Limato at Redcar: The Two Year Old Trophy and a Career Begins

A Horse Who Won at Every Age

Limato was an Irish-bred gelding who produced consistent quality across seven seasons of racing. He was bred by his owner Jeff Smith, ran for the first time in June 2014, and did not run his final race until September 2020 — a career that took him from a debut at Newbury to Group One victories in Britain and France and a record of 14 wins from 33 starts.

What is exceptional about Limato is not merely the wins but the consistency of achievement across seasons. He won at least one Group or Listed race in each of his seven racing seasons — a feat of durability that is almost without parallel among top-class British sprinters. Most high-class sprinters peak and then decline; Limato kept producing his best form over a longer arc than almost any comparable horse of his generation.

Henry Candy and Sparsholt

Limato was trained throughout his career by Henry Candy at the Sparsholt yard near Winchester in Hampshire. Candy is one of the quieter figures in British flat training — not as prominent in the media as some of the major Newmarket and Lambourn operations, but with a consistent record of producing quality horses from his Hampshire base. Timeless Times won him a sprint championship in the early 1990s, and Candy has always had an eye for fast horses who need careful nurturing.

Limato's care at Sparsholt was clearly meticulous. He raced until he was eight years old — unusual for a flat horse at the top level — without the physical deterioration that ends most careers at five or six. The management of his racing programme, placing him in the right races for his stage of development and then building his programme around his strengths, is a significant part of why his career lasted as long as it did.

The Physical Profile

Limato was not a large horse. He was athletic, compact, and built for speed rather than staying power — the classic sprinter's body type, with a powerful hindquarters and an economic, efficient action. On firm or good ground he was close to unplayable over six and seven furlongs. On softer ground he remained competitive, though his best performances came when the going was somewhere around good.

His temperament was described by those who worked with him as quirky — a horse with strong opinions and not always an easy one to manage at exercise or in the preliminaries. He had an unpredictability about him that occasionally surfaced in the parade ring or at the stalls, and he required careful handling. Once the race started, however, he was a professional: focused, competitive, and able to produce his best form under pressure.

The Jockey Partnership

Limato was ridden by several jockeys across his career, but the partnership with Harry Bentley produced some of his best performances. Bentley was a lightweight jockey who rode regularly for Henry Candy and had an affinity with horses who needed patient handling and a quiet approach. The relationship between jockey and horse in top-level sprinting is significant — a horse that does not relax in the early stages of a six-furlong race will always struggle to produce his best form in the final furlong. Bentley's ability to settle Limato through the early stages, even when his quirky temperament made this challenging, was a key factor in the horse's mature career performances.

Career Highlights Beyond Redcar

After the Two Year Old Trophy in October 2014, Limato did not run again until the following season. His three-year-old campaign saw him win the Rose Bowl Stakes at Newbury and run prominently in the highest company without yet producing a Group One victory. As a four-year-old in 2016, he won the Group One July Cup at Newmarket — the premier six-furlong championship race in Britain — before finishing second in the Nunthorpe Stakes and then winning the Prix de la Forêt at Longchamp. That international success confirmed him as one of the best sprinters in Europe, and Redcar's Two Year Old Trophy was the race that had first suggested as much.

The Two Year Old Trophy: Redcar's Defining Race

The Two Year Old Trophy was first run in 1993, conceived by Lord Zetland, Redcar's long-serving chairman, as a race that would give the north of England's most informative juvenile event. The concept was specific: a Listed race for two-year-olds with entries weighted by the horse's sale price, so that well-bred expensive yearlings run off higher weights while cheaper-bought horses compete off a more generous mark.

This weight-for-sale-price format gives the race an unusual openness. Trainers who have spotted ability in a cheaply bought or homebred horse can target the race and give their juvenile a real competitive opportunity. The result is fields of 20 or more runners, with a spread of abilities, breeding, and trainers that makes the form complex but distinctly informative.

Horses who win the Two Year Old Trophy have come from yards all over Britain, and many have gone on to prove themselves at a higher level the following season. Limato's 2014 victory is the most prominent example of the last decade, but the race's history includes winners who became useful handicappers, Listed winners, and occasional pattern race competitors.

Redcar's Flat Galloping Track

Redcar's left-handed circuit runs along the Yorkshire coast near the mouth of the Tees, on flat, sea-level ground that produces some of the fastest going in the north of England in dry summer conditions. The track is essentially flat, with no significant gradients, making it a real galloping circuit where horses can let down and run freely. The straight course runs for five furlongs and 217 yards — the distance used for the Two Year Old Trophy.

That essentially straight run, on flat ground, is the ideal surface for assessing juvenile sprinters. There are no bends to negotiate, no hills to climb, and no excuse for a horse who has the pace and the jumping technique to produce its best from the stalls. When Limato won the Two Year Old Trophy, the conditions at Redcar were ideal for a front-running performance, and the horse gave one.

The 2014 Two Year Old Trophy

Limato started the 6/5 favourite in a field of 23 runners on 4 October 2014. He had won his three previous starts — at Newbury, Windsor, and Wolverhampton — without being extended, and Henry Candy arrived at Redcar with a horse that had attracted consistent market confidence throughout his juvenile campaign.

The race was never a contest. From the stalls he settled quickly, travelled easily in the first half of the race, and when Harry Bentley asked him to go through the gears approaching the final two furlongs, he accelerated away from his field without effort. He crossed the line well clear, and the significance of the performance was that he had barely been asked a serious question throughout. A horse that produces that kind of performance without being extended is telling you something about the ceiling of its ability.

