Spycatcher and Me An Incredible FIve+ Year Journey

by Paul Brookes

It all began in the first Covid lockdown in May 2020 when faced with what looked like being a long spell of enforced loneliness (newly split from my partner and our dog had just died) I decided I needed something to look forward to and with having an interest in horse racing since I was six, I decided that buying into a racehorse was a good idea.  The problem was who to buy with as there were so many options. Being a cautious accountant, it was a dilemma as my instinct is not to trust anyone especially with my money! Having no idea what I was doing, I looked around at lots of various options and then I found Highclere and my simple logic was that the Queen’s godson would surely run a credible and trustworthy organisation (plus of course the obvious successes with horses such as Harbinger). How right I was and what a good choice I made.

So having chosen Highclere and it being a long time off the yearling sales I needed to find a breeze-up horse.  The first one I was sent details of was Digital and I spent so long researching his pedigree that he’d been fully sold before I could decide. I vowed that would not happen the next time and along came Spycatcher. The pedigree was not overly fashionable being out of Vadamos (by Monsun) and Damask a poor maiden (by Red Clubs) and his cost of £90,000 was average for the time but he breezed well and Harry’s sales pitch was very impressive.  The key though for me was he would be trained in the North of England just two hours away from where I lived (at Karl Burke’s yard).  I responded within the hour to ask to buy and I was in. - Interesting fact Vadamos is now a National Hunt stallion at Coolmore!

Being a breeze up he was soon ready to run and his first race was at Redcar in a Class 5 novice race on 27 July 2020.  Covid restrictions were in force but I was the only owner wanting to attend and met up with Jason Fildes on course.  It was not an auspicious start. Spy tripped over his own feet coming out of the stalls and Ben Curtis did well to stay aboard. Spy lost many lengths and in finishing 4th of 17 he ran a race full of promise (the Racing Post said “did well in the circumstances”).  I was very encouraged and I knew then I was hooked as I found the whole experience exhilarating even with all the covid restrictions.

Spy’s second entry seemed extremely ambitious being in the Gp3 Acomb Stakes at York. His seven opponents had all won races and the Godolphin horse Cloudbridge was even money favourite. Spy was unfancied at 20/1. When he led with less than half a furlong to run, I think I stopped breathing only to be pipped right on the line by a Mark Johnson horse (Gear Up) under a typical power-packed Sylvestre de Sousa ride. We were not disappointed though as it was an amazing run when we could not have expected it. I was now really hooked and believing I had made a very wise purchase. At that point Spy was the highest rated maiden in the country (105) but two relatively poor runs followed to end his short two-year-old campaign.

The first run of Spy’s three-year-old campaign was in April 2021 and a simple enough task on paper of a Class 5 novice at Pontefract for which Spy was 4/9 favourite. I was incredibly nervous for this though as anything less than a convincing win would really end the dreams of Spy being a decent horse. It was a bitterly cold day and again covid restrictions were in force so all doors and windows were open in the facilities and only two owners per horse allowed on course. The race was run in a blizzard and I have a lovely picture of Spy crossing the line in front with snowflakes all round him. Spy then ran in Gp3 and Listed races finishing placed and then to my absolute joy ran in the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot (what a dream for your first horse to run at Royal Ascot) finishing a very decent 8th of 18 (at 66/1). A strangely poor run followed on fast ground after which came the first sign of Spy’s foot problem (a quarter crack).  He was rested for nearly four months and returned to win a conditions race at Newmarket and then embarked on his only all-weather campaign including a last to first Listed race win in exhilarating fashion at Lingfield in the Kachy Stakes with the commentators saying he was the new star on the sprinting block! Spy should then have won the All-Weather Sprint Final at Newcastle but had to switch right round the entire field to lose in a three-way photo.

All was going well with a second in the Duke Of York Gp2 at York in May 2022 but then two poor runs (albeit in Gp3 races) led to the discovery of another quarter crack and then after that serious bone-bruising which was diagnosed by the vet as career ending and Spy was loaded up to go to his retirement.  The news was devastating, but I was consoled by the fact that I had been so lucky to have had a horse that had won races and taken me to places I could only have dreamed of.

