York: The Tote Ebor Handicap 2005

York, the second leg of his famous Handicap-Treble (sorry, no photo´s from Newcastle). After Sergeant Cecil had successfully taken the Northumberland Plate (see chapter KING OF THE HANDICAP´s), he came to York and we came to see him.
(All photo´s: Paul Clark)

The Tote Ebor Europe's richest handicap now boasts record prize money of £190,000. Contested over one mile and threequarters, no horse was able to retain the crown in this famous race since Flint Jack achieved the feat 80 years ago. First held at York in 1843, the Ebor Handicap is the oldest race at the Festival and has been sponsored since 1976 by The Tote.

In the paradering

Alan Munro up, and ready to do battle

Done!! Sergeant Cecil and Alan Munro enlightend the Knavesmire, and are proudly presented in the winner´s enclosure after. Further down owner Terry Cooper can be seen with the quite impressive Ebor Trophy.

A dream return to races for jockey Alan Munro

17th of sugust 2005: totesport Ebor (Heritage Handicap) (Class 2) (3yo+)


1 Sergeant Cecil 18 B R Millman 6 8-12 Alan Munro 11/1
2 1 Carte Diamond (USA) 8 B Ellison 4 9-7 Jimmy Fortune 20/1
3 nk Grampian (GB) 2 J G Given 6 9-0 T Quinn 16/1
4 ¾ Balkan Knight 7 D R C Elsworth 5 8-12 John Egan 9/2F
5 2 Zeitgeist (IRE) 1 L M Cumani 4 9-0 v Kerrin McEvoy 10/1 98 86 105
6 hd Jagger 4 G A Butler 5 9-2 Darryll Holland 16/1
7 nk Sendintank 20 S C Williams 5 8-12 Martin Dwyer 12/1
8 2½ Odiham 5 H Morrison 4 8-8 Steve Drowne 25/1

Not a vintage Ebor, noticeably lacking in progressive three-year-olds, a band of horses which are always so dangerous in this historic event.
There was a good, even gallop to this renewal from the outset, with Jagger taking the field along. SEGEANT CECIL, a proven hold-up performer, was given a balls-of-steel ride by Alan Munro, who sat in the back three horses until beginning a gradual forward move once in line for home. His progress was relentless and the further the race went, the stronger he became, and it was only a matter of whether he got a clear run entering the last, which he duly did, to settle the issue towards the finish. A much-improved horse, who now goes into the history books as the first winner of both the Northumberland Plate andthe Ebor in the same year since 1911, he is a credit to connections.

The Independant, Aug. 18th

Racing: Munro marches on with Sergeant Cecil victory

A chestnut came roaring up the home straight in the hands of Alan Munro to win this track's most celebrated race yesterday. It was a circumstance to conjure a memory.

Much has happened to Munro between Generous's success in the 1991 Derby and victory for Sergeant Cecil in the Ebor over the Knavesmire yesterday. It is a tale of early brilliance soured by youthful giddiness, a wanderlust to recover past glories and a temporary retirement from racing altogether. But, at 38, Munro was back in his most favoured habitat yesterday, the winners' enclosure on a British racecourse, and it seemed, finally, that he had found his peace.

'It just keeps getting better this year,' the jockey said. 'It feels great here because this is home. I really fit in best here. I didn't appreciate that while I was away.'

Just a few weeks in 1991 established Alan Munro. Then just a few minutes tarnished him. Just before the Blue Riband, he was appointed as retained jockey to Fahd Salman, a posting which yielded instant great glory when Generous bolted home at Epsom. The lustre immediately dimmed however when Munro conducted a surly press conference which was a Titanic of a PR exercise. After that his every word and move was scrutinised. By the mid-1990s the American riding style and the telescopic carriage of the whip " the little revolutions of the time " were on their way. Munro was gone, out east to seek a second fortune.

Hong Kong and Japan were not unkind to him, but there came a time when the very sport which made Munro was also becoming destructive. By 2000 this rider was burned out, his passion for racing extinguished. He barely even saw a horse for the next four years as he turned to a different sort of combat. The Stevenage man immersed himself in the martial arts and became a black belt in karate. This sense of self-preservation was most keenly felt by Richard Quinn when the old adversaries clashed in the Newmarket weighing room recently.

Munro, as Quinn has discovered bruisingly, is back, with appetite, 38 winners, his former skill and a realisation that things could not be going much better. To his considerable joy, Munro has also found that, whether you are riding bicycles or horses, you never lose the essential knack.

'I was very apprehensive and unsure about the whole thing [at the beginning of the season],' he said. 'It could have gone either way because I've been away for a long time. Not just from England, but from the sport.

'I had a great career in Hong Kong and the east, but I just needed some time out. That's been beneficial for me and prolonged my career. I'm now looking to ride for another 10 years.'

There have been three highlights this season, two of them provided by Sergeant Cecil, also the victor in the Northumberland Plate. Munro would also have won another Derby, on Walk In The Park, if a horse called Motivator had never been invented.

