Rekindling
Racing silks of Lloyd J Williams
Sire	High Chaparral
Grandsire	Sadler's Wells
Dam	Sitara
Damsire	Salse
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	23 March 2014[1]
Country	United Kingdom
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Pocock Family
Owner	Lloyd Williams and others
Trainer	David Wachman Joseph Patrick O'Brien Liam Howley
Record	11: 4-2-0
Earnings	£2,409,320
Major wins
Ballysax Stakes (2017) Curragh Cup (2017) Melbourne Cup (2017)
Awards
2017/18Australian Champion Stayer
Last updated on 7 November 2017

Rekindling (foaled 23 March 2014) is a British-bred, Irish-trainedThoroughbredracehorse, who won the2017 Melbourne Cup. After winning once from three starts in 2016 he developed into a high-class staying colt in the following year, winning theBallysax Stakes andCurragh Cup as well as producing several good efforts in defeat including a second place in theIrish St Leger Trial Stakes and fourth-place finishes in theDante Stakes and theSt Leger Stakes. In November 2017 he became the youngest horse in 76 years to win the Melbourne Cup.

Rekindling is a bay horse bred by the Pocock Family at the Stringston Farm inSomerset. As a foal he was consigned to theTattersalls sale in November 2014 and was bought for 60,000guineas by the Camas Park Stud.^[2] He subsequently entered the ownership ofLloyd Williams and was sent into training withDavid Wachman in Ireland.

He was from the penultimate crop of foals sired byHigh Chaparral, who wonThe Derby in 2002 and theBreeders' Cup Turf in 2002 and 2003. His other progeny have includedSo You Think,Dundeel andToronado.^[3] Rekindling's dam Sitara showed modest racing ability, winning one minor race in Britain from eight attempts.^[4] As a broodmare she also produced Rekindling's full-brotherGolden Sword, who won theChester Vase in 2009. She was a great granddaughter of the French mare Faizebad (foaled 1962), whose other descendants have includedDoyoun andAlexandrova.^[5]

As a two-year-old in 2016, Rekindling was ridden in all of his races byWayne Lordan. On his racecourse debut on 30 July in amaiden race over one mile atGalway Races he started a28/1 outsider and finished second of the seven runners behind the odds-on favouriteCapri. He recorded his first success in a similar event atGowran Park in September, leading from the start and coming home two and a halflengths clear of World War.^[6] On his final run of the year he was sent to France and moved up sharply in class for theGroup 1Critérium de Saint-Cloud on 30 October but made little impression and finished last of the thirteen runners.

At the end of 2016, when Wachman retired, Rekindling was transferred to the stable ofJoseph O'Brien.

Rekindling began his second season in the Ballysax Stakes atLeopardstown Racecourse on 8 April. The race appeared to be dominated by Joseph O'Brien's fatherAidan O'Brien who sent out Yucatan, Capri and Douglas Macarthur to fill the first three spots in the betting market whils Rekindling was a 16/1 outsider. Ridden by Lordan, Rekindling settled in fifth, made steady progress in the straight, and took the lead inside the finalfurlong to win by half a length from Douglas Macarthur.^[7]

He was then sent to England for theDante Stakes atYork in May and finished fourth of the ten runners behind the ill-fated Permian. In theEpsom Derby on 3 June he started a 25/1 outsider and was never in serious contention, coming home sixteenth of the eighteen runners. The colt was then stepped up in distance and matched against older horses in the Group 2 Curragh Cup over fourteenfurlongs at theCurragh on 2 July and started second favourite behind the veteranWicklow Brave. He produced a strong late run to overtake Wicklow Brave in the final strides and won by half a length.^[8] He returned to the Curragh in August and finished second toOrder of St George in theIrish St Leger Trial Stakes over the same distance.

On 16 September Rekindling was back in England for theSt Leger Stakes atDoncaster Racecourse and finished fourth, two lengths behind the winner Capri. Rekindling was then sent to Australia to contest the2017 Melbourne Cup over 3200 metres atFlemington Racecourse on 7 November for which he was assigned a weight of 51.5kg. Although he was still a three-year-old by Northern hemisphere reckoning he was officially a four-year-old in Australia, where horses ages advance by a year on 1 August rather than 1 January. Ridden by the Australian jockeyCorey Brown he started at odds of 14/1 in a field of twenty-three. After racing in mid-division he began to make steady progress approaching the straight. He produced a strong run on the outside, overtook Johannes Vermeer 50 metres from the finish and won by half a length, with Max Dynamite taking third to complete a 1-2-3 for Irish-trained horses.^[9][10]

In 2018 Rekindling relocated permanently to Australia where he was trained by Liam Howley. He was off the track until March 2019 when he finished last of the fifteen runners in theAustralian Cup at Flemington.

Rekindling relocated back to Europe and stands at William Fox's Kenmare Castle Stud nearLimerick, Ireland.^[11]

• Career 1-2-3 Colour Chart –Rekindling

• Melbourne Cup winners
• 2014 racehorse births
• Racehorses bred in the United Kingdom
• Racehorses trained in Ireland
• Thoroughbred family 21-a

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata