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Raz De Maree maintains special bond with Murphy in retirement

By Racing TV

Last Updated: Mon 21 Apr 2025

Raz De Maree’s toughness and tenacity prevails in his 20th year as he remains the treasured apple of former groom Jenny Murphy’s eye.

The chestnut became part of the furniture at Gavin Cromwell’s Navan yard, spending his teenage years there after several seasons at the stables of Dessie and later Sandra Hughes.

His forte was staying handicap chases and his CV includes two wins in the Cork Grand National, a victory in the Munster National, a second-placed run in the Midlands Grand National and both a second and a first in the Welsh Grand National.

He also made it round twice in the Grand National itself, placing eighth in 2014 and 10th in 2018, but it was his Chepstow triumph that remains an unforgettable memory for his groom and now owner Murphy.

“I worked for Gavin for a very long time as head racing girl and Raz was there, he’d have been the oldest horse on the yard for a good while and I like taking the older horses under my wing,” she said.

Congratulations to @james_bowen_ on winning January's Ride Of The Month for this brilliant effort aboard Raz De Maree to become the youngest jockey to win the Welsh Grand National… pic.twitter.com/c5wOOk5GQu
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) February 20, 2018

“I’m a long time in racing and I’ve led up some good winners, but that was the best day’s racing of my life.

“People say Cheltenham this, Aintree that, but I’ve led up winners there and it wouldn’t even touch it.”

Such was Murphy’s attachment to the gelding that she was the obvious person to care for him in his retirement, but the arrangement with his owner fell through and it took her four years to be reunited with Raz De Maree.

“He did another season and then the owner said I could have him, but it was a complicated situation and in the end it took me four years to find him,” she said.

#OnThisDay in 2018, Raz De Maree became the oldest-ever winner of a Welsh National! 🏆
One for our man @gavincromwell1, with a certain James Bowen claiming five. pic.twitter.com/hwk6wj6J0W
— William Hill Racing (@WillHillRacing) January 6, 2025

“I started the usual ‘racehorse to riding horse’ route with him, he was so easy to retrain. We call him a pretty little pony because he’s only 15.1 (hands high).

“The first year we went to Dublin (Horse Show) and I’d told him ‘it took me four years to find you, we’re going to do everything we were meant to do together’.

“We took home no rosettes but I might as well have won the class with the way I felt. We’ve also taken him over to Chepstow to parade and that was lovely. It was him and Native River, the two rivals, and I have to say the Welsh crowd really recognised them and loved seeing them.”

Now 20 years old and still going strong, Raz De Maree has another season of showing ahead of him as he continues to be worth every moment of Murphy’s wait to resume the priceless, life-affirming bond with her horse of a lifetime.

Raz De Maree and Jenny Murphy at the Grand National (Jenny Murphy)

“He’s 20 now, I won’t be riding him this year as I’m due for an operation but the daughter of a friend, who is 16, is going to take the ride,” she said.

“She’s going to crack on and do Dublin, and he’s parading at Fairyhouse on Easter Monday at the Irish Grand National meeting.

“I love him. You know that once-in-a-lifetime horse? He’s that for me. There’s one or two that catch your heart over the years but with this lad…I can’t explain it.

“There was a time at Gavin’s when I wasn’t too well and I had a picture of Raz next to my hospital bed and I’d look at it and say ‘right, buddy, I’m going to get well so we can go to Chepstow again’.

“He was the reason I got out of bed some mornings, to be honest he is probably the reason I’m still here. It’s not just that he’s my favourite horse, it goes a lot deeper than that.”

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