Roscommon's Launchpad: The Champions Who Started Here

Three horses carry the launchpad story, and they could hardly be more different. One was a rugged chaser, one a top-class stayer on the Flat, and one a brilliant juvenile filly. What links them is that each ran at Roscommon early in its life and went on to win at the highest level somewhere else.

Imperial Call

Imperial Call was foaled on 21 February 1989, by Callernish out of Princess Menelek. He was bred by T.A. O'Donnell in County Wexford, owned by Lisselan Farms Ltd and trained in County Cork by Fergie Sutherland. Unusually for a horse who reached the top of the jumping game, he was not a full Thoroughbred, a detail that became part of his story once he had proved himself against the best staying chasers in these islands.

He was a strong, bold-jumping chaser whose reputation rests on one afternoon above all others: the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup, covered in the next section on what these horses won away from Roscommon. Before that, like most Irish chasers of his generation, he served an apprenticeship at the smaller tracks. Roscommon was one of the places he was seen early, in a novice chase, and the racecourse counts him among the future stars who passed through on the way up.

Enzeli

Enzeli was foaled on 5 April 1995, by Kahyasi out of Ebaziya, bred and owned by the Aga Khan and trained by John Oxx. He was a stayer of real class on the Flat. Beyond his best day at Royal Ascot, he won the Saval Beg Stakes and the Leopardstown November Handicap in 1998, and later added the Doncaster Cup. The family was a strong one: his half-sister Estimate, also out of Ebaziya, won the 2013 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in the colours of Queen Elizabeth II.

His link to Roscommon comes from 1998, the season before his Ascot triumph, when he is reported to have won a race at the track. The exact race, its date, distance and result are not confirmed by a primary form source, so this piece treats the Roscommon win as a fact of his early record without inventing the detail around it.

Again

Again was a different type entirely: a fast, precocious filly. She was foaled on 22 May 2006, by Danehill Dancer out of Cumbres, an unraced half-sister to the great Montjeu. She was bred by Southern Bloodstock, owned by Michael Tabor and Sue Magnier and trained by David Wachman.

Her talent showed quickly once she got going. As a juvenile in 2008 she won at the Curragh, then took the Group 2 Debutante Stakes and the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes. As a three-year-old she went straight to the top on her seasonal return. Her career began, though, on an ordinary summer evening at Roscommon in July 2008, in a maiden that gave no immediate hint of what was to come. The specific run is covered in the next section.

Taken together the three cover both codes and three decades of Roscommon racing. A County Cork chaser, an Aga Khan stayer and a Coolmore-owned filly do not have much in common on paper. The track connects them. Each one ran at Roscommon before the racing public had any reason to remember the name, and each went on to win a race that made sure they did.

This section stays strictly at Roscommon. The big wins these horses are famous for happened elsewhere, and they are kept out of the Roscommon record here so nothing gets mislabelled. What follows is what each horse actually did at the track, with the detail hedged where it cannot be confirmed.

The runs at a glance

Horse	Year at Roscommon	What happened here	Later top-level win (elsewhere)
Imperial Call	1994 (as cited)	Ran in the feature novice chase, reported third to Sound Man	1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup
Enzeli	1998	Won a race here (exact race n/a)	1999 Ascot Gold Cup
Again	7 July 2008	Racecourse debut, 7-furlong maiden, unplaced	2009 Irish 1,000 Guineas

The gaps in that table are honest ones. Where a date, distance or finishing detail is not confirmed by a reliable form source, it is left as n/a rather than guessed at.

Imperial Call at Roscommon

The run most often tied to Imperial Call is a Roscommon novice chase cited as the 1994 feature, in which Sound Man beat Shawiya with Imperial Call reported back in third. Sound Man was himself a smart chaser who went on to win the Tingle Creek, so this was no soft contest for a young horse to be placed in.

One caution matters here. Imperial Call's own biography records a separate third place behind Sound Man, and Strong Platinum, in the Grade 1 Powers Gold Cup at Fairyhouse in April 1995. The two runs are easy to blur, since both involve a Sound Man beating Imperial Call. The Roscommon placing is stated by the racecourse itself and by the course's public record, but it is not carried in Imperial Call's own race-by-race biography, and the exact date, distance, race title, starting price and beaten margin at Roscommon are not confirmed. So the safe reading is that he ran, and was placed, at Roscommon as a novice, without pinning specifics to it that cannot be stood up.

Enzeli at Roscommon

Enzeli's Roscommon link is a win in 1998, the year before his Royal Ascot success. Several secondary sources report the win. None of them, within what could be checked, sets out the race name, the date, the distance, his starting price or the winning margin. Rather than dress the run up with detail that has not been confirmed, this piece records the plain fact: Enzeli won at Roscommon in 1998, and the specifics are n/a pending a primary form check. Given the horse he became, a Roscommon win on the way through fits the pattern of a good stayer being brought along steadily by John Oxx.

