If I Had Him, owned by Sir Alex Ferguson, was crowned champion horse in the Channel Islands after winning for the fifth time in 2013 on the final day of the season at Les Landes racecourse in Jersey.
The nine-year-old, trained by George Baker at Manton, gave plenty of weight of all his rivals as he completed a nap-hand of victories over hurdles under Mattie Batchelor.
Despite his victory, he could have been pipped for the title by Pas D’Action but If I Had Him’s stablemate I’m Harry came to his aid by beating that horse in the finale.
“If I Had Him, under an inspired ride by Mattie Batchelor, won the hurdle race by a neck giving over a stone to everything else,” said Baker.
“That meant that if a horse called Pas D’Action won the last race that one would out-do us for champion horse, but we managed to train the winner of the last in I’m Harry, so we had a double. Pas D’Action was second and so Sir Alex Ferguson has the champion horse.
“I’ve told Sir Alex and he’s absolutely delighted. It’s a great thrill. Little fish are sweet but he’s supported this bit of madness from the beginning and it’s come off.
“It’s down primarily to a tough horse and a very able jockey, so we have the champion horse in the Channel Islands.
“These horses would struggle and maybe win occasionally back home, but here he’s become a bit of a superstar.
“It’s a plot we hatched in the spring and luckily when I ran it past Sir Alex he ran with it. Because of that we’ve had some fun and done something we couldn’t have imagined he would do.
“He’s won five hurdle races here and in the meantime we drifted off to Ostend where he was the first English winner there for 10 years.”