Then a further message came that Harry had decided to seek a second opinion from Duncan Moir who said with treatment and a long rest his career might be saved.  So after a 301 day break at the National Stud in Newmarket and ironically whilst there having been gelded (to reduce his weight to aid recovery and future well-being) Spy returned on very testing ground at Thirsk and duly scooted up by nearly four lengths. The dream was back on!

After a few more good runs including a first Gp3 success at Deauville, Spy then ran in the Gp1 Prix Maurice de Gheest again at Deauville. After being unable to get to Deauville for his last run I wasn’t missing this one and luckily Harry chartered a private plane in which he, Jill Buch and I flew over to Deauville for the race (if you had told 10-year-old me that would happen, I would never have believed it). Spy looked all over the winner a furlong out as he went clear under Maxime Guyon but he had gone a little too soon and King Gold came from behind and in a head bob of a finish we were beaten by a short head having been ahead a stride before the line and after it.  Again devastated but proud. Subsequently both Karl and Clifford Lee (our normal jockey) have said Spy would likely have won if Cliff had ridden him (he did have the choice as well).

Since then (August 2023) Spy has run a further 19 times and all in Listed or Group races winning four (two Gp3s and two Listed) and placing five times.  His “poor” runs have virtually all come on unsuitable fast ground when we’ve taken a chance that we might “getaway with it” because he was ready to run and there were no other opportunities (and then regretted it).

At the end of the 2024 season it was decided to go again for 2025 but I think we all probably felt that 2025 would be Spy’s last season given he was now seven.  It started really well with a listed win at Doncaster in March but then we had a really dry year and Spy did not get his favoured soft/heavy ground until a Gp3 at Chantilly in late October.  I travelled over to Chantilly feeling that with the conditions being very soft this was (again!) make or break for Spy to show he still had the ability and enthusiasm for racing at the highest level and to hopefully show that he could continue for another season with a good run.  We went to see Spy in the stables before the race and he seemed very much up for it (his devoted groom, Michaela, telling me he was bucking and squealing like a two-year-old!).  The race was a procession, Spy slaughtered them winning as he liked by 4.5 lengths. Cue great celebrations with Peter and Stephanie Leach and Alex before beginning the long trek home. Spy was then to be off on his holidays and a well-deserved rest. But then less than a week later a message to say Karl had decided that Spy had come out of Chantilly so well and with Doncaster being desperately heavy ground Spy would run in the Wentworth (Listed) Stakes the following weekend.  Plans hastily changed and off to Donny to see Spy again rout a quality field (including a Haydock Sprint Cup winner and a Champion Sprint winner) by nearly three lengths under a 5lb penalty!  As Karl said after the race “he‘s a Gp1 horse on that ground”.

Emily tells me that Spy has now become the winning most horse in Highclere’s history with nine wins which given the number of horses Highclere have had is some achievement.

It has been great to share so many memories with my fellow owners and in particular with Peter and Steph Leach who have been to quite a lot of Spy’s runs and this season been with me for the recent Chantilly and Doncaster successes (as well as the narrow Gp1 defeat in France in 2023) and with Paul and Jimmy Scope, Liz and Mike Bell, Alan and Sarah Sherwood and Ian and Ann Dimmer amongst others.

I can honestly say that the email I sent in June 2020 to ask to buy into Spycatcher was a life changing decision and the best I ever made. It’s been a roller coaster but with more and better ups than downs and still hopefully at least one more season to come!

My thanks to all at Highclere for all they have done over the last 5.5 years but especially to Harry as his decision to seek a second veterinary opinion and send Spy to Duncan Moir when he was literally on his way to retirement saved his career and how good has it been since.

So what for 2026? Hopefully Spy stays sound and it rains a lot more and in the right places at the right time (I am one of the few people seemingly always praying for rain).  Wouldn’t it be great if at the grand old age of eight Spy manages to get his head in front in a Gp1. Whatever happens though my aim will be to be there each time, as he deserves my support at the very least.

Yours, a very lucky and grateful part-owner,

Paul Brookes

Spycatcher in numbers:

9 wins in 40 runs
Prize money won £497,000
Run in 30 stakes races (including the last 19 runs all being stakes races)
3 Gp3 wins, 3 Listed wins
Gp1 2nd and 3rd (beaten by inches in the Gp1 Maurice de Gheest 2023)
7 other stakes races placed
Races I have attended 37 of 40 (the 3 missed all in Deauville!)