Blog

The last two winners of the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle (Gr1), aka Spa Hurdle, are Monkfish and Minella Indo, who won the Broadway Novices’ Chase (Gr1) and the Gold Ciup (Gr1) this meeting. The fact that 6-year-old Vanillier won the hot 3-miler by no less than 11 lengths, that is 9 to eleven more than the two previous victors on their day, would make one think that there is a lot to look forward to!

Bred by Isabelle and Nicolas Simon in Sarthe, Vanillier was sold at Arqana as a weanling for €46 000 to Irish bloodstock agent Seamus Murphy, who sold him three years later at the Goffs Land Rover sale to Peter and Ross Doyle. In January 2020, Vanillier was unsold at Goffs UK after his first point-to-point win.