Greatest Mares: Flakey Dove 171230

Pedigree Details

Sire: Oats

Dam: Shadey Dove

Dam’s sire: Deadly Nightshade

Breeder: J. T. Price

Foaled: April 10 1986

Race Record & Fact file

Races: 38 (jumps +6 on Flat)

Wins: 12 (jumps +2 on Flat)

Owner: J. T. Price

Trainer: Richard Price

Flakey Dove profile

The close-coupled, sparely-made Flakey Dove might not have impressed in appearance but she was an irable racehorse, very tough, thoroughly genuine and top-class in her prime. She enjoyed a popular following too, as she represented a small-scale breeding and training operation, that of the Prices, a Herefordshire farming family who embodied the spirit of the jumping game. Flakey Dove’s Champion Hurdle victory completed a rise from the humblest of beginnings for her non-thoroughbred family. Her great grandam Cottage Lass II was bought for just £25 in the 1940s, and founded a successful dynasty of mares for the Prices with the word ‘Dove’ in their names. Flakey Dove’s grandam Red Dove won 16 races over hurdles, the last of them as a 12-year-old, while her dam, the useful Shadey Dove, won another nine. Flakey Dove won twice on the Flat, in addition to her 11 wins over hurdles and one in a bumper, while she was effective from two miles to 21 furlongs and on any ground.

1989/90 season

Flakey Dove ran in three bumpers, winning on her debut at Ludlow before finishing second at Haydock and Hereford.

1990/91 season                          

Flakey Dove’s career over jumps got off to an inauspicious start when she fell at the second on her hurdling debut at Worcester (that was to be the only time she ever failed to complete), but she showed ability when making the frame in novices at Warwick and Uttoxeter on her next two starts. Those efforts got her into the final of the mares novices’ hurdle series at Newbury off a light weight, and she won that race by 12 lengths, leading on the bridle before the last and quickening clear. That was over an extended two and a half miles, and Flakey Dove ran as though needing a return to further when dropped back in trip for her final start that season when third in a mares novices’ handicap at Exeter.

Major race won

•  EBF Mares Only Novices’ Hurdle Final, Newbury

1991/92 season                          

But Flakey Dove’s second season over hurdles showed she had more speed than she’d been credited with as a novice. She won four times, all at, or around, the minimum trip, and was one of the most improved handicappers of the season, starting her campaign from an official mark of 96 and ending it on 127, with her Timeform rating improving to a useful 133. She made a successful reappearance at Warwick in February, and went on to win again at Doncaster, Ascot and Aintree. None of those wins was gained by more than three lengths, enabling her to keep a step ahead of the handicapper.

Her most valuable success came from 1 lb out of the weights in the Cordon Bleu Handicap Hurdle, the opening race on Grand National day. Travelling strongly throughout, Flakey Dove was produced to lead at the last by her then regular jockey Dai Tegg and won by three-quarters of a length, ridden out with hands and heels, from Cheerful Times who had also chased her home at Ascot the week before. Third, incidentally, was the future dual Champion Chase winner Viking Flagship. Flakey Dove’s final start of the season came in the valuable Swinton Handicap Hurdle at Haydock where she finished a good third to the Irish winner Bitofabanter.

Major race won

•  Cordon Bleu Handicap Hurdle, Aintree

1992/93 season            

Flakey Dove’s family tended to improve with age, and she was to prove typical of her relatives in that respect. Once again, she was given a spring campaign, as in her two previous seasons not making her seasonal debut until February. She returned with a good second at Stratford just a week before finishing a respectable fifth in the Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury. Kept busy, she won the Grade 2 Regency Hurdle at Warwick back over two and a half miles, before the runner-up in that contest, Lift And Load, turned the tables on her in a similar event, the Berkshire Hurdle, at Newbury.

