Champion Hurdler
The following season (2002/03) proved to the most successful of Rooster Booster's career. He began with victories in Listed Hurdles at Kempton and Cheltenham, before he won the Grade 1 Bula Hurdle at odds of 11/8, coming home 21⁄2 lengths in front of Landing Light. That was followed by another victory in the Agfa Hurdle, before going to Cheltenham undefeated in four races.
He was sent off the 9/2 second favourite for the Champion Hurdle, behind the 5/2 favourite, Rhinestone Cowboy. Rooster Booster moved up to challenge two hurdles from home, quickened into a clear lead approaching the last, and stayed on strongly up the Cheltenham hill, coming home eleven lengths clear of the second, Westender. His rider, Richard Johnson said of the gelding, "he's a bit wooden-headed, but it's hard to complain when he keeps going like that. He's a jockey's dream."
Rooster Booster was then sent to Liverpool to contest the Aintree Hurdle in April, where he was sent off the 5/4 favourite. He led over the last, but was caught in the closing stages and beaten a head by the Edward O'Grady-trained Sacundai. There was some excuse for his defeat in the fact that Johnson dropped his whip on the run to the finish.
In the course of the season, the supposedly mature nine-year-old had improved his rating from 144 to 170.
The 2003/04 season saw Rooster Booster win just one race, the Champion Hurdle Trial but he ran consistently well in top races, finishing second in no less than four Grade I races: the Christmas Hurdle, Champion Hurdle, Aintree Hurdle and Punchestown Champion Hurdle.
Read more about this topic: Rooster Booster (horse)
Famous quotes containing the word champion:
“Let’s not quibble! I’m the foe of moderation, the champion of excess. If I may lift a line from a die-hard whose identity is lost in the shuffle, “I’d rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.””
—Tallulah Bankhead (1903–1968)