Again at Roscommon

Again's Roscommon run is the best documented of the three, because it was her racecourse debut. She first appeared on 7 July 2008 in a seven-furlong maiden at the track and finished unplaced. There was no winning launch here, no early statement. She simply had her first look at a racecourse and moved on. What she did next, at the Curragh and then in Group company, belongs in the following section, not in her Roscommon line. Her Roscommon record is one run and no win, and it is worth stating plainly that the track was her starting point rather than the scene of any success.

Across the three, only Enzeli is reported to have actually won at Roscommon. Imperial Call was placed, and Again was unplaced on debut. That is the accurate shape of the launchpad story. It is about where these horses were first seen, not about a run of Roscommon victories.

The days that made these three horses famous all came away from Roscommon, on much bigger stages. This section gives each its top-level moment, clearly credited to the course where it happened.

Imperial Call: the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup

Imperial Call's afternoon came at Cheltenham in March 1996. Ridden by Conor O'Dwyer for Fergie Sutherland, he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, beating Rough Quest by four lengths. It was the first Irish-trained Gold Cup winner since Dawn Run in 1986, and it carried an emotional charge on both sides of the Irish Sea. For a horse who was not even a full Thoroughbred to win jumping's championship race was the kind of story the sport treasures.

The win at Cheltenham, not any run at Roscommon, is what Imperial Call is remembered for. The Roscommon novice run belongs to his early education. The Gold Cup belongs to his legend, and it happened at Prestbury Park.

Enzeli: the 1999 Ascot Gold Cup

Enzeli reached the top in June 1999 at Royal Ascot. Ridden by Johnny Murtagh for John Oxx, he won the Ascot Gold Cup over two and a half miles in a time of 4:18.85. He was the first Irish-trained winner of that race since 1969, ending a drought of three decades in Flat racing's most famous staying contest.

It sat within a strong staying career that also brought the Saval Beg Stakes, the 1998 Leopardstown November Handicap and, later, the Doncaster Cup. The family kept producing: his half-sister Estimate won the same Ascot Gold Cup in 2013 for Queen Elizabeth II. Enzeli's Roscommon win in 1998 was one line on the way to Ascot. The Gold Cup was the destination.

Again: the 2009 Irish 1,000 Guineas

Again's rise was quick. After that unplaced debut at Roscommon in July 2008 she won at the Curragh, then took the Group 2 Debutante Stakes and the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes as a juvenile. Her defining day came on 22 May 2009, back at the Curragh, on her three-year-old debut. She won the Group 1 Irish 1,000 Guineas, ridden by Johnny Murtagh and sent off the 5/2 favourite, beating Lahaleeb by half a length. It was David Wachman's first Classic.

To win a Classic on your seasonal reappearance, without a prep run, is rare and takes a good filly. That Again could do it having begun her whole career in a Roscommon maiden less than a year earlier is exactly the sort of arc the track likes to point to.

The common thread

Three horses, three top-level wins, none of them at Roscommon. Cheltenham, Royal Ascot and the Curragh are where the trophies were lifted. What the track can fairly claim is that it saw all three before the wider public did, and that the launchpad name is earned by where these horses ended up rather than by anything they won on their evening in County Roscommon.

A launchpad is not a shrine. Roscommon cannot claim a resident champion, and this piece has been careful not to pretend otherwise. What it can claim is a track record of catching good horses early, and Imperial Call, Enzeli and Again are the clearest evidence for it.

The reason is partly built into the place. Roscommon is sharp and flat for most of its circuit, with an uphill finish, and its chase course has just five relatively easy fences per lap. That makes it a sensible first or early racecourse for a young or inexperienced horse, which is why the leading yards use it and why a future star can be found in a plain-looking maiden or novice event. A horse that later wins a Gold Cup or a Classic often needs a quiet, uncomplicated place to learn the job first. Roscommon has been that place more than once.

The three headline horses are not the whole list either. The racecourse points to others who ran here before doing much bigger things. Wrote could only manage third on his debut at Roscommon in 2011 and won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs by the end of that year. Mouramara won her maiden here as a three-year-old and two races later took the Prix Royallieu at Longchamp's Arc meeting. Panama Hat won the Listed Lenebane Stakes at Roscommon in 2015 and later placed in the American St Leger. The pattern holds across both codes and across the years.

It is worth being clear about what this does and does not mean for a punter or a form student. It does not mean a Roscommon maiden or novice is packed with hidden champions on any given evening. Most horses that run here are ordinary, as at any track. What it does mean is that the quality of the yards attending, and the track's suitability for green horses, make Roscommon a place where a genuinely good animal will sometimes appear before the market has worked it out. The early Roscommon line on a horse like Again is easy to miss at the time and obvious only in hindsight.

The lasting significance of Roscommon, then, is not a single name carved above the winning post. It is a role. The track has served as an early proving ground for horses who went on to win at Cheltenham, at Royal Ascot, at the Curragh and beyond. That is a quieter kind of importance than owning a champion, and it is a true one. The launchpad name is honest because the horses who used it made their names somewhere else, and Roscommon was where they took off.