HORSE PROFILE

Foaled: 2007

Retired: March 2017

Trainer: Edward Lynam

Owner: Mrs Sabena Power

Jockeys: Pat Smullen, Wayne Lordan, Keegan Latham, Johnny Murtagh, Ryan Moore, Richard Hughes, Chris Hayes

At the beginning of March 2017, it was announced that Sole Power, one of the very best and most popular sprinters that Ireland has produced in recent decades, had been retired by his connections. The 10-year-old won 12 of his 65 starts including five Group 1 races and accumulated well over €2m in prize money, but he will perhaps be most fondly remembered for the scintillating turn of foot he was capable of producing in the closing stages of his races.

Purchased for just £32,000 as a yearling by Eddie Lynam at Doncaster in 2008, the Power family bought into him and he was put into training at Lynam’s Dunshaughlin base. As a young horse, he was reportedly a very keen-going type at home that only had two gears, walking or galloping at top speed, but Lynam soon channelled that energy in the right direction. 

While he showed plenty of ability in his early starts, he didn’t set the world alight in winning twice at Dundalk from his first 11 starts. However, his career took a sharp upturn on what would prove to be a famous day at York in August 2010.

Still a three-year-old with an official rating of just 104, Sole Power was asked to take on some of the best older sprinters in the world in the Nunthorpe Stakes, with his most notable rival being Starspangledbanner. Sent off at 100/1, very few gave Sole Power a chance, but with it being the first time that he had encountered a true top-class early pace in a race that would prove so suitable for him throughout his career, Sole Power produced a hugely-improved effort to spring a shock of epic proportions in beating Starspangledbanner by 1¼ lengths under Wayne Lordan. 

While it was natural for many observers to consider such an unexpected victory to be a fluke, history would show that it was anything but that. After that, Sole Power became a regular on the international sprinting programme and while he ran well without winning for the next couple of seasons, he had to wait until King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2013 to return to the Group 1 winner’s enclosure, lowering the colours of the highly-regarded Shea Shea under a last-gasp swooping ride from Johnny Murtagh. 

2014 was perhaps the finest campaign of Sole Power’s career. He produced three searing turns of foot in succession to win the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket, the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Nunthorpe Stakes at York, cementing his position as one of the most exciting sprinters in the world. Indeed, such was his popularity at that time he was voted Horse Racing Ireland’s Horse of the Year in 2014, making him the first and only sprinter to win that award. 

There was still plenty of life left in him though, as 2015 saw him remove two notable monkeys from his back. The four previous years had seen him travel to the Dubai Carnival without success, but he righted that wrong by beating an international field to win the Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan in March 2015. 

Another notable wrong that was righted that year as in the seasons that followed the second win of his career at Dundalk in April 2010, Sole Power had not won in Ireland and indeed had only run on home soil on a handful of occasions due to the lack of suitable opportunities for top-class five-furlong sprinters. Perhaps helped by Sole Power’s exploits on the international scene, it was decided to upgrade the Flying Five Stakes at the Curragh to Group 2 status for the inaugural Irish Champions Weekend in 2015 and as if he could read the script, Sole Power duly turned up and won it! 

History will now show that victory at the Curragh would be the final success of Sole Power’s career. In many ways it was appropriate that Irish racegoers got to see him in victory before he retired, as he had done more than his share to enhance the reputation of Irish-trained sprinters on the international scene. 

Sprinters with Sole Power’s level of ability and wow-factor are very hard to come by and while he enjoys his retirement at Horse Park Stud in Wicklow, he will be fondly remembered by racing supporters for many years to come.