‘She just wasn’t normal’ – recalling a tiny but top-class filly back in the big time as dam of a champion

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On this occasion, Martin Stevens speaks to John Best about Rising Cross, the Oaks runner-up and Grade 1-producing broodmare who defied her physical stature – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Twenty years ago this spring a pint-sized filly with a modest page – and also, therefore, a cheap and cheerful price-tag – drifted out to 14-1 for her debut in a humdrum five-furlong fillies’ auction maiden on a Monday evening at Windsor. She stayed on ineffectually into fifth, beaten ten lengths in total. 

Anyone who saw that race, even those closest to the horse, could never have guessed that she would finish second in the Oaks in the following season and become the dam of an international champion in her paddocks career.

And yet that is exactly what Rising Cross did. 

The daughter of Cape Cross – conceived when her sire, who would gain fame as the source of galacticos Ouija Board, Sea The Stars and Golden Horn, was standing his third season at Kildangan Stud at a fee of just €10,000 – was bred by Cumbrian businessman John Wills out of Woodrising, a six-time winning plater on the Flat and over hurdles. 

Woodrising was by Nomination and out of Bodham, who in turn was by Bustino and out of Cley, a half-sister to Derby heroes Blakeney and Morston. Woodrising, Bodham and Cley were, like Blakeney and Morston, named after towns and villages in Norfolk, but theirs was a much quieter branch of the Budgett family's storied dynasty. 

Bantamweight and blue-collar, the young Rising Cross was sold as a foal to Rathmore Stud for 10,500gns and resold as a yearling to Highflyer Bloodstock for the scarcely more impressive sum of €20,000.

She had been bought on spec for the then still up-and-coming Kent trainer John Best, and raced for a syndicate that included the handler, professional gambler and broadcaster Dave Nevison and a clutch of hobby owners. The group’s hopes of success with their chancey filly was summed up by them calling themselves the Heading For The Rocks Partnership.

However, after that unpromising debut at Windsor and another dull effort at her local track of Folkestone, she slowly started showing glimmers of serious talent. She flew home to finish fifth in the Hilary Needler Trophy at Beverley, shed her maiden tag in good style back at the same track, and won a competitive nursery and conditions stakes on the Newmarket July course.

Later that summer she ran fourth in the Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket, filled the same position behind colts in the Solario Stakes at Sandown and finished runner-up to the top-class Nannina in the Prestige Stakes at Goodwood.

She took another giant leap forward at three, when she dead-heated with Soft Centre in the Lupe Stakes at Goodwood, found only the awesome Alexandrova too good in the Oaks at Epsom and won the Park Hill Stakes at York. 

Rising Cross and Martin Dwyer win the Park Hill Stakes at YorkCredit: Mark Cranham

Rising Cross lost a little of her lustre at four and at five, by which time she was being trained in North America by Roger Attfield for Gary Tanaka, but nothing could take away from her phenomenal exploits as the plucky underdog in 22 starts at two and three.

When it came to retirement, her family ties and physique (or, rather, lack of both) were not for every blue-chip breeder, and it was probably kismet that she wound up in Japan, where racecourse performance is king.

She had been quietly plugging away producing winners for Northern Racing, and had come up with a half-decent one in the Grade 3-placed Earthrise, her 2012-foaled daughter by Manhattan Cafe, but it was beginning to look like she was going to suffer the same fate that befell other prized but petite racemares like Lyric Fantasy and Marling: namely, compiling a disappointing breeding record. 

That was until Croix Du Nord, her 2022-foaled son by Kitasan Black, exploded onto the scene last year. The striking officially-brown but almost-black colt was unbeaten in three starts for trainer Takashi Saito and owner Sunday Racing Co at two, culminating in a bloodless two-length victory in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Nakayama in December.

The career of Croix Du Nord, voted the best two-year-old colt in Japan last year, has so far mirrored that of the exceptional 2020 Japanese Triple Crown hero Contrail. It might continue to do so, as he is reported to be heading straight to the Satsuki Sho, the Japanese 2,000 Guineas at Nakayama in April, just as Contrail did five years ago.

Rising Cross’s former custodian Best, now retired from training, has been enjoying the latest chapter in the mare’s stranger-than-fiction biography.

“She was just extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary,” he says. “There were so many things about her that were just not normal for a horse – or a pony, I should say really, as that’s what she was. 

