As the 2024 flat campaign reaches the final furlong, last week brought the news that a horse who has entertained racegoers for the past six years will head off into a well-earned retirement.
Making his debut in 2018, the John Gosden-trained Lord North took in the sights of Britain, Ireland, Dubai, and the USA, rocketing through the handicap ranks to become a genuine Group 1 superstar – winning at least once every year between 2018 and 2023. However, following a fruitless 2024 and approaching his ninth birthday, the time has come for Lord North to put his feet up. Here, we look back at the career highs of this brilliant son of Dubawi.
Handicap Hero and Royal Success
Winning on debut in a 2018 Novice event at Redcar, Lord North added an 11-length success in a 2019 Class 5 contest at Newcastle before being pitched into the Listed Heron Stakes at Sandown. Running way below expectations that day and continuing to be easily distracted, the colt soon became a gelding.
The gelding procedure regularly improves runners to a greater or lesser degree. In the case of Lord North, it provided the key to unlocking his immense potential. Returning as a more focused individual in September of 2019, a three-year-old Lord North first hit the headlines when landing a significant gamble in the usually competitive Cambridgeshire Handicap – Frankie Dettori almost motionless in the saddle as his mount cruised home up the near rail.
That Newmarket effort was a fine illustration of the phrase “a Group horse in a handicap”, but Lord North didn’t prove it immediately – tasting defeat in a heavy ground edition of the Balmoral Handicap next time before ending his 2019 campaign with an impressive success in the Listed James Seymour Stakes.
Fast forward to 2020, and the rising star returned with a hard-fought victory in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes before getting his big chance in the Group 1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. Taking on Juddonte International champ Japan, dual Group 1 winner Barney Roy, and Adeybb, who had struck twice on the international stage, Lord North had his work cut out on paper, but won with ease to well and truly announce himself on the big stage.
Delight in Dubai
That Prince Of Wales’s Stakes triumph would be the only British Group 1 win of Lord North’s career, but three more would follow on the international stage – all in the Dubai Turf on Dubai World Cup night out in Meydan.
Making his first trip to Meydan in 2021, Lord North made light of breaking a blood vessel during the contest to move serenely clear for a 3l victory. Twelve months on, he was made to work significantly harder when overcoming a wide trip to storm home and force a dead heat with the Japanese runner Panthalassa. Only a share of the spoils, but still enough to confirm Lord North as the first dual winner of this prestigious Group 1 contest.
In 2023, Lord North claimed the Dubai Turf crown as his own once more, when coming with a relentless run to land the prize for a sensational third time.
Sixth on All-Time Money List
Largely thanks to those Meydan heroics, Lord North ends his career having accumulated a whopping £6,421,514 in prize money. That sum places him sixth on the all-time list of the leading British/Irish earners, behind only Thunder Snow, Mishriff, Enable, Highland Reel, and Rebel’s Romance.
Trainer Pays Tribute
For his owner, His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed, trainer John Gosden, and Frankie Dettori, who partnered Lord North to all three Dubai Turf triumphs, this talented bay was the horse of dreams and a character who will be a big miss at his yard. John Gosden stating in the wake of the announcement that, “He’s been a pleasure to train over the years and he’s a horse who has always had a lot of character. He’s provided his groom and rider Aldir Centuriao, as well as head man PJ O’Gorman, with a lot of pleasure over the years, and they will be sad to see him go, as will all of us at Clarehaven Stables.” We doubt we will ever see another emulate his amazing Dubai Turf treble and we wish him well in retirement.
