FROM NEAR DEATH TO GLORY: Glorious Rio in his stable Credit: Matt Watkinson.
In August 2020, racehorse owner Matt Watkinson felt he had got a bargain when he purchased three-year-old gelding Glorious Rio out of trainer Charlie Hills yard for just £800 after the horse had recently sold for £80,000. However, the reason to why Watkinson had been able to acquire the horse for so cheap soon became clear, and Watkinson relives the full story of how his horse went from near death to glory…
Matt Watkinson fell in love with horse racing when he was there in person to see Imperial Commander win the Gold Cup at Cheltenham back in 2010.
IN COMMAND: Imperial Commander wins the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup which Matt attended. Credit: Racing TV YouTube.
The 36-year-old started enjoying watching horse racing through another sport he played, cricket, where his team would end up going on social nights out to Haydock races.
He then decided to set up his own syndicate in 2019, where other people could join in and experience what it’s like to be a racehorse owner.
“'I’ve owned horses for 12 years”, Watkinson said.
“I started off in racing clubs and syndicates and then basically got my own horses.
“At one stage I had about seven or eight horses of own, and I felt that I wanted to do something a bit more and come full circle really and get more people involved and give people a taste of what it’s like from the other side of the fence, and something different than just watching it casually.”
Soon the Matt Watkinson Racing Club was formed, and it wasn’t long before they were tasting success.
JOIN THE CLUB: Matt Watkinson (centre), and members of his racing club alongside Paul Clarkson (first on the left) and trainer Stella Barclay (third from the left) Credit: Matt Watkinson.
Three-year-old gelding Sharrabang had only won one race out of 13 for trainer Stella Barclay, who had bred the horse at home in her racing stables in Lancashire.
After winning at Carlisle in July 2019, the horse switched owners to Watkinson’s Racing Club, where he failed to finish in the top three on his next three starts.
However, that run soon changed, and at the fourth time of asking for the owners, Sharrabang got his head in front on the all-weather surface at Wolverhampton, prevailing by a neck under jockey Megan Nicholls, and to this day Watkinson still remembers it all.
“It was quite a bold move to start up the racing club and we only started with about 12 members, but I still remember our first winner on what a typical cold night at Wolverhampton was where Megan Nicholls rode Sharrabang brilliantly to victory”, Watkinson says with a smile.
JEKYLL AND HYDE: Sharrabang (above), can be quite the character Credit: Matt Watkinson.
“Obviously I’d had winners myself at this point, but to have one with a club that’s bearing your name on it was a real special moment.”
Speaking on the type of character Sharrabang is, Watkinson said: “He's won five for us now, and he's a bit of a favourite with most of the members that meet him because he can be a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde like character, so it depends which day you catch him on really.”
One day in August 2020, he stumbled across a gelding who went by the name of Glorious Rio for sale out of Charlie Hills yard, who had recently been purchased by Hills for £80,000, but was now looking for a new buyer.
Watkinson immediately placed an £800 online bid for the horse, auctions were still being held online at this point due to Covid and ended up being the only bidder and becoming the horse’s new owner.
NEW PURCHASE: Matt picked Glorious Rio up for £800 at the sales Credit: Matt Watkinson.
He said: “When I’m trying to buy horses, I’m looking for that bargain really, that no one else seems to want, and with Rio I saw that he had a little bit of form and saw what his price had been 18 months earlier and decided to take a chance on him.”
It soon became clear as to why the horse had ended up being so cheap though.
“When we got him back home, we saw he had this big lump on his knee that he’d obviously been racing with, and it turned out that it was an abscess and that they've been treating with antibiotics and it's just that over time, you keep treating the thing with antibiotics you become a bit more resistant to it each time, so it wasn't really working anymore.
“We spoke to the vet that used to treat him in Newmarket, and he said it was too risky to operate on, and that our options were just run him until he falls down basically or put him to sleep.”
Matt found someone who was willing to give the operation a go though, a vet called Rosie Stone who worked for Oakhill Equine Vets and helped out at Stella Barclay’s yard was willing to carry out the procedure, and Watkinson recalls the full experience.
“We had Stella's vet look at him and she said she wanted to have a crack at it because she thought she could do it and so we took a chance.
“Obviously we knew there was a chance that he wouldn't come through the operation, but we thought it was better he not be with us than be in so much pain.
