Flemensfirth

Flemensfirth was a bay horse bred by the Mill Ridge Farm at Lexington, Kentucky. He was sired by the dual Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Alleged out of the Diesis mare Etheldreda.[1] He was bought as a yearling for $290,000[2] by Sheikh Mohammed and sent into training with John Gosden in England.

Flemensfirth did not appear on the racecourse until the September of his two-year-old season, when he won a Nottingham maiden race "smoothly"[3] by three lengths.

After finishing second in the listed Feilden Stakes at Newmarket on his three-year-old debut, he was campaigned exclusively in top-class company. At Longchamp in May he upset the 1–2 favourite Solar One to take the Group I Prix Lupin,[4] taking the lead two furlongs out and staying on strongly to win by a length. After finishing unplaced in the Prix du Jockey Club and the St. James's Palace Stakes he was rested for an autumn campaign. He returned to Longchamp for the Arc meeting, where he led all the way to win the Group 2 Prix Dollar by half a length from Volochine.[5]

Injury then kept Flemensfirth off the racecourse for over a year. When he returned he took his record at Longchamp to three wins in three starts by taking his second Prix Dollar, leading in the straight and staying on strongly to win by two lengths.[6] A month later he travelled to Italy to land odds of 1–2 in the Premio Roma, defeating the German mare Hollywood Dream by a neck.

By the time he appeared again in the 1997 Dubai World Cup, Flemensfirth had not lost a race for almost two years, but he was always struggling on the dirt surface, and came home last of the ten finishers behind Singspiel. It proved to be his final racecourse appearance.

Flemensfirth has had very little success as a sire of flat-race horses, but has been highly successful as a sire of jumpers. By 2005 he was being mentioned as a "leading sire of the future" [2] and he has gone on to produce the winners of almost five hundred races. His best son is the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Imperial Commander, while his other Grade I winners include Tidal Bay, Flemenstar, Joe Lively, Relegate, Colreevy and Pandorama. He stood for the Coolmore organisation at The Beeches stud in County Waterford[7] from 1998 until his retirement from stallion duty in 2020 and died on 26 May 2023.[8][9]