10 of the best for owner JP McManus

PA Sport Reporters
January 30, 2022 3:20 pm

Three-times Champion Hurdle hero Istabraq leads the way.

A plethora of top-class runners have sported the famous green and gold hoops of JP McManus in his 4,000 winners. The list of stars is long – and very much open to debate about who ranks where – but we have narrowed down our top 10 McManus-owned horses…

Istabraq

Bred to be a Derby winner but eventually a hurdling sensation, Istabraq won 14 Grade Ones for McManus, including three Champion Hurdles. He bossed the Cheltenham contest between 1998 and 2000 and would probably have been a four-time winner had the foot and mouth disease outbreak not intervened in 2001.

Baracouda

A dual Stayers’ Hurdle winner, Baracouda also took four Long Walk Hurdles at Ascot during a 34-race career that yielded 18 victories overall. The apple of trainer Francois Doumen’s eye, Baracouda was a key player in what was something of a golden age in the three-mile division.

Like-A-Butterfly

A Grade One winner on the level, over hurdles and fences, Like-A-Butterfly retired in 2005 having won 12 of her 17 races. She enjoyed a huge slice of luck when left in front in the 2002 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, but her Irish Champion Hurdle victory the following year, added to Power Gold Cup success in 2005, showed there was plenty of class to go with her good fortune.

First Gold

A King George winner for the Marquesa De Moratalla in 2000, he was subsequently purchased by McManus with the help of the late, great Sir Peter O’Sullevan and while two further Kempton runs plus a couple of Cheltenham Gold Cup runs yielded little joy, First Gold did win a Punchestown Gold Cup and a couple of Martell Cups at Aintree to boot.

Don’t Push It

A famous first for AP McCoy, Don’t Push It was also an inaugural Grand National winner for McManus. Successful over the Mildmay course at the previous year’s National fixture, Don’t Push It was sent off the 10-1 joint-favourite to end his rider’s Aintree hoodoo and did so in style.

Binocular

Another Champion Hurdle hero in the green and gold, Binocular also counted two Christmas Hurdles and the 4YO Anniversary Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree in his Grade One haul. In four Champion Hurdle outings, he finished no worse than fifth.

Synchronised

McManus’ only Cheltenham Gold Cup winner to date, Synchronised graduated from Midlands and Welsh National victories to excel in the blue riband. Winner of the Lexus Chase on his prep run, Synchronised was not totally unfancied in the Cotswolds and duly galloped to glory. McManus was left “devastated” the following month though, when Synchronised sustained fatal injuries after falling in the Grand National.

Spot Thedifference

A Cheltenham cross-country legend, Spot Thedifference may not have had the highest rating, but he was a whizz around the unique obstacles. Seven times a winner at Prestbury Park, including one renewal of the Glenfarclas Chase at the Festival, Enda Bolger’s charge also bagged two La Touche Cups at the Punchestown Festival.

Buveur D’Air

The decision to abandon a chase career with Nicky Henderson’s charge reaped rich rewards. Buveur D’Air – a Grade One winner as a novice hurdler – started the 2016/17 season over fences, but then the Champion Hurdle field started to cut up a bit and the rest is history. Triumphant at Cheltenham in 2017 and 2018, his hat-trick bid got no further than the third hurdle in 2019, but McManus still won the prize with second string Espoir D’Allen.

Minella Times

Assured of a place in the record books by virtue of the fact he was ridden by Rachael Blackmore to become the first female jockey to lift the Grand National. Minella Times benefited from a peach of a ride to give McManus a second Aintree trophy.