“I remember David Minton phoned me and said ‘I’ve bought a horse; do you want it?’ So obviously I asked for more information, and he said it was a filly by Cape Cross – ‘she’s not very big but she’s got a great walk’.

“Well that turned out to be the biggest understatement of all time. She was tiny, and tiny in every way. It wasn’t just that she was short; she also had no bone whatsoever, and her front legs came out of the same hole.”

Asked whether he ever measured her on the stick, he replies: “She was a tad over 14.2 hands, and that was with shoes on as well. If there had been some sort of pony competition with a maximum height restriction of 14.2 hands I think we could have got her under that, no problem.”

That lack of height made Rising Cross a hard sell to potential owners when she entered Best’s yard two decades ago. Size isn’t everything, but human nature dictates that imposing horses who fill the eye usually find themselves in more demand.

John Best: 'She was a tad over 14.2 hands, and that was with shoes on as well'

“My first thought when I saw her was how the hell am I going to sell that to an owner; who on earth would want to buy her?” adds Best. “Fortunately I had some new owners who, not being rude, just wanted a bit of a dabble for little money, and so they had half of her and Dave [Nevison] and I kept the other half. 

“Those owners had two horses in training each season for around another eight years, and the proceeds from her sale paid for all of them. They had tremendous fun along the way, and made a few more bob when another good horse they had called Relative Order was sold to Hong Kong.”

It became apparent that Rising Cross was much better than the sum of her parts as soon as Best got to work on her that spring.

“Around that time we were really just getting going, and so we were keen to crack on with the two-year-olds to get our name out there,” he says. “David Minton was quite right, it turned out: she did have a massive stride for a pony. He must be an absolute genius to have seen that in her at that age.

“She also had the most lovely attitude from the moment she arrived with me. Don’t get me wrong, I still only thought she might be okay at that point. Obviously I never thought in my wildest dreams that she might finish second in a Classic. It didn’t occur to me for one moment that she was quite that special.

“To be honest, I don’t actually think she had a great deal of natural ability. She had some, of course, otherwise she could never have run so well in all those good races; but what really set her apart for me was that she was so gutsy. I trained a few brave horses, but she took it to a whole different level.”

Rising Cross’s scrappy streetfighter spirit manifested itself in her early races.

“On her fifth start she contested a 13-runner nursery at Newmarket,” recalls Best. “She looked minuscule compared to all those big and burly colts in the race. The favourite [Cape Presto] was a whacking great horse and came up alongside her to challenge and started bumping and barging her. She wasn’t going to be intimidated though; in fact I think it fired her up.

“Jamie Spencer, who rode her that day, did a fair amount of cursing about Richard Hughes for that bit of aggro but he said Rising Cross just looked at the other horse with disdain, said f**k off, put her head down and shot off and won.

“She returned to Newmarket a few weeks later for a four-runner conditions race, with three massive colts taking her on. Sir Michael Stoute apparently thought his runner, Final Verse, was his best two-year-old that season.

“Jamie was in the saddle again but as the stalls opened she tripped and hit her head on the ground. It didn’t seem to stop her, though. She just picked herself up, came through and won. I ran out onto the track, as I always got a bit over-excited whenever I had a winner, and as she cantered back towards me I pulled a big lump of mud and grass out of her mouth.

“Jamie told me that day she might not have been the best horse he’d ever ridden, but she was definitely the bravest.”

Best and his co-owners bought back Rising Cross for just 77,000gns at the horses in training sales at the end of the filly’s two-year-old season. They had a narrow escape, as her legend grew again at three, thanks to that valiant second behind Alexandrova at Epsom, despite stumbling badly at the furlong pole, and a terrier-like victory in the Park Hill Stakes.

Best continues: “She tripped again in the Oaks but I wouldn’t want people to think she was prone to doing that. I think the first instance at Newmarket was just because she was so eager to get out there and do her thing, and the second was down to the undulations at Epsom.

“Martin Dwyer rode her in the Park Hill, when she threaded her way between two fillies to make her challenge. It was lucky she was so small, as otherwise she wouldn’t have fitted through the gap. She was hit over the head by one of the other jockeys’ whips just as she was coming through as well.

Rising Cross (right) finishes a gallant third behind Alexandrova in the Irish OaksCredit: Healy Racing

“On the replay you could see her chuck her head up in the air because of it. But she put it straight back down again and drove straight through the gap. Normal horses just don’t do that sort of thing. She was something else.”