“The vet actually ended up doing it as a case study that she's published, because it's so unique and it was found to be a really deep abscess that if at any point it burst we wouldn’t have been able to do anything, and he would’ve just bled to death.”
RECOVERY: Glorious Rio after having his life saving surgery. Credit: Matt Watkinson.
Once the surgery was known to be a success, Barclay’s and Watkinson’s attentions turned to getting their miracle horse back out on track.
He made his return in March 2021 at Wolverhampton, finishing 10th out of 12 runners, and it took him another five runs after that to really start to find his feet again.
“When we got him back racing, his first few races were pretty rubbish", Watkinson said.
“I think it took him a little while to realise that he wasn't in pain anymore, and as he raced more and more, we were feeling he was getting faster and faster, so we kept dropping him back in trip and when we got down to the minimum trip in five furlongs, he just seemed to take off."
Fast forward to August of that year, and Glorious Rio repaid all of Matt’s and Stella’s efforts and patience, winning at the eighth time of asking for the pair and the racing club at Newcastle over five furlongs, an evening Matt will remember for the rest of his life.
GOLD FOR RIO: Matt celebrates Glorious Rio's first win on Facebook Credit: Matt Watkinson.
“Most people were really emotional after that first win because they’d followed the journey that we’d been on.
“We had our first open day at Stella’s two days after Rio had his life saving operation and he had a full bandage on at the time and was hobbling around, and a lot of people looked at him and thought he’s never going to race.
“That moment where he won his first race, and won it easily as well, I think that personally is my favourite moment in my whole racing career, and I think most of the syndicate members would say that as well.”
Following on from Newcastle, Rio had clearly found his grove, finishing third at Ayr, before winning three races in a row, first at Nottingham, then Hamilton and then back to Newcastle a track he had fallen in love with.
By the end of October, the horse had now won five races, winning for a third time at Newcastle, and rising from a rating of 47 all the way to 76.
SEVEN HEAVEN: Rio wins for a seventh time. Credit: Matt Watkinson Racing Twitter.
Over the years Matt has formed an excellent partnership with trainer Barclay who used to be a librarian, and her partner Paul Clarkson at Lancashire Racing Stables.
Watkinson said: “12 years ago when I was in a couple syndicates, I wanted to get one that was in the Northwest.
“I just came across Lancashire Racing stables because I lived 20 minutes away and it was always Stella's property, but she just employed a trainer at the time.
So I got involved in this syndicate there and I think it took about three or four years until we had our first winner, but Stella has always wanted to have a go herself and it was only right that when she had the opportunity to apply for her own licence, she did, and gave it a go.”
OPEN DAY: Some of Matt's members visit the Lancashire Racing Stables Credit: Matt Watkinson Racing Twitter.
It wasn’t just the horses that had caught Matt’s eye at the place.
“I met my wife at the yard”, Watkinson said.
“She was a jockey there at the time, and it’s more than just a trainer/owner relationship we have there, it's a whole family thing.
“They came to my daughter's christening and that's how good of friends we are now.”
Matt was also quick to praise what a brilliant job Barclay and Clarkson had done since taking over.
“The place itself is just brilliant, and they are just so friendly”, Matt said.
“It's a real quiet part of the country and I think it's just perfect for training horses.
It's great to see her getting busier and busier, she’s having plenty of winners, and the individual care the horses get there as well is unbelievable and I think Rio just highlights that, a big trainer down south couldn't do it, but a relatively small trainer up north did.”
For now though Watkinson has his eye on unearthing his next gem.
“I know a lot of people who dream of winning the big races, but I’ve always got more of a kick out of winning races with horses that people have cast off and that’s what we’ve done.
NEXT ADVENTURE: Matt lines up an idea to get his next horse Credit: Matt Watkinson Racing Twitter.
“We tend to buy horses like old second-hand cars, they’ve been around for a while and the forms there for everyone to see.
“It would be great to spend hundreds of thousands on a horse, but that's realistically not going to happen unless we win the lottery, and our plan is just to keep doing what we’re doing because we’ve had 17 winners in just over three years which is really good going.”
Matt hopes his syndicate can continue to be successful and is always looking for new members, for Rio though, he’ll keep on looking for more success on the track and continuing to be simply ‘Glorious’.