Double Trigger Dies at 29

Double Trigger (Ire) (Ela-Mana-Mou {Ire}), one of the most popular stayers of the modern era, died in retirement at Clarendon Farm on Sunday at the age of 29.

During a long and illustrious racing career, Double Trigger won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 1995 but will perhaps be best remembered for his record-breaking three Goodwood Cup wins. He also won the Doncaster Cup on three occasions, including on his final racecourse start at the age of seven.

Bred by Dene Investments N V, and bought from Ballygallon Stud as a yearling for IR£7,200 by owner Ron Huggins, the chestnut with a broad blaze was sent into training with Mark Johnston. He won both his starts as a 2-year-old, smashing the track record at Redcar with his 10-length maiden win, followed by success in the Listed Zetland S. at Newmarket.

Placed in the St Leger the following year, Double Trigger went on to win the G3 Leger Italiano, but it was as a 4-year-old that he really established himself as one of this finest of his generation. His five group victories in 1995 included the Gold Cup, Doncaster Cup and Goodwood Cup, beating his year-younger full-brother Double Eclipse (Ire) by a neck in the latter. At five, he notched back-to-back wins in the G3 Sagaro S., G3 Henry II S., and the Doncaster Cup, as well as finishing second to Classic Cliche (Ire) in the Gold Cup, and he would go on to win the Goodwood Cup in each of the following two seasons to become the first treble winner of the race. Only Stradivarius (Ire) has won the Goodwood Cup three times subsequently.

Ron Huggins paid a glowing tribute to his “horse of a lifetime” on Monday. He said, “I remember vividly buying him with Mark Johnston at Goffs and being so proud to have got him. We wanted to buy a stayer by a Group 1 stallion who was slightly out of fashion and Ela-Mana-Mou fitted the bill. From the time he won his maiden at Redcar as a 2-year-old, breaking the track record and winning by 10 lengths, until his retirement at Doncaster five years later after winning his third Doncaster Cup, he was an absolute star.”

He continued, “He was a great character who was loved by the public and I will always remember after his third Goodwood Cup win the public flooded back to the winner's enclosure to cheer him home. It was more like Cheltenham than a Flat racecourse. There are so many memories. One of the funniest was Jason Weaver walking the course at Turin for the Italian St Leger in the pouring rain trying to protect himself with Deirdre Johnston's flimsy folding umbrella. It paid off as he won his first Group race.”

Jason Weaver, who rode Double Trigger in 10 of his 14 wins including the Gold Cup, recalled, “He was flashy-looking with his flaxen mane and white face, and in the very early days he used to be an absolute playboy in the mornings and never really worked very spectacularly. But he put in a really good piece of work one morning and we thought we might have something, then obviously he went to Redcar and absolutely bolted up. He was just a very good horse blessed with unimaginable amounts of reserve. The two and a half miles of the Gold Cup still wasn't far enough for him. People really take to the stayers, they are the horses that bind the Flat people together, and he was so popular.”

Huggins, who has been a passionate supporter of staying races in the subsequent years as both owner and breeder, added, “It felt really special to help re-establish staying races which are so popular with the public, but had been de-emphasised by the authorities with the quest for shorter-distance speed races around the world. Not that Trigger was slow—he broke two track records and in the 1997 Goodwood Cup his final furlong of 13.19 seconds was not only faster than Daggers Drawn in the same day's Richmond Stakes, but the fastest of the entire Goodwood fixture.

“To be Mark Johnston's first Royal Ascot winner was something very special, when he was never headed when winning the Gold Cup. In the Royal Box afterwards, the Queen Mother took me to one side and whispered in my ear 'it's real gold you know'.”

Writing in his 'Bletherings' blog on his website, Mark Johnston said, “It seems that, no matter what champions I trained or might be lucky enough to train in future, I will always be remember more for having trained Double Trigger than for anything else. He captured the public's imagination like no other animal that I have been associated with, and rightly so.”

Out of Solac (Fr) (Gay Lussac {Ity}), a daughter of the Oaks d'Italia winner Soragna, Double Trigger retired to stud at East Burrow Farm in Devon and then moved with John and Sarah Haydon to Clarendon Farm in Wiltshire, where he was retired from covering in 2012. His best runners from his dual-purpose stud career include the Midlands National winner Russian Trigger (GB), Grimthorpe Chase winner Ikorodu Road (GB) and Seldom Inn (GB). His death on Sunday morning was from a suspected heart attack.

Huggins said, “Trigger had such a fantastic life and was totally sound through his 29 years. Mark did a superb job training him and John Haydon looked after him for 22 years. Along with Sarah they have been marvellous friends to Trigger and to us. It was also a pleasure to have a number of his stock at home at Selby's Farm in Kent. My last runner from his stock was a hurdle winner I bred called Double Accord, trained by Anthony Honeyball.

“It is truly the end of an era, but I'm sure he will always be remembered for his enthusiastic style of running and distinctive looks, as well of course for his three Goodwood Cups, three Doncaster Cups and his Ascot Gold Cup. He was a real character who will always have a place in my heart.”