Sergeant Cecil under-went a contorted journey both to and on the course. No British horse travelled farther to get to York than the gelding from Rod Millman's Paddocks yard in the Devon village of Kentisbeare.

Once in competition on the Knavesmire, the six-year-old had to wriggle his way through the steaming pack the Ebor routinely provides. 'I never got too far back, but he had to switch a couple of times,' Munro reported. 'He enjoyed that. And then I got that kick again. I had a smooth trip the whole way.'

Courtesy of the Racingpost:

So Alan, was it worth coming back?
Munro hits another peak as Sergeant marches in
Published: 18/08/2005 (Sport) David Carr reports

ALAN MUNRO has never lacked confidence, but he admitted his comeback had reached heights even he had never dreamed of after he had steered Sergeant Cecil to an historic double by winning the richest Flat handicap in Europe yesterday.
Munro, who announced his return to the sport's top level by landing the Northumberland Plate on Sergeant Cecil at Newcastle in June, was on board again as the six-year-old became the first horse in nearly a century to follow up in the north's other big staying handicap, the £200,000 Totesport Ebor.
Not a bad reaquaintance with the big time for a jockey who won the Derby on Generous in 1991 but walked away from British racing in the mid-1990s to go to the Far East - and who had given the sport up totally for more than four years before his return this spring.
Reflecting on his comeback, Munro said: "I guess I was pretty apprehensive about the whole thing - I was very unsure. It could have gone either way because I had been away from the sport for a long time, not just from England.
"It's beyond dreams to pick up a horse like that in my first year back. It just keeps getting better this year.
"Generous was a long time ago. He was a fantastic horse and I'll always be grateful to him, but racing is about today and it's good to be able to be on the scene now and winning these big races."
Munro admitted his debt to Sergeant Cecil's trainer Rod Millman, who was one of the first to call when the rider returned to Britain in the spring, summoning him to Cullompton in Devon.
That led to Munro's getting on a string of early-season two-year-old winners for the yard to put his name back on the map, and more than a third of his 38 victories in 2005 have been for the yard.
"I've known his agent Jonathan Ramsden for a while and I've seen Alan ride over the years and admired him," Millman said.
"When I heard he was coming back, I gave Jonathan a ring and asked him if he would like to come and ride out. He hadn't lost any of his ability and we were very pleased to put him on the two-year-olds early in the season. He has a lot of commitments, but we will use him whenever he is available."
Sergeant Cecil is no early-season two-year-old, but he raced keenly yesterday and needed anchoring in rear, having only two of the 20-runner field behind him on the home turn.
He made ground smoothly in the straight, picking up rivals one by one before squeezing through to lead inside the final furlong to complete a double last achieved by Pillo in 1911, and by only Victor Emmanuel (1882) and Underhand (1859) previously.
"He came out very fast and Alan had to get him settled in, and he got back a little bit," Millman said.
"It's always worrying watching from the stands, but once Alan put him through the middle of a couple he quickened and just kept going.
"This is probably our best win - the Ebor is a very famous race and I feel very proud. We'll probably go for Listed races now, or maybe the Doncaster Cup."
Runner-up Carte Diamond, who also came from behind, may now be aimed at the Melbourne Cup.
"He's had five months off, has come here in a competitive race and has missed the break, so this is fantastic," said trainer Brian Ellison. "He'll be entered in the Melbourne Cup, but his main target is the Tote Gold Trophy in February."
MELBOURNE CUP Coral: 8 Plastered, 10 Distinction, Makybe Diva, 12 Dizelle, 14 Vinnie Roe, Westerner, 20 Demerger, Vouvray, 25 Accumulate, Count Ricardo, Carte Diamond, Kitten's Joy, Grey's Inn, 33 bar.
Alastair Down, page 15
race result
Totesport Ebor
1 Sergeant Cecil ............11-1
2 Carte Diamond ..........20-1
3 Grampian ....................16-1
4 Balkan Knight..............9-2f
Trainer: Rod Millman
Jockey: Alan Munro
Owner: Terry Cooper
Breeder: D Hazzard
Groom: Sue Davey
Distances: 1l, nk, 3 4 l

Courtesy of the Racingpost:

York: Ebor winner is just about the definit ion of the Flat horse I would most like to own

Alastair Down on a day when jump-jockeys turned-Flat-trainers came into their own
Published: 18/08/2005 (Sport) Alastair Down

