Greatest Mares: Lady Rebecca 6w393h

Pedigree Details

Sire: Rolfe

Dam: Needwood Fortune

Dam’s sire: Tycoon

Breeder: Needwood Stud

Foaled: May 11 1992

Race Record & Fact file

Races: 19

Wins: 13

Owner: Kinnersley Optimists

Trainers: Simon Christian (debut only), Venetia Williams

Lady Rebecca profile

‘She was only small in stature, about 15.2 hands, and sparely made, but stood tall in enthusiasm and courage as well as ability.’ Chasers & Hurdlers neatly summed up Lady Rebecca on her retirement at the end of a career which began with her changing hands for only 400 guineas as a yearling, but during which she earned £161,933 in prize money. She enjoyed a popular following, particularly at Cheltenham where, despite being beaten on all three of her appearances at the Festival, she was successful on the seven other occasions she raced there, notably when winning three consecutive editions of the Cleeve Hurdle which was a Grade 1 contest at the time.

1995/96 season

Making her debut late in the season in a bumper at Exeter, Lady Rebecca was beaten a head on what was to be her only start for Simon Christian.

1996/97 season

Lady Rebecca won all three of her starts in bumpers in the autumn at Bangor, Wincanton and Chepstow, coasting home when completing her hat-trick.

1997/98 season

Lady Rebecca took really well to hurdling, and easily won four of her five novice hurdles, her only defeat coming in the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle in which she was far from disgraced after being hampered, finishing eighth behind French Holly. Prior to that, she had won uncompetitive races at Cheltenham (on the bridle) and Doncaster (by 16 lengths), jumping much better on the latter occasion than she had on her debut. After the Festival, Lady Rebecca landed the odds in a couple of late-season contests at Bangor and Stratford, a rating of 125p indicating that she was likely to be capable of better, for all that she hadn’t beaten any rivals of note thus far.  

1998/99 season

That promise was fulfilled in no uncertain in Lady Rebecca’s second season over hurdles which began with a highly impressive win in a handicap at Cheltenham which she won easing down after cruising into the lead before three out. The drop back to two miles in the Gerry Feilden Hurdle at Newbury didn’t suit her, despite which she ran well in fourth, and she confirmed herself a rapidly-improving mare back over further in the Lonesome Glory Hurdle at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day when giving a 12-length beating to Zafarabad, who had been a leading juvenile the previous season and had finished a place in front of Lady Rebecca at Newbury.

Lady Rebecca’s biggest test to date came later in January back at Cheltenham in the Cleeve Hurdle, then a Grade 1 contest over two miles five furlongs. Sent off the 6/4 favourite, her notable rivals included the former Triumph Hurdle winner Commanche Court, the Bula Hurdle runner-up Grey Shot and the previous season’s Long Walk Hurdle winner Silver Wedge. Chasers & Hurdlers summed up her win succinctly but left no doubt about the impression she made. ‘She slaughtered them in a style that was a joy to behold, always going well, leading on the bit at the eighth flight and stretching clear for a 20-length win over Silver Wedge.’

That top-class effort made Lady Rebecca a leading contender for the Stayers’ Hurdle, though she didn’t have an ideal build-up to that race when developing pus in a foot less than a fortnight before the Festival. While it would be wrong to suggest she didn’t stay the longer trip (she had won over three miles at Bangor as a novice), she travelled strongly for a long way, with jockey Norman Williamson oozing confidence when ing issue entering the straight, but she failed to respond thereafter and came home less than three lengths third behind the strong-finishing outsider Anzum, whom she’d beaten out of sight in the Cleeve, and Irish favourite Le Coudray.

Major race won

•  Cleeve Hurdle, Cheltenham

1999/2000 season                     

Lady Rebecca’s next campaign was geared towards another attempt at the Stayers’ Hurdle. This time she made her reappearance in the Cleeve Hurdle, and though she won it again, she was nothing like as impressive as 12 months earlier, scraping home by a neck from Bacchanal who arguably might have beaten her had he not made a mistake at the last. With firmer going at the Festival putting the emphasis less on stamina and therefore expected to suit her, Lady Rebecca was sent off the 5/2 favourite for the Stayers’ Hurdle but she was off the bridle at the top of the hill and finished only sixth behind Bacchanal. Her third place in the Champion Stayers’ Hurdle at Punchestown just after the end of the British season appeared to confirm that Lady Rebecca simply wasn’t in the same form as she had been a year earlier. Retirement plans were announced after Punchestown, and she was covered by Sovereign Water later in May.

Major race won

• Cleeve Hurdle, Cheltenham

2000/01 season                          

But that wasn’t quite the end of Lady Rebecca’s racing career. After failing to get in foal, she was put back in training for another season with the Stayers’ Hurdle once again her main aim. She missed the Long Walk Hurdle because of the ground and was denied the chance to return in the Spa Hurdle at Cheltenham when that meeting was abandoned. Instead, therefore, she reappeared once again in the Cleeve Hurdle, starting fourth choice in the betting behind rivals who all boasted good wins earlier in the season, namely Barton (‘Fighting Fifth’), Youlneverwalkalone (Hatton’s Grace) and Mister Banjo (Relkeel). Not only did Lady Rebecca beat them all to complete a hat-trick of wins in the Cleeve, all under Norman Williamson, she also ran up to the form of her first win in the race in beating Mister Banjo by six lengths, with the rest, headed by Anzum, well beaten. But there would have been no third attempt to win the Stayers’ Hurdle even if foot and mouth hadn’t put paid to the Cheltenham Festival that season; in February she was retired for good after the announcement that she would miss the rest of the season because of a leg infection.

Major race won

•  Cleeve Hurdle, Cheltenham

Lady Rebecca at stud

The best of the four winners Lady Rebecca produced at stud was Lord Generous (by Generous). As well as winning a listed bumper at Cheltenham (in which Lady Cricket’s son Cricket Boy finished third), he went on to show useful form over hurdles, winning twice as a novice and finishing fifth in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at the Festival. Lady Rebecca's three other winners, Lady Samantha, Mary Eleanor and Lady Karina, were all successful over hurdles, the last-named for Lady Rebecca’s connections. Several of Lady Rebecca’s daughters are now broodmares themselves, and her granddaughter Royal Kahala was a useful novice hurdler in Ireland in 2020/21.