It is a sad day in an obvious sense but it is also a happy day - he will retire to a very good home to be pampered and spoilt with his health relatively good.
It would be easy to wallow in self pity about "what could have been" with Aces but I prefer to reflect on just what he did for us.
We bought him in December 2005, Ferdy having bought him at Doncaster Sales a month earlier. He had been "sold"a couple of times by Ferdy but the deals were never completed and so I was surprised to find him still avaialble in December. Surprised because he looked the part & because I knew how much Ferdy thought of him. Before Ferdy got him, he had run in 4 bumpers (placed second twice) and four novice hurdles (placed each time). He had always run on good to soft ground or softer but Ferdy was sure that he needed quicker ground. Additionally, he had had a little bit of corrective work on his breathing immediately after joining the yard.
I really liked him but at the time he was significantly more expensive than anything we had bought so far at £23K. However, we decided to take a "risk" with him & bought him in Dec 05. A couple of weeks after I bought him, Ferdy told me that he would probably win first time out and that he thought that he was potentially high class....but as a chaser not a hurdler.
Eight weeks later, he made his debut in a modest maiden hurdle at Ludlow- a venue chosen as it provided good quick ground. As promised he duly won by 7 lengths....rewarding the one owner that had made the trip! In truth, only 4 shares had been sold & so the win was a great boost in terms of sales!!!
From there he went to Ayr 4 weeks later & won again. By now he was rated 125 & we ran him in a handicap hurdle again at Ayr. He finished only 3rd of 4 ...but we probably ran him in a handicap before he was ready and we did so on good to soft ground. The defeat was more about our bad planning than his ability! To prove the point, he ran a week later at Perth - on good to firm ground & back in novice company. He won easily. Three hurdles wins from 4 starts...the syndicate finally "sold out"!
That was the end of his novice hurdle campaign - 3 wins from 4 - and we put him away for the summer remembering what Ferdy had said - he is a chaser not a hurdler!!
He made his novice chase debut at Fakenham in October 06 and fell when very tired at the last. Not the best start! However in the next 6 weeks he went twice to Necastle and twice he won - both times very impressively. Great days for the partners! Graham Lee reported him to have made a noise & suggested that we try to help his breathing a little....though the issue was not serious.
We then went to Cheltenham in December 06 and on soft ground he ran a blinder to be 2nd to Patsy Hall. Graham Lee again reported the breathing issue & said that he would have otherwise won. He had a small operation on his nasal passages and the next time that we were to see him was in The Sun Alliance Chase of 2007. Denman won the race and Aces finished fourth....having stumbled on landing three from home. The memory of him bombing down to the third last upsides Denman with everything else off the bridle will never leave me!! Graham reported him to have been "hard on the steel" when stumbling and so we felt that he would certainly have been 2nd...though 4th in a Cheltenham Festival championship race was great!
We took him to Aintree next for the £70K Midmay Novices Chase and this was the best day of his career. He destroyed a good field and won by an eased down 8 lengths. Most of his owners were there and it was a memorable day.
His next race was to prove to be the start of a run of bad luck. He took a crashing fall at the last at Punchestown when looking like winning and was then injured in the next seasons Charlie Hall. The following 18 months saw him battle with injury & see the track only once until, this weekend, we retired him.
A fantastic horse, rated 157 at his peak and a real superstar for us....13 runs, 6 wins and some great days out!
Enjoy the retirement Aces, you deserve it!!