Racing: Give up jumping? Don't tell Celibate

Charlie Mann's 11-year-old pride and joy lines up for the 85th time today but his zest for the sport is undiminished

A truly remarkable horse will turn out at Wincanton this afternoon, a battle-hardened gelding who might to be said to embody the indomitable spirit of the long- serving jump-racing warrior. Flat-racing star Rock Of Gibraltar, lauded as an exceptionally tough competitor, had his 13th race in Chicago last night. Celibate, 11 years old, will face the starter for the 85th time when he lines up to try to win the Desert Orchid Chase for the second successive season. The eponymous grey hero of yesteryear, who will parade before the off, would undoubtedly, if he understood such emotions, be proud to have such a competitor in his race.

Dessie was one of those rare horses who not only join in the games we devise for them but do so willingly, with positive enthusiasm. Celibate is another. His trainer, Charlie Mann is, like most professional horsemen, not easily given to anthropomorphism, but makes an exception in the case of the diminutive chestnut who has been part of his life for the past seven years.

"I've known him two years longer than I've known my wife," he said. "He's part of the furniture. I've seen horses come and go – the annual turnover through the yard is something like 40 per cent – but this one is irreplaceable.

"He is simply a pleasure to be around. He enjoys his work, he loves his racing, loves to jump. He's a real old pro, knows exactly what's going on as soon as we start to get him ready, and he'd drive the box to the races himself if he could. He owes us nothing and he will be here with me until his dying day."

Cleverly-named Celibate was not bred to be a steeplechaser. His sire, Shy Groom, and dam, Dance Alone, were winning Flat racers at a relatively modest level, though one genuine star on the level recently emerged from the family in America. Tiznow, conqueror of Giant's Causeway and Sakhee at successive Breeders' Cups, is out of Dance Alone's half-sister.

Mann, based in Upper Lambourn, bought the horse who has become his totem for just 9,200 guineas at the Doncaster sales as a four-year-old, by which time he had won twice from his 23 starts in Ireland under Mick O'Toole's care, scoring in a minor hurdle race and a low-grade handicap at the unique meeting on the beach at Laytown. After a season hurdling in Britain he switched to fences, and though never a champion, he consistently acquitted himself with honour in the best of company, and his 10 victories include one at Grade One level, the BMW Chase at Punchestown, and three Grade Twos.

His nimble, versatile talent has given his owners – a group of Chelsea fans, headed by businessman Bon Michaelson, who race as the Stamford Bridge Partnership – the fun and prestige of trips to not only the best venues in Britain, but worldwide. Mann, 44, has a tendency to swashbuckle and, presented with a competitor like Celibate, has scarcely ducked a challenge: the horse has taken on tasks as varied as the two-mile Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival; the world's richest steeplechase, the Nakayama Grand Jump, in Japan; and the Grand National, in which he came an honourable sixth in April.

His latest venture, a journey to the Czech Republic earlier this month for the Velka Pardubicka, the famous cross-country race in which Mann rode Its A Snip to victory seven years ago, was a non-starter. Mann pulled him out of the gruelling contest at the last minute after rain reduced the course to a quagmire. "Soft ground is no good for him," he said, "he tends to pull muscles in his back jumping out of it. And when a horse broke a leg trying to go through the plough section in an earlier race, the decision became academic."

Celibate's qualities also include exceptional soundness. His only prolonged spell on the sidelines came after he sustained a hairline pelvis fracture as a seven-year-old, from which injury he returned with his ability and attitude unchanged. "I found it hard enough to find an owner for him after I bought him," said Mann, "I suppose because he was small. He'd barely shade 16 hands. But his jumping is exceptional, so sure-footed and clever. It was such a shame he couldn't run in the Pardubicka. He had been quite superb in his schooling over some of the fences. But he'll be back there next year, and he may have another go round the Aintree fences, which he also jumped so well, in the Becher Chase next month."

Before that is this afternoon's more conventional task, in which he is scheduled to meet one of the rising stars of the game, Valley Henry from the powerful Paul Nicholls yard. If the younger horse is all he is cracked up to be, Celibate, who will be ridden by young David Crosse today, will provide a reliable yardstick. "He so consistently gives his best," said Mann, "that he makes it easy to judge other horses, and the handicapper loves him. He's probably not thought to be good enough to win today, but he wasn't supposed to win the race last year either, but he did."

Celibate's manners in the stable and under saddle – he is the regular mount of Mann's 73-year-old head man, Darkie Deacon, at home – are as immaculate as his record in races. "He is a one-off," said Mann. "Something to cheer us up every morning."