Milton Bradley's veteran sprinter The Tatling signed off in style when winning the final, and 176th, start of his career at Wolverhampton on Monday.
Victorious swansong for popular veteran
Veteran sprinter The Tatling signed off in style when winning the final start of his career at Wolverhampton.
The evergreen 14 year old was sent off a 16-1 chance for the 176th and final race of an incredible career that saw him win 18 times, including victories in the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.
It appeared as though there was going to be no fairytale ending for Milton Bradley's remarkable campaigner with half a dozen horses still in front of him inside the final furlong.
Richard Kingscote, however, weaved his way through the rivals as the popular veteran showed his trademark turn of foot to win by a short-head and a short-head having been matched at a high of 300 on Betfair.
Wonderful Story
Bradley told
At The Races: "What a wonderful story to end up with a winner like that from such a bad draw, the horse is still a star in our eyes.
"He's one of those that you drop on by mistake and spend the rest of your life looking for another one half as good.
"He wasn't the easiest to train, we had to really get to know him.
"He wasn't the easiest to train, we had to really get to know him. We learnt how he liked to come through horses and use that turn of foot in the last furlong - that's how he won the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.
"He's been a marvellous servant to everyone involved with him."
It's not the first time that The Tatling has faced retirement as connections attempted to put him out to grass two years ago.
"We tried to retire him and he didn't want to know, he was so miserable." continued Bradley.
Seeing Life
"We're going to have to be very cautious now how we treat him as he won't want to be left without going out and seeing life.
"Nobody is more excited about the win than I am."
Winning owner Darren Hudson-Wood, who acquired the veteran earlier this year, told
At The Races: "I nearly cried a second ago.
"I didn't expect him to be in the first five, to be honest.
"That was incredible and probably justifiable for him to go out like that."
Kingscote added: "I thought it was going to be a hard-luck story but we got there in the end."
