Old Horse Question - Solomon II

only thing i could find was it was owned by Eddie Wiedermeyer who bought it for
800gns and sold it to France for 15,000 gns subsequent to 1970 C/H.

Thanks for looking. If it had been sold to race in France you would have thought it might have returned for another Champion Hurdle. The French sent over the ex-English, Hardatit, to be placed behind Bula.

Watching the replay back of the 1970 race Solomon II jumped the last in second, and only weakened on the run in.

Solomon II was well bred. He was by Aureole out of Queen of Sheba, who won the Royal Hunt Cup in 1952. The 'II' was attached because there was a year-younger Solomon who raced for Atty Corbett. Solomon II was owned by Major McCalmont on the flat as a 2 and 3yo, trained by Geoffrey Brooke, and ran in the Acomb Stakes at York won by Royal Palace (winning his first race on his 2nd outing). At least I think he ran it - he reared up before the race and put his jockey Joe Sime in hospital, but still appears in the also-rans at 20/1, so maybe they found a substitute jockey. Piggott rode 5 winners on that York card, including Mintmaster who should have been ridden by Sime. Barons bought Solomon II for 800gns at the end of his 3yo year. He'd been hoping to win the Schweppes with him in 1970, but it was lost to the weather. He was surprised when he managed to give 4lb and a beating to Coral Diver in the Kingwell.

*Queen of Sheba won the Irish 1000 Guineas in 1951, as well as the Cheshire Oaks, and was 2nd in the Irish Oaks (and won the Hunt Cup the following year). She was trained by Atty Persse, who was then in his 80s. His wife was Geoffrey Brooke's sister.

Thanks

I think you could argue that he was second best behind the first great hurdler given his exertions four days earlier in a very competitive handicap hurdle. That replay shows him to be quicker through the air than Persian War at the last three flights. As Coral Diver finished fourth a reproduction of the Kingwell would have seen him second, but instead he weakens quite significantly on the run to the line.

He actually started in the Chesham, but he didn't win on the flat, unless he won abroad after the 1970 Champion Hurdle. That Acomb is a puzzle. I haven't recorded it as a run. Timeform say he was withdrawn, but still list the 'run'? He was withdrawn from a race the following season as well. At that stage Timeform had him down as ungenuine. In his first season hurdling he did win on successive days, so at a much lower level he had shown he could back up quickly. I don't know if he was a difficult horse to get fit, but it seemed as if he took plenty of runs to find some form. The Kingwell was also his only win on testing ground - described as 'very heavy'.

After Solomon11 won the Kingwell his next race was Sandown's Imperial cup and won with a 10lb penalty. In that national hunt season he ran 12 times starting his long campaign in August.