Famous Celtic Swing colours feature at Knockinroe

The colours of a former British Horseracing Board Chairman featured in the point-to-point fields of Knockinroe on Sunday, when In Disguise made his debut in the four-year-old geldings’ maiden.

Trained by Colin Bowe, the Declaration Of War gelding, who finished second on that initial outing behind John Nallen’s Minella Link, was sporting the very famous maroon and light blue silks of Peter Savill, making him a very interesting addition to the ranks.

Based in Wicklow, Savill who also purchased Plumpton Racecourse in 1998 alongside Capt. Adrian Pratt, is a prolific racehorse owner, predominantly on the flat where he has been associated with many greats of the sport.

Chief among them all is undoubtedly Celtic Swing, whose two-year-old career has stood the test of time, and has drawn comparisons this year with Pinatubo.

Trained by Lady Herries, Celtic Swing achieved an eight-length success at Ascot followed by a 12-length demolition of the field in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster in the autumn of 1994, leaving him as one of the top-rated two-year-old’s in Europe throughout the modern era and winning the Cartier Award as the year’s top European two-year-old colt.

As a three-year-old, he won the French Derby before being retired to stud, where he sired the likes of eight-time Group 1 winning globetrotter Takeover Target and the 2003 Breeders Cup Mile victor Six Perfections.



The businessman, who made his fortune in the publishing and travel industries in the Caribbean, has also had his colours associated with Royal Rebel, who won consecutive editions of the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 2001 and 2002, whilst he also bred the Italian Group 1 winner Rainbow Peak.

It would seem to be that his role as a breeder at Oak House Stud in Wicklow that has led him to his Knockinroe runner-up, which was a homebred out of his Rainbow Quest mare, Fashion Statement.

Unusually having produced a horse that now has placed point-to-point form, she is a former winner of the Group 2 Italian Oaks at San Siro.