Alan says farewell to Trueshan – none of us will ever forget him

July 30

Trueshan, who sadly had to be put down after suffering a fatal injury in yesterday’s Goodwood Cup, is back at Barbury and will now be laid to rest in the stable graveyard, alongside Viking Flagship, Katchit and Balder Succes, three other superstars from yesteryear that Alan also trained.

Speaking on ITV Racing after Kurakka’s brave third-place finish in today’s Goodwood opener, Alan’s emotions were close to bubbling over as he reflected on the last painful 24 hours.

Alan said:”It’s been very tough, but we have received an unbelievable amount of sympathetic messages – 200 plus and they are still filtering through – and that means an awful lot to both myself and all the staff and has definitely helped us enormously.”

Trueshan was far and away the best Flat racer that Alan has trained. The hugely popular nine-year-old won 16 of his 35 races and earned his owners more than £2m in prize money, but Alan stressed that to him Trueshan was “a friend” and his loss has hit him hard.

Alan added:”Trueshan was an incredibly sound horse. He was so tough but also very kind, and he never missed a day’s exercise, never had a bruised foot or anything. Sure, I withdrew him a few times from big races, but only because the ground was too fast.

“Yesterday was a totally freak accident. It was awful and no blame to the track or anybody. It was just one of those things and could have happened on the all-weather or at home. I’ll never forget Viking Flagship getting loose on what was not even a work morning. He took off and sadly broke a hind leg.”

Turning the clock back to yesterday’s tragedy, Alan said:”Mark White, my travelling head lad, was down with Trueshan in a flash, and I called him said ‘I am on my way’. I am gad that I made it in time to say goodbye, but the vets were superb and did it all quietly and very professionally

“Trueshan gave us all so many wonderful days He was never a spectacular work horse, but always worked to a consistent level. The first time I realised he was a pretty smart horse was his last race as a three-year-old when he beat Hsmish at Newbury.
“I decided that day that I wasn’t going to risk him over hurdles and would keep him to the Flat. There are so many great days I could recall, but his first Goodwood Cup was very special as it was my first G1 in Britain.”

There are so many messages flooding into the Barbury office, but the general feeling of the popularity he held with the racing public can be summed up by this e-mail which came through at lunchtime.

“Dear Mr King and all the staff at Barbury. I just want to send my condolences for your loss. Trueshan was a beautiful horse and we all follow you on our racing club , I just want you to knowhow much we loved watching him and we will all miss him.” Corinne Bell.

We all hoped and prayed that Kurakka might give all of us at Barbury the perfect pick-me-up in today’s curtain-raiser, but it was not to be. However, Kurakka ran another blinder. He was a fast-finisher, only just failing to snatch second place in a race which was run at a very sedate pace, not what we were hoping for. For Kurakka there will be another day – sadly for Trueshan we can only say RIP.