Imperial Call
| Imperial Call | |
|---|---|
| Sire | Callernish |
| Grandsire | Lord Gayle |
| Dam | Princess Menelek |
| Damsire | Menelek |
| Sex | Gelding |
| Foaled | 21 February 1989 |
| Country | Ireland |
| Colour | Brown |
| Breeder | T. A. O'Donnell |
| Owner | Lisselan Farms |
| Trainer | Fergus Sutherland Raymond Hurley Augustine Leahy |
| Record | 32: 16-4-5 |
| Earnings | £414,663 |
| Major wins | |
|
Nas Na Riogh Novice Chase (1995) Morris Oil Chase (1995) Hennessy Gold Cup (1996) Cheltenham Gold Cup (1996) Ericsson Chase (1997) Munster National (1998) John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase (1998) Punchestown Gold Cup (1999) |
|
| Honours | |
| Imperial Call Chase at Cork Racecourse | |
Imperial Call (21 February 1989 – 29 November 2014) was an Irish racehorse. He was a specialist steeplechaser who ran thirty-two times and won sixteen races under National Hunt rules. After showing promise as a hurdler and novice chaser, Imperial Call emerged as a top-class jumper with a win in the Hennessy Gold Cup in February 1996. A month later, he became the first Irish-trained horse for ten years to win Britain's most prestigious steeplechase, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. His subsequent career was disrupted by injury problems but he won further major races including the Punchestown Chase in 1998 and the Punchestown Gold Cup in 1999. Unlike most modern racehorses, Imperial Call was not a Thoroughbred.
Imperial Call was a "leggy, sparely made" brown horse bred in County Wexford, Ireland by T. A. O'Donnell. He was sired by the successful National Hunt stallion Callernish out of the mare Princess Menelek. As Princess Menelek's great-grandmother Friend Galee was of unknown parentage, neither she nor any of her offspring were Thoroughbreds.
As a three-year-old gelding, Imperial Call was consigned by the Redpender Stud to the Tattersalls sales in June 1992, where he was sold for a cash bid of 6,000 guineas. A year later, Imperial Call was sold by the bloodstock dealer Tom Costello to Lisselan Farms Ltd and was sent into training with Fergie Sutherland at his stables at Killinaridish, County Cork. Sutherland was a sixty-year-old Scot who had lost a leg in the Korean War. He had trained winners at Royal Ascot in the 1950s before moving to his family estate in Ireland to train jumpers. Imperial Call was ridden in most of his early races by Gerry O'Neill.
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