Other Notable Two Year Old Trophy Winners

The race has a history of throwing up future performers. Pipalong — whose story at Ripon is another chapter in the North of England sprint racing history of the 1990s — won here before establishing herself as a top-class Group One sprinter. Captain Rio, who won the 2001 renewal, became a respected stallion. Somnus won the 2002 running and was crowned European Champion Sprinter the following year.

The Redcar Two Year Old Trophy guide covers the full history and betting angles of the race. The Redcar straight mile guide covers the technical aspects of the track that make it particularly informative for sprint racing.

The Two Year Old Trophy: 4 October 2014

The most informative thing about Limato's Two Year Old Trophy victory is what his jockey did not do. Harry Bentley did not pick up his whip. He did not ride a finish in the conventional sense. As the field approached the final furlong and his rivals were being driven hard by their jockeys, Bentley sat quietly aboard Limato and let the horse do the work. The gap between them and the field widened. Limato crossed the line clear and comfortable, and the time he posted was among the fastest recorded at Redcar over the distance that season.

A two-year-old that wins without being fully extended in a field of 23 runners in a Listed race is making a strong statement. The statement is: there is more where that came from. Henry Candy evidently read the statement correctly, because the horse's subsequent programme was managed with patience — Limato did not reappear after Redcar in 2014, and when he came back in 2015 as a three-year-old, the patience was justified.

The July Cup: 2016

The high point of Limato's career came at Newmarket in July 2016. The July Cup is Britain's pre-eminent six-furlong championship race — a Group One that attracts the best sprinters from across Europe, run on one of the most demanding straight courses in the country. In a field that included Twilight Son and the improving Quiet Reflection, Limato put up a performance of real authority.

He settled into a prominent position, travelled efficiently through the early stages, and when Harry Bentley asked him to quicken approaching the final furlong, he produced the decisive acceleration that separates the very best sprinters from the merely good. He won by a length and three-quarters, and the margin understated the dominance. He had not been fully extended.

The July Cup victory confirmed what Redcar's Two Year Old Trophy had first suggested: this was a horse of rare ability, and that ability had been there since October 2014.

The Prix de la Forêt: 2016

Three months after the July Cup, Limato crossed to France for the Prix de la Forêt at Longchamp — a Group One over seven furlongs that attracts a top European field. He won again, adding an international dimension to his Group One record that relatively few British sprinters achieve. Seven furlongs at Longchamp, on ground that can be testing in October, is a different test from six furlongs at Newmarket in July. He managed both.

The Seven-Season Record

The detail of Limato's record that sets him apart from other high-class sprinters is the seven seasons. From 2014 to 2020, he won at Group or Listed level every year. No flat horse in Britain has sustained that level of consistent achievement over such a period without the benefit of a major classic campaign or a particular suitability to a single race. He simply kept doing it, year after year, at different venues, on different ground, against different fields. The consistency points to exceptional care from his connections and exceptional quality in the horse.

Retirement

Limato retired from racing in October 2020 at the age of eight, having run 33 times and won 14 races. He entered retirement with a record that would stand alongside any sprinter of his generation. The story that began at Redcar on an October afternoon in 2014 ended six seasons later with a career that had touched the highest levels of European sprint racing.

The Two Year Old Trophy as a Classic Pointer

Limato's career is the most persuasive argument for taking the Redcar Two Year Old Trophy seriously as a form reference. A horse that wins it in the style he did — unchallenged, unextended, in a field of 23 on a flat straight track — has passed the most direct test available to a two-year-old sprinter. The conditions at Redcar for the race are essentially ideal for assessment: a straight course, level ground, an honest pace generated by a large competitive field.

The race had produced Group-race performers before Limato — Somnus, Captain Rio, Pipalong — and it has continued to produce them since. But Limato's July Cup and Prix de la Forêt victories give the race its clearest claim to significance in the modern era. A racecourse that hosts the juvenile event that identified a future European sprint champion is a racecourse that matters to the form book.

Redcar's Role in Northern Juvenile Racing

Redcar's Two Year Old Trophy sits within a broader ecosystem of northern juvenile racing that includes the big two-year-old days at York, the Gimcrack Stakes, and the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster. The northern nursery is the crucible in which horses like Limato are first identified and first given a public stage. Without the Two Year Old Trophy, his assessment at the end of the 2014 season would have been based on a handful of relatively modest races. With it, his form was confirmed against a representative field at Listed level.

The Henry Candy Contribution

Limato's legacy also reflects the calibre of his trainer. Henry Candy's patient management of a quirky horse across seven seasons is an achievement that deserves recognition. The horse was not always easy — his temperament required constant management — but Candy kept him sound, competitive, and interested across more seasons than most horses at the top level sustain.

The willingness to bring a horse from Winchester to Redcar in October for a juvenile Listed race, and the patience to then rest him until the following season, says something about how Candy approached the programme. Long-term thinking about a horse's development, rather than maximising short-term earnings, produced a career that reached its peak two years after it started at Redcar.

For the Racing Fan

For anyone with an interest in how champions are made, the trajectory from Two Year Old Trophy winner to Group One champion is one of the sport's most satisfying narratives. A horse identified at a modest north-east track in October, given a winter to develop, and brought back the following spring to begin the campaign that would culminate in Group One victories — that is flat racing at its most intelligent.

Redcar's Two Year Old Trophy continues to serve its purpose. October at the Cleveland coast, a straight track, a large competitive field, and the best two-year-olds that northern trainers can find. The next Limato might already have run there.

For the full guide to the race and its history, see the Two Year Old Trophy guide. For the betting angles and course character, the Redcar betting guide covers the practical detail.