Next it was an ambitious first crack at the Champion Hurdle in which Flakey Dove looked to have it all to do as a 50/1 shot in the field of 18. But she outran those odds with a smart effort, staying on to finish a never-nearer seventh, just over nine lengths behind the winner Granville Again. Back in handicap company, she finished second in the Kestrel Hurdle, the limited handicap she had won at Ascot the season before, though this time carried 12-0 with all her rivals out of the handicap. Flakey Dove landed the odds in another poorly-contested Grade 2 contest, the Staffordshire Hurdle at Uttoxeter in May (runner-up in the three-runner contest was former Champion Hurdle winner Beech Road) just two days before contesting the Swinton again, but this time finished in rear under top weight.

Major races won

• Regency Hurdle, Warwick
• Staffordshire Hurdle, Uttoxeter

1993/94 season            

This was to prove Flakey Dove’s finest campaign, and it was also her busiest as she was out earlier than usual and had already had six races before January was out. She had also had a handful of races on the Flat by now and, before going back over hurdles, got off the mark on the level by winning a maiden in good style over a mile and three-quarters at Nottingham. Flakey Dove failed to stay when tried over three miles and a furlong in the West Yorkshire Hurdle at Wetherby but showed smart form when finishing in the frame in the Ascot Hurdle, Bula Hurdle, and New Year’s Day Hurdle at Windsor on her next three outings, finishing runner-up to another smart mare Absalom’s Lady under 12-0 in the last-named contest, a limited handicap.

Two wins later in January showed that Flakey Dove had still not finished improving. First, she won the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock by 20 lengths, and then proved her toughness by following up just a week later in the Cleeve Hurdle, then a Grade 1 contest over two miles five furlongs, at Cheltenham. With Richard Dunwoody keeping the ride from Haydock, Flakey Dove ran out a convincing winner again, looming up on the home turn and producing a fine leap at the last on the way to beating the Long Walk winner Sweet Duke by six lengths. As a result, Flakey Dove looked well treated for another crack at the Tote Gold Trophy and was sent off the 5/2 favourite in a smaller than usual field of just 11. However, a more strongly-run race would have suited her better, and she finished third behind the novice Large Action and top-weight Oh So Risky who both seemingly d their Cheltenham Festival prospects to a greater degree than Flakey Dove.

But Flakey Dove lined up in her second Champion Hurdle in fine heart after completing a straightforward task back at Newbury beforehand in the Berkshire Hurdle where she landed odds of 1/2 by 20 lengths. She had another new jockey at Cheltenham, Mark Dwyer, and was a 9/1 chance this time, re-opposing, among others, Oh So Risky (the 9/4 favourite) and Large Action who was also one of those ahead of her in the betting. Even in an ordinary year, the in-form Flakey Dove had something to find but she sured herself to become only the third mare to win the Champion Hurdle and did so in typically tenacious style. Travelling strongly throughout, she took a slight lead at the last and battled on to win by a length and a half and three quarters of a length from Oh So Risky and Large Action.

Before her next race over hurdles, Flakey Dove landed a two-mile conditions race back on the Flat at Haydock, but she performed in the Aintree Hurdle as though it was one race too many and after finishing down the field in the Sagaro Stakes at Ascot she was given a well-earned summer break.

Major races won

• Champion Hurdle Trial, Haydock
• Cleeve Hurdle, Cheltenham
• Berkshire Hurdle, Newbury
• Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham

1994/95 season

The 1994 Champion Hurdle proved to be Flakey Dove’s final victory over hurdles as she had a rather anti-climactic final campaign which ended prematurely through injury. She finished a long way behind Oh So Risky when third in the Ascot Hurdle on her reappearance before running a better race behind Large Action in the Bula Hurdle, but she proved a disappointing favourite in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton, was no match for younger rival Relkeel in the Champion Hurdle Trial, and was reportedly in season when a long way below her best in her bid to win the Cleeve Hurdle for a second time. Flakey Dove was retired the following month after suffering a tendon injury in her off fore.

Flakey Dove at stud

Flakey Dove produced four winners under Rules, but none of them was anywhere near as good as she was herself. Best of her winners was Just Smudge (by Fraam) who was fairly useful over fences, winning four times for Venetia Williams. Also, Flakey Dove’s unraced daughter Bay Dove has ensured the female family lives on, producing the useful jumper On The Bridge and the fairly useful hurdler Fairytale Theatre who is now a broodmare herself.