ALD FELLOW BROKE RULE

Graham Buddry recalls Alberbrook's astonishing leap from zero to hero

- Graham Buddry

It is said that all rules have an exception and that applies to racing too.

Fans of the jumping game love it in part because the participants come back year after year, thus allowing you to follow a young novice throughout its career, hopefully to the top. It is their longevity and the affection borne of that which endears them to their followers who can bask in later glories as they followed that star from its earliest days many years before.

An exception would be an entire who proved useless in his only start over hurdles before, two years later proving nearly invincible in just five other races over timber before retiring at the age of seven. That incredible exception to the conventional rules was Alderbrook.

Foaled on 27 April 1989 his breeding was very mixed. His sire was the top class stayer, Ardross, who was virtually unbeatable racing beyond 12 furlongs was also good enough to finish fifth in the Arc and included the mighty Ribot in his own breeding. On the dam side it was packed more with sprinting stock such as Be Friendly but neither his dam or half siblings ever amounted to much and it seemed as if Alderbrook would follow suit.

In the initial care of Julie Cecil the 3yo colt started his career on 23 May 1992 in a lowly class F maiden over 12 furlongs at Southwell on their fibresand surface, finishing third of 5 runners. Two weeks later on the same course and distance Alderbrook was a distant second and things proved no better on his next two outings at Nottingham and Yarmouth. In fact there was nothing to show that he was anything other than a very low grade colt who wouldn’t amount to anything yet it seems that this late developer had just been maturing and learning his craft.