BESIDES having winners on the Knavesmire yesterday, Messrs Fahey, Ryan and Millman have one thing in common - they were all journeymen jump jockeys who have made themselves into very decent Flat trainers.
Colleague Tom O'Ryan, journeymanjockey-turned-award-winning journalist, is of the opinion that it comes from having spent so much time in the yard during their formative years and through their careers, and you can throw into the mix the ability to ride hard knocks and not be daunted by the idea of endless hard graft for the prospect of little reward.
It may be, as Dylan - Bob, not Mike - sang: "When you got nothin', you got nothin' to lose", but it's a fact that so many run-of-the-mill jumping lads make better Flat trainers than they were jockeys, as evidenced by the above and the likes of Clive Cox and the trainer of Ebor runner-up Brian Ellison.
This has been a major week for Kevin Ryan, in particular. There is all the difference in the world between knocking in a brace of handicap winners at the Ebor meeting and having a big two-year-old double with the battalions of Stoute, Bin Suroor, Hills and Hannon in your wake.
It's great to win an £80,000 Saturday handicap sponsored by the Gary Grimsditch Grouting Group, but it is soon forgotten. Yesterday, Ryan annexed a race with a historically resonant title in the Gimcrack.
A juvenile double at a meeting of this magnitude marks a big transition up the pecking order for Ryan, and come sales time it's the sort of achievement that sticks in the mind of well-heeled potential owners.
But for me, the star of day two was Sergeant Cecil. We are used to the occasional bang-in-form sprinter notching a Wokingham-Stewards' Cup double or, having taken the Goodwood event, adding the Ayr Gold Cup for good measure. But Sergeant Cecil plies his trade in altogether stormier waters.
The Northumberland Plate - proper name the Pitmen's Derby - and the Ebor are both relentless tests of courage and stamina, and to win one of them is achievement enough. On the night before this year's Newcastle race, I rang the esteemed Gerald Delamere and told him I thought Sergeant Cecil would win it. He did not put me off but assured me that the target all season had been the Ebor.
Thus doubt entered my tiny mind and, picking up Pricewise the next day, I saw Tom Segal had put the horse up at 20-1. "Paah," I thought. Segal?
Schmegal. Poor callow youth, what he know about the game? When he last tip winner? Does he not know, as wise, rotund guru with finger on pulse from Gloucestershire doth know, that Pitmen's Derby is not on Sergeant Cecil's agenda and that we are all going to have it off rotten on the Knavesmire?
How I winced as the lemmings went over the cliff for the 20-1. "Stop, you fools," I wanted to cry, "today is not the day, remember the Gadarene swine and the sticky end to which they came."
After Sergeant Cecil had hosed up at Newcastle and I had taken my freshly trashed television to the tip, I at least consoled myself with the fact that I knew one horse who could not possibly win the Ebor, as no horse had achieved the double for almost a hundred years - an event that coincided with Lester Piggott last buying a round.
Needless to say, Rod Millman, who has always been high on the list of those who do brilliantly with the limited firepower at his disposal, was unfazed and, under yet another canny ride from Lazarus Munro, Sergeant Cecil showed all his trademark stamina and resolution to send his trainer home a happy bunny on the 556-mile round trip from Cullompton.
Quite how many charabancs of champagne and lorryloads of lap-dancers Millman sent to the handicapper to persuade him to raise Sergeant Cecil by just 4lb for Newcastle we will never know. But the Ebor winner is just about the definition of the Flat horse I'd most like to own.
FINALLY, York prides itself on customer service and certainly pleased this patron yesterday. A couple of hours before the first I waddled up to the on-course tobacconist and asked for a packet of gaspers. "That'll be £6," said the young lady.
"No, no," I replied, "I do not wish to take out a mortgage, I just want 20 cigarettes, thank you."
Drawing herself up to her full height and lightening the moment with a swathe of tummy that was indeed no stranger to the gym, our heroine, with the disc stuck, replied: "That'll be £6."
Healthy readers may not be aware this is a price that would make your average black marketeer go white.
Fortunately, York's marketing manager James Brennan walked by soon afterwards and I informed him that I was touched that the spirit of Dick Turpin was still alive and well on the Knavesmire.
To my amazement, within half an hour, a nabob from caterers Craven Gilpin appeared at the TV trucks to inform me that the tobacconists had been duly chastised and all cigarettes were now £5.50. That's what I call customer service, and it is good to know that one need no longer go potless in order to get breathless.

Courtesy of the Racingpost:

Eyecatchers: Training performance of the week: Rod Millman Sergeant Cecil, Ebor

Published: 22/08/2005 (Sport) Mark Blackman

MUCH credit this week goes to Italian trainer Valfredo Valiani, who targeted the Juddmonte International with his progressive Electrocutionist and repeated his Group 1 strike with Super Tassa at the meeting in 2001.
However, the award this week goes to Rod Millman for the success of Sergeant Cecil in the staying handicap that gives the fixture its name.
It takes a good piece of training to win one major handicap in a season, let alone two, so for the Devon handler to bring the Northumberland Plate hero all the way back up to plunder another huge northern prize rates a serious exhibition of talent. It was a double last completed way back in 1911.
In Millman's favour last week was the fact that his six-year-old, whose best form verges on Listed class, was raised only 4lb for his Newcastle win on a mark of 96. That, though, was the highest mark he has ever raced off, and once again, it takes a fine bit of long-term training to bring even a slow-maturing horse to a new peak at that age.
Understandably, much of the attention after the Ebor centred on Alan Munro, whose return to the fray this year has brought a fascinating narrative to the campaign. At the start of the season, Munro suggested he'd need 100 rides to reach his peak - and there's no question his riding in a finish is right back to its best now.