What you didn’t know about… Dvinsky

Trainer Paul Howling tells H&H about the busiest British racehorse of the modern era.

Fact file

Age: 11

Stable name: Dave

Height: 16.1hh

Breed: thoroughbred

Sire: Stravinsky

Dam: Festive Season, by Lypheor

Sex: gelding

Discipline: Flat racing

Trainer: Paul Howling

Owner: David Hardaker

Rider: currently Tom McLaughlin

Groom: Larry Mancini

Three things you didn’t know…

1 As a yearling, he was sold at auction for €200,000 to Michael Tabor, for whom he earned £2,975 from one victory in six runs in the famous blue and orange colours. Eight years later, he was bought by his present owner, his sixth, for just 1,800 guineas.

2 His biggest payday came when he earned £5,180.80 for winning a class four handicap at Kempton four years ago. He has earned £118,000 in 10 seasons. Compare that with Frankel’s £2.2million, and counting, in three years…

3 Sharp Hat, the previous holder of the numerical record, completed his tally of 217 races between 13 July 1996 and 6 November 2007. Dvinsky has been the quicker to his milestone, having had his first race on 20 August 2003. But despite their careers overlapping and both being sprinters, the two never met.

To read the full interview with Paul Howling about Dvinsky see 4 October issue of H&H

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