Don’t go thinking the little filly with a Napoleon complex was nasty with it, though. She was simply a ball of pent-up energy who thrived on hard work.

“She was the kindest, easiest horse to deal with in every way,” says Best. “I couldn’t fault her. No matter what you asked of her, she would do it willingly.

“When she would go to the races she would walk round the paddock with her head down, plodding around, exactly as you want, but as soon as the jockey got on her back she would be like a rocking horse, cantering on the spot until she got down to the start.

“She wasn’t stressed or anything, she was just ready to go. Then she’d come back after the race and she’d be totally exhausted. Her head would nearly be on the ground because she’d put so much effort into running. But then within a couple of days she was back, ready to rock and roll again.

“The other odd thing about her was that when you turned her out into the field she’d canter around the edge of it a couple of times one way, then turn around and canter around it another couple of times the other way, and then she’d graze for five or ten minutes. Then she’d press repeat: canter around in one direction, then the other, and then graze. She was just incapable of standing still; she always wanted to be doing something.”

Croix Du Nord, who has earned favourable comparisons with recent Japanese world champion Equinox, another son of Kitasan Black, appears to have inherited his dam’s zest for life, on the evidence of his three successes to date at least.

Best is pleased that Rising Cross has finally done it in the breeding shed as well as on the track, even if she has left it late – for all that she has another two-year-old colt by Kitasan Black and a yearling filly by Satono Diamond still to come.

“I’ve taken a keen interest in her progress in Japan,” he says. “She seemed to be doing all right early on, but then wasn’t going particularly well, as she just wasn’t getting big-race winners. Now this one has popped up late in the day, just as nobody was expecting it.

“I suppose she was always going to be slightly difficult to mate, as you couldn’t put too large a stallion on her, and then if both parents don’t have much size you risk the foal being too small. At some point she had to pass on the genes that made her a freak, though.

“I’m really pleased she’s come through with Croix Du Nord. As soon as he won his first race I started getting messages from all sorts of old friends in the industry asking if I’d seen him. It’s been great fun re-connecting.”

Croix Du Nord takes the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Nakayama in DecemberCredit: Masakazu Takahashi

Best trained Rising Cross from his yard in Hucking near Maidstone but later joined Karen Jewell on a joint-licence at Eyehorn Farm near Sittingbourne a few miles further north in Kent. He stood down from that business in 2023, and has since been assisting his girlfriend Raeane Turner at her Rhoden Rehabilitation and Equine Performance Centre further south again in the Garden of England. 

“She has a great yard, with a water treadmill, spa bath and combi floor for bringing back horses who’ve had injuries or issues,” he says. “We treat a lot of competition horses for dressage and events. The water treadmill is ideal for getting them to use themselves correctly. It’s amazing how horses who might be a little lop-sided in their action straighten up after a while on it. Dressage and eventing riders need them to be very straight.

“We also do salt and oxygen therapy, which involves creating a briny mist similar to that in a salt cave or at the beach in the back of the horse box. The horse inhales it and it breaks down mucus, clears airways and heals tissue damage. I must admit I was a bit sceptical about it at first but I’ve been doing a fair bit of it, and it’s amazing how it turns horses inside-out.

“One thing I’m desperate to try it on is horses who bleed, to see whether it can alleviate that problem. I’m not saying it will, but it might.”

Best is more healer than handler these days, but he looks back at his time training with fondness; as he should, when as well as overseeing the career of unlikely heroine Rising Cross he also sent out Kingsgate Native to win the Nunthorpe at two and Golden Jubilee Stakes at three; Square Eddie to take the scalp of Pioneerof The Nile when the colt was successful in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland; and Flashmans Papers to score in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot at odds of 100-1.

“I have some very good memories of those times,” he says. “I think we did exceptionally well with the finances we had. Rising Cross cost €20,000, Kingsgate Native was 20,000gns and Flashmans Papers was 38,000gns.

“The frustrating thing is I made a few stallions but Kingsgate Native turned out to be subfertile and Square Eddie had a low sperm count so wasn’t able to cover mares in large numbers, although he still did very well from the limited stock he had in California.”

When it comes to securing Best’s place in turf history it could be the small but mighty Rising Cross who rises to the occasion again, with her son Croix Du Nord laying the foundations of a role as a popular and potent stallion in Japan.

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