It has been announced that the Grade 1 and Cheltenham Festival-winning Killultagh Vic have been retired following a racing career which promised so much across a seven-year span.
Immortalized for his incredible recovery to win a Grade 2 Novice Chase at Leopardstown, the Old Vic gelding had one of his greatest racing days when defeating Thistlecrack to win a Grade 1 Novice Hurdle at the 2015 Punchestown Festival.
Bred by the Boyd family, it was appropriately at their local fixture in Largy that he made his competitive bow, finishing third to Aircraftman on what would be his one and only outing in the point-to-point sphere for Colin McBratney.
From there he joined Willie Mullins, and it was for the champion trainer that he ran a total of 27 times, with his first notable success coming at the 2015 Cheltenham Festival.
Under a then 18-year-old Luke Dempsey, who was having his first ride for Mullins, the pair repelled the challenge of Noble Endeavour to win the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle on the final day of the Festival.
The success kick-started a profitable end of season run for Killultagh Vic, as he then recorded his first success in Graded company at the following month’s Punchestown Festival.
His stablemate and that year’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle runner-up Shaneshill was a warm order in the Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle, however the 8/1 shot came from off the pace under Paul Townend, overcoming a final flight error to beat English raider Thistlecrack by half-a-length, with the favourite back in third.
Mullins elected to send Killultagh Vic over fences the following season, and having easily accounted for Arctic Skipper in his Beginners Chase at Fairyhouse, he was sent off as the odds-on favourite for the Coral.ie Novices’ Chase at Leopardstown in January 2016.
Appearing to be in pole position for what was to be his fourth success on the bounce, Killultagh Vic got the final fence all wrong, and with Ruby Walsh doing well to maintain the partnership as they came to a halt on the landing side of the obstacle, the pair had dropped to third as both Blair Perrone and Lord Scoundrel swept by.
Somehow, Killultagh Vic got back running and regained the lead in the closing stages to win the Grade 2 contest in a performance which set social media alight.
Two years ago today at @LeopardstownRC - an astonishing effort from horse and rider as Killultagh Vic and Ruby Walsh record a victory for the ages... pic.twitter.com/rM9SmzX6BV
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) January 17, 2018
Unfortunately he then suffered a serious injury setback and returned to Colin McBratney for his recuperation, which the Raffrey-based handler described in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph in 2018.
“He came back to me and we had to build him up. It was like starting all over again but the aim was to always get him back to racing,” said McBratney.
"We took our time with him, walking the roads and gradually working on getting him stronger, always with fingers crossed.
“The pre-training also involved cantering and schooling, as well as building the muscle by going harder and faster each month.
"I thought it would be a much longer process, but everything came together very quickly.
“He did his first racecourse gallop for me in early November and it was electric. You were holding your breath each time you did something faster with him, hoping he'd be okay the next morning, but everything was positive from day one with him.
"I spoke to Ruby Walsh at the Down Royal Festival and he was asking me how Killultagh Vic was. I told Ruby what I was doing with him and he said he could be a Gold Cup horse. I said if that's the case then I'll send him back to Willie.”
Killultagh Vic made a quick return to winning ways on his return to Mullins, as despite having been off the track for 23 months, he defeated Ex Patriot to a Hurdle at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve in 2017.
McBratney’s hopes for the horse as a potential Gold Cup candidate had seemed to be coming true, as he led the field the last in the 2018 Irish Gold Cup, only for that final obstacle at Leopardstown to once again prove to be his bogie fence, as he took a heavy fall under Walsh, and he never regained his top form thereafter.
Although on occasion he did show glimpses of his old self, getting within a length and a half of Presenting Percy in the 2019 Galmoy Hurdle and finishing four lengths behind Unowhatimeanharry in the Grade 1 Stayers Hurdle last year, his final outing saw him languish in seventh in the Boyne Hurdle at Navan in February.
An eight-time winner for owners Marie Armstrong, Boyce Anderson and Shortcross Gin maker, and former Largy point-to-point secretary Rose Boyd, Killultagh Vic won over €200,000 in prize money throughout a career which promised so much.
Killultagh Vic has been retired today. He has been in our yard since 2013 and is part of the fixture and fittings, so will be greatly missed. His finest hour was his miraculous recovery at the last in the novice chase @LeopardstownRC in January 2016 before going on to win pic.twitter.com/2wE9Z2lwtL
— Willie Mullins (@WillieMullinsNH) April 16, 2020
