Synchronised at Uttoxeter: Midlands Grand National to Gold Cup

Breeding and Origins

Synchronised was an Irish-bred bay gelding foaled on 7 March 2003 at Martinstown Stud, County Limerick, by Noreen McManus — the wife of his owner JP McManus. His sire was Presenting, one of the most influential National Hunt sires of his generation, responsible for horses that stayed well and jumped reliably. His dam, Synchronise, added a further note of staying blood. The combination pointed clearly towards the staying division.

JP McManus — one of the sport's most recognisable owners, instantly identified by the green and gold hoops — has campaigned a long line of high-class National Hunt horses over the decades. Synchronised joined a string that included Brave Inca, Binocular, and later Hurricane Fly. He was trained throughout his career by Jonjo O'Neill, who had himself been a champion jockey before becoming one of the sport's most effective trainers with big staying chasers.

Hurdling Career

Synchronised began his career as a hurdler in February 2008 and ran six times over timber before being switched to fences. His hurdling record — three wins from six starts — was solid without suggesting exceptional ability. His best hurdling run came at Haydock Park in February 2009, where he won a three-mile qualifying race for the Pertemps Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. That was the start of a pattern: long distances, testing conditions, late-race staying power. These were the circumstances in which Synchronised performed best.

He was placed in the Pertemps Final at Cheltenham in March 2009, which confirmed that he was a competitive Grade-level performer over hurdles. But the hurdling game was always a prelude for a horse of his breeding and physical make-up.

The Switch to Fences

In November 2009 Synchronised began his chasing career with a win at Market Rasen. Seventeen days later, Jonjo O'Neill moved him up rapidly in class to a Grade II novices' chase at Chepstow, which he also won. The progression from minor novice chase to Grade II in a fortnight was striking — it reflected the yard's confidence in the horse's jumping and their assessment that he was not an ordinary novice.

That two-run November sequence set up the decision to take Synchronised to Uttoxeter in March 2010 for the Midlands Grand National. The race is run over four miles one and a half furlongs, with twenty-five fences. For a horse that had run only twice over fences, it was an ambitious entry. It was also, as the result confirmed, exactly the right race.

AP McCoy and the Partnership

AP McCoy rode Synchronised at Uttoxeter and was his jockey through much of his major career. The partnership between the two was notable: McCoy's relentless determination and Synchronised's engine and jumping ability combined effectively. McCoy, who had won virtually every significant race in the calendar by the time Synchronised came along, described him as a horse with real quality over the longer distances.

Physical Characteristics

Synchronised was considered small by steeplechasing standards — the description in his Wikipedia profile notes this explicitly. He was a compact, workmanlike horse rather than a big-framed chaser. But small horses that can jump cleanly and stay strongly have a specific advantage at big-field staying chases: they use less energy per stride, they are naturally lower to the ground in their jumping action, and they can be positioned inside rivals without taking up too much room. At Uttoxeter — where the field is large, the fences are demanding, and the trip is severe — those qualities are worth more than size.

The 2010 Midlands Grand National

The Midlands Grand National is run at Uttoxeter in March each year. The 2010 edition took place in conditions that suited a strong, athletic stayer: the ground was testing, the field was large, and the trip — four miles one and a half furlongs — ensured that only those horses with real stamina would be competitive in the closing stages.

Synchronised was only in his second chase, having won twice over fences in November 2009. Taking a novice to a marathon handicap within a few months of his debut over fences is unusual, and the decision reflected O'Neill and McCoy's assessment that the horse was ready for the test. He was not a flashy, quick type who needed a confidence run. He was a stayer, and the Midlands Grand National was a stayer's race.

The race unfolded as these races often do: the early pace was brisk as the field sorted itself out over the first mile of fences, horses dropped away as the stamina demands increased, and the final mile became a test of which horses could still jump cleanly and find acceleration when exhausted. Synchronised and The Giant Bolster disputed the lead at the last fence. Synchronised pulled clear on the run-in to win by two and a quarter lengths.

What the Uttoxeter Track Tested

The Uttoxeter left-handed course is a galloping track with enough of a turn to break up the rhythm of horses that prefer to race in a straight line. The fences at Uttoxeter are built to be jumped, not skipped — they are proper regulation fences, and at four miles the race involves twenty-five of them. A horse that meets them on the wrong stride in the final mile, when fatigue is setting in, will make a mistake. Synchronised jumped cleanly throughout.

The winning time was noted at the time. For a novice chaser, running a distinctly competitive time at a race of that distance, the performance was striking. The handicapper was quick to revise his mark upwards. What had seemed like an ambitious entry — a novice in a marathon handicap — had turned into a performance that demanded reassessment.

The Midlands Grand National's History

The race dates to 1969 — significantly younger than the other Grand Nationals in the calendar — but it has grown in stature through a roll of honour that occasionally throws up horses that go on to excel at the highest level. Before Synchronised, The Thinker won the 1986 edition and went on to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup the following year. Rag Trade, the 1976 Grand National winner at Aintree, had also run at Uttoxeter.

The race does not have a fixed Grade; it is a Premier Handicap, which means it sits below the Grade 1 staying chases but above ordinary handicap company. The prize money and the field quality reflect that positioning. When a horse of Synchronised's calibre wins it, the race earns a place in the Gold Cup narrative. When the Thinker won in 1986 and then won the Gold Cup in 1987, Uttoxeter earned its first direct link to the Gold Cup roll of honour. Synchronised gave it a second.

