IT is a sad day at Seven Barrows as we have decided to call time on the career of Might Bite who has been retired after we came to the conclusion that perhaps he wasn’t enjoying his racing quite as much as the good old days but it’s great that he ends his life on the track a perfectly sound and happy person and on his own terms, which is the most important thing.
He was owned by a tremendous group of guys who absolutely adored him and he gave them so much pleasure during what was an incredible journey. But all good things must come to an end and he will now go off to Charlie Barnett, former Aintree supremo, and enjoy a life at his place where he’ll go out hacking and just have a lovely time, which is what he deserves.
It was an amazing journey, but not one without a few hiccups along the way and I suppose the most memorable would have been when he tried to visit the Guinness Village at Cheltenham en route to winning the RSA. That was a tremendous race, and a fine spectacle for everyone there that day, but what made it even more significant was that we had the second, Whisper, so I would have been happier if the judge had called a dead heat!
Happy retirement Might Bite! A wonderful horse who was an incredibly talented chaser. He won 4 Group 1s including this memorable RSA. I hope he enjoys his time with the Barnett family who will treat him very well. pic.twitter.com/Pd3OB3EVNT
— Nico de Boinville (@NdeBoinville) January 6, 2021
We took him to Aintree after that and to try and avoid similar antics Minty and a few of his other owners were planning on going down to the last fence ready to ‘coax’ him back on track should he consider doing the same thing again but luckily their services weren’t required and he came home an easy winner in the G1 Mildmay Chase.
There is no doubt the one that got away was the Feltham Novices’ Chase (now Kauto Star Novices’ Chase) at Kempton on Boxing Day a few years ago because he would have won by absolutely miles but took a crashing fall at the last and there were none more upset than poor Daryl Jacob who was absolutely gutted for everyone, himself, and all his enthusiastic owners.
Funnily enough after all of those shenanigans, I did say to Nico that it might be an idea to save using the whip until after the final fence because I genuinely think he knew when the last jump was coming so we thought we’d try and trick him. Whether we did or not, I don’t know, but nothing of that kind resurfaced and the rest is history. He was quite wayward early in his career and I made the mistake of taking him to Cheltenham for his first run over fences but that ended up a proper Henderson howler because in hindsight it was the wrong thing to do and meant we had to revert back to hurdles for him to gain his confidence (where he won the Silver Plate at Kempton) and he still managed to get beaten when we went back over fences at Ffos Las at the start of the 2016/17 season. Thankfully after that things went from strength to strength and he developed into a very high class horse. Probably one of the best staying chasers of his era never to have won a Gold Cup.
He was one of the most amazing characters you’ll ever come across and was the most gorgeous looking horse you will ever see; he had so much presence about him and stood out more than anything else in the parade ring and was in the Sprinter Sacre sort of mould. In fact we pretty much purchased him on looks rather than anything else because at the time his sire, Scorpion, wasn’t as popular as he is now so we took a bit of a shot in the dark but it was definitely worth it and he ended up winning just shy of £607,000 in prize money and ten of his twenty five starts which is quite phenomenal.
The highlight would have to be the King George in 2017 when he was simply marvellous and was never really going to get beaten that day because his confidence was so high and he was very much at the top of his game.
Might Bite will take on Native River tomorrow in the Betfair Denman Chase!
Heres a look back at his 2017 King George triumph!
Can he roll back the years with a big performance this weekend? pic.twitter.com/5kdKQpCe2j
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) February 7, 2020
It really is a sad day because he was a remarkable horse who had such a great character and gave so many people so much pleasure and fun along the way and there is no doubt the place won’t be the same without him. Horses like him don’t come along very often so it’s important to appreciate them when you have them, but time moves on and Might Bite moves on to pastures new and I’m sure he will enjoy a very long and happy retirement with the Barnett family who will treat him like a King, just as he should.
