Undoubted star of the stable’s campaign in June was Peter Savill’s Peppertree Lane. The five-year-old Peintre Celebre horse added to what is already a great CV by winning a Goodwood Listed race in June before running a brave race at The Curragh on Irish Derby Day to finish Group-placed once again. We thought it was high time we took a closer look at this fine horses’s career.

Peppertree Lane

Bred in Westphalia at Hans-Hugo Miebach’s Gestut Wittekindshof, Peppertree Lane now boasts a record on nine wins from twenty-four career starts. Including placed efforts takes this statistic up to fifteen out of twenty-four. His record in Sakes races is excellent too, winning three of eleven and finishing placed in six out of eleven. Although he cost his owner 180,000 euros he has now earned close on a quarter of a million pounds in his racing career to date.
Peintre Celebre had a fabulous and classic racing career, winning the Prix du Jockey-Club, the Grand Prix de Paris and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. This particular son has clearly inherited his father’s stamina, together with a fair bit of his class. Unraced as a juvenile, Peppertree Lane landed his maiden at Ripon in April 2006 before going on to land handicaps at York, Ripon, Haydock (the Old Borough Cup) and Ascot (the Ladbrokes.com Handicap) later that year. In 2007, he won the Listed Aston Park Stakes at Newbury before lifting the Group 3 Curragh Cup over a mile and six furlongs at The Curragh at the end of June. Earlier this year he finished a short-head second in the Group 3 Woodcte Stud Sagaro Stakes at Ascot at the end of April.
On 6th June he won the Hildon Stakes at Goodwood (registered as the Tapster Stakes – Listed), beating Godolphin’s Eastern Anthem by a head under a typical Joe Fanning pace-setting ride. This was a highly creditable win as the distance of a mile and a half was reckoned to be short of his best. Aimed at The Curragh Cup once more, he met a much stronger field this year, starting at level weights with Aidan O’Brien’s Septimus. He lost no caste in defeat whatsoever, beaten by just two and three-quarter lengths by the favourite, and deprived of second only in the dying strides by the classy Mores Wells .
Peter Savill’s popular horse looks set to continue to play a leading role among our older horses. It is dangerous to dismiss him lightly in any race in which he competes.