Subsequent Career at Uttoxeter

Synchronised did not run at Uttoxeter again after the 2010 Midlands Grand National. His subsequent career took him to Cheltenham, Leopardstown and Aintree. But the Uttoxeter win was the performance from which his Gold Cup campaign can be traced. It established the parameters of his ability — the stamina, the jumping, the competitive nature over the longest distances — and gave O'Neill the foundation on which to build the 2011-12 campaign that culminated in Cheltenham in March 2012.

For a broader view of what Uttoxeter offers its best performers, see our Uttoxeter history article.

The Midlands Grand National Finish

The finish of the 2010 Midlands Grand National, with Synchronised drawing clear of The Giant Bolster on the run-in at Uttoxeter, is the image that connects the course to the Gold Cup narrative. It was not a head-bobbing photo finish. It was a two-length win — emphatic enough to show the horse in command of the race in the closing stages, with McCoy barely moving. The margin of victory said something about what was left in the tank when the finish line arrived.

In staying chases over long distances, the horses that win with daylight to spare at the finish are the ones worth following up the weights. A horse that barely lasts home — that is all out, hanging left, surviving rather than winning — might not progress at the top level. Synchronised won at Uttoxeter with enough in reserve to suggest that the distance had not beaten him; he had beaten the distance.

The Grade II Win at Chepstow

Before Uttoxeter, the Grade II novices' chase at Chepstow in November 2009 had been a significant statement. Jonjo O'Neill entered a horse that had run only once over fences — at Market Rasen, seventeen days earlier — in a Grade II race. The casual observer might have thought this was over-ambitious. Synchronised won.

That Chepstow win was the foundation on which the Uttoxeter decision was built. The yard had seen enough to know the horse could handle better company and longer distances earlier than most novices. The Midlands Grand National was the next logical step once the Grade II had been won.

The 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup

Gold Cup day 2012 at Cheltenham was the pinnacle. Synchronised, now a nine-year-old, lined up against the best staying chasers in training. He had won the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown in December 2011, beating quality opposition by eight and a half lengths. That was his Grade I breakthrough. The Gold Cup took it to another level.

He won the Gold Cup by a length and a quarter from The Giant Bolster — the same rival he had beaten at Uttoxeter two years earlier. The coincidence is striking: the horse beaten at Uttoxeter was the horse beaten at Cheltenham. It suggests that the form line from the 2010 Midlands Grand National was not an accident or a fluke of conditions — it was real form, and The Giant Bolster was a real top-class chaser in his own right.

The Grand National 2012 and the Tragedy

Three weeks after the Gold Cup, Synchronised ran in the Grand National at Aintree. He was carrying the weight of a Gold Cup winner in the world's most famous chase. He fell early and suffered a fatal injury on the course. He was euthanised on the track.

The death of a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner at Aintree three weeks after his finest hour is one of the sadder outcomes in recent jumping history. For connections, the loss was acute. For racing as a whole, the 2012 Grand National day — in which two horses died — prompted renewed discussion about risk management at the race. Synchronised's death came within weeks of his greatest triumph, and it is the final chapter of a career that had begun at Uttoxeter.

Uttoxeter's Gold Cup Connection

The link between the Midlands Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup is not coincidental. It is structural. The Uttoxeter race — four miles of real fences over testing ground in March — is the kind of preparation that teaches a horse what Gold Cup racing will demand. It is longer than the Gold Cup, which means the stamina reserves needed are greater. The fences are demanding, which means the jumping has to be clean under fatigue. And it is run around a left-handed galloping track, which develops the rhythm that big staying chasers need.

The Thinker won the Midlands Grand National in 1986 and the Gold Cup in 1987. Synchronised won the Midlands Grand National in 2010 and the Gold Cup in 2012. The gap in each case was roughly two seasons — long enough for the horse to mature further and step through the grades, short enough that the Uttoxeter performance was clearly a stepping stone rather than coincidence.

Uttoxeter can point to two Gold Cup winners who first showed their staying credentials on its course. That is a specific distinction — not many racecourses outside Cheltenham itself can make the same claim.

What Synchronised Gave the Midlands Grand National

Synchronised's career gave the Midlands Grand National a Gold Cup winner on its roll of honour. It gave the race's promotion material a result that demonstrated the quality of the field it attracts — that serious trainers with serious horses use Uttoxeter in March as a real preparation for the biggest prizes.

The race did not immediately become a Grade 1 on the back of his win. It remains a Premier Handicap. But the reputation it carries — as a thorough test of stamina and jumping that produces champions — is stronger for the Synchronised chapter.

Jonjo O'Neill and the Uttoxeter Track

Jonjo O'Neill has trained good horses at Uttoxeter over the years. He understands the track and he understands what the Midlands Grand National asks of a horse. That he chose to bring a novice chaser — lightly raced and unknown — to Uttoxeter in March 2010 rather than running him in the more predictable novice chases at the spring meetings reflects both his confidence in the horse and his knowledge of what the race tests.

O'Neill's training record at Uttoxeter demonstrates a level of track knowledge that goes beyond simply entering horses in suitable races. The Synchronised decision was a specific, considered judgment. The result justified it entirely. See our Uttoxeter complete guide for more on the trainers and trends that matter at this course.