“Racing up towards the line, Peregrine Run, what a hero he is, 20 wins!”

BER Fahey says she’s still getting goosebumps listening back to the commentary of Peregrine Run’s win in the Native River Handicap Chase at Chepstow last Saturday.

Although she was there to see the race and hear the commentator on the day, it was hard to take it all in. You might have seen the video on social media, herself and Peter getting fairly excited, she more than him in fairness.

“I wish I had super glue to keep my feet on the ground and my hands by my side!” she says laughing this week. “I get so excited watching our horses race but a lot of the time I’m in the living room and there are no cameras there. This horse is just so special.”

There is no need to justify such behaviour. The 12-year-old Peregrine Run might do the vast majority of his racing outside of the National Hunt season proper, but he is a perfect example of why the code is as popular as it is. His win on Saturday brought joy to many who have nothing to do with the gelding, never mind riding him out every day like Ber does.

Racing for the 64th time under rules at Chepstow, he was conceding the well-backed favourite Tea Clipper both five years in age and pounds in weight, yet an impeccable round of jumping allowed him into the race and when it came down to the business end after the last, he lacked nothing for guts to stick his head down for rider Sam Ewing and he got the job done for the 20th time.

“He has just been in such good form this year,” Ber says. “I was thinking after he won at Worcester maybe we’ve used up all our luck getting a win out of him at 12. For him to then go over to Chepstow and put in a real exhibition of jumping, it was just incredible.”

Unique club

Win number 20 puts owner/breeder Vincent Byrne’s gelding in a unique club. His wins have come in a bumper, on the flat, over hurdles and over fences; in handicaps, graded contests, beginners and maidens; at 13 different courses; for four different riders; with at least one win every year since 2015.

“The Grade 2 win at Cheltenham back in the early days was really big, a huge day,” Ber says. “He’s been incredible to be associated with since then, not just for us but for the lads who’ve ridden him. Roger Loughran came to us and he wasn’t particularly busy at the time. He got nine wins out of Peregrine and it definitely revived his career for a few years.

“Then Kevin (Sexton) came back off a suspension and he’d a tough time, and Peregrine bailed him out and got him seven wins and that got him going again. And even now, the horse is giving Sam (Ewing) a platform to showcase his unbelievable talent at just 18 years of age.”

Racing is a funny old game because Peregrine Run only ended up with the Fahey’s because he failed the vet before his intended sale. Nine years later, he’s still up to winning a Saturday handicap chase in Britain off a mark of 147. For a horse who needs the sun on his back and quick ground under his hooves, the real success story here is how he has remained so sound and taken to his racing so well at such a high level.

“He’s such a dude,” Ber says. “He’s not tricky but he has his own personality. If the sun isn’t out, he’ll think hard about it and he’ll sulk a bit. He doesn’t have the same pep in his step. His routine most mornings would be that we’d tack him off after his work, bring him down to the wash bay and then he goes on the walker. If we want to put him in the paddock instead of the walk, he’ll plank himself.

“He is is such a creature of habit. Even now as a 12-year-old he’ll still try and run away going down to a canter or a bit of work or something. He’ll stop in the same place after cantering to have a pick of grass or to have a scratch, the same place everyday. But he’s loving life at the moment, you’d swear he was a six-year-old. We’ll never have another one like him.”

Incredible career

After such an incredible career, Peregrine Run may be given the chance to add yet another string to his bow with a spin over the banks at Cheltenham’s November meeting under consideration, but the ground will determine that project.

“He has been such an incredible servant for us that unless conditions were impeccable for him, there’d be very little to gain from running him,” Fahey says. “He is in the form of his life. Riding him out this week you’d swear he never had a race. He is definitely not ready to pack it in but there is nothing to be gained from running in unfavourable conditions so we’ll play it by ear.”