner Patricia Pugh over £1.3million in prize-money.

He finished his racing career sound and well in 2021 and has gone on to spend his retirement with former Seven Barrows stable jockey Fitzgerald and his wife Chloe, who like Henderson are based in Lambourn.

Though retirement is certainly suiting him now, he had a close brush with death in January 2023, when a serious bout of colic saw him taken to the equine hospital to undergo a critical four-hour operation.

Thankfully, and perhaps against the odds, he survived, and after recovering he has begun to thrive again at the Fitzgeralds’ yard – where he rightly rules the roost.

“He has the life of Riley around here,” said Mick Fitzgerald, aptly speaking at the launch of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Programme at Ascot.

“I think all the other horses are jealous of him because his stable door gets opened and he wanders around the yard like a big dog and goes and steals everyone else’s hay.

“We’ve got two other horses who are turned out at the moment and we don’t want them eating too much grass, so they’re in these sort of cages alongside each other.

“Altior goes up to the two cages and taunts them both, then he disappears off and stuffs himself with their hay.”

Altior was naturally a familiar face around Lambourn during his career and remains so, with his joie de vivre very much still intact when he hacks around the village.

“He’s fantastic, we’re very lucky to have him and he’s such a special horse,” continued Fitzgerald.

“My wife rides him four or five times a week, the people in Lambourn know him and they know to give him a bit of room now, because he can be quite the hooligan when he wants to be!

“But he’s a gentle giant, you forget how big he is, he’s about 17 hands. He’s a big, strong boy and he’s a gentle giant too, and very intelligent. He always makes me smile when I walk past his box.”

Altior’s career was defined by his immense talent, but he required great resilience to come out on the other side of his colic scare – not to mention the unwavering dedication of his owner.

“Pat Pugh is always asking after him and comes down to see him regularly,” said Fitzgerald.

“He is amazing after everything he went through, they removed 22 feet of his gut. Nine out of 10 horses don’t survive that.

“Pat just said ‘we just want him to be OK. Do whatever you have to do’. It was really sad, as we thought he wasn’t going to survive, we really thought he was going to die but it was when he moved to Donnington that we started to have some hope – we all knew that we owed it to him.

“He was an extraordinary horse, you’d have to be to win 19 in a row – and you’d have to be to survive what he did.”