Roaring Lion named as Cartier Horse Of The Year

Roaring Lion and his connections after another superb success on QIPCO British Champions Day. Picture: Racingfotos.com 

Roaring Lion was on Tuesday night named as the 2018 Cartier Horse Of The Year at a glittering ceremony held at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

The John Gosden-trained colt won four successive Group 1 races in the summer and was one of the undoubted stars of the QIPCO British Champions Series – winning the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown Park, the Juddmonte International at York and the -sponsored Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Champions Day.

He also won the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes, Dante Stakes and was a close third behind Masar in the Investec Derby.

Enable, Stradivarius and Cracksman – all stablemates of the winner – were also nominated, along with the Jessica Harrington-trained Alpha Centauri.

Between them, the five have 17 Champions Series wins on their decorated CVs.

Owned by Qatar Racing Limited, Roaring Lion becomes the fourth Cartier Horse Of The Year in the past five years to be trained by Gosden, following on from Kingman (2014), Golden Horn (2015) and Enable (2017).

Enable, the Horse Of The Year in 2017, took the prize for Older Horse in 2018. She became only the eighth horse to win the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe twice last month and created more history as the first horse to follow up with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs.

Roaring Lion also gained the Three-Year-Old Colt Award, while Stradivarius took the Stayer Award.

Owned and bred by Bjorn Nielsen, the four-year-old Sea The Stars colt went through the year unbeaten. He became only the second horse, after Frankel, to win five Champions Series in one season.

A record-equalling fifth equine win on the night for Gosden came courtesy of Too Darn Hot, who bagged the Two-Year-Old Colt Award. Expect to hear more about him in the 2019 Champions Series.

Lord Lloyd-Webber’s homebred son of Dubawi is unbeaten in four outings, ending the campaign with a decisive success in Britain’s premier juvenile contest, the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October

The brilliant Alpha Centauri  won the Three-Year-Old Filly Award, while Mabs Cross was named top Sprinter