Katchit

Katchit
Katchit at the 2007 Fighting Fifth Hurdle
Sire	Kalanisi
Dam	Miracle
Damsire	Ezzoud
Sex	Gelding
Foaled	23 February 2003
Country	Ireland
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Whitley Stud
Owner	Tim Corby D S J P Syndicate
Trainer	Mick Channon Alan King
Record	Flat 16:1-6-2 Hurdle 24:10-5-4 Total 40: 11-11-6
Earnings	£599,708
Major wins
Ryman Hurdle (2006) Finesse Juvenile Novices' Hurdle (2007) Triumph Hurdle (2007) Anniversary 4-Y-O Novices' Hurdle (2007) Kingwell Hurdle (2008) Champion Hurdle (2008)
Last updated on 30 June 2009

Katchit (23 February 2003 – 9 January 2013) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse, the peak of whose flat racing and hurdling career came in 2008 when, against the odds, he won the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Katchit was a moderate flat racer, winning only once in sixteen races. In his first two seasons as a hurdler however, he showed great improvement, winning ten times between September 2006 and March 2008. He won the Triumph Hurdle in 2007 and the Championship a year later. No Triumph Hurdle winner had gone on to win the Champion Hurdle since Kribensis in 1990, and 73 five-year-olds had been beaten in the race since See You Then registered the last five-year-old success in 1985. His later career was affected by injury and he never won again.

Katchit was a small bay horse with an irregular white star, bred in Ireland by the Whitley Stud. He was sired by the Breeders' Cup Turf winner Kalanisi out of a mare named Miracle. As a yearling, the colt was sent by the Irish-based Corduff Stud to the Tattersalls sales at Newmarket in October. He was bought for 15,500 guineas by the bloodstock agents Equine Services and entered into the ownership of Tim Corby. He was sent to be trained as a flat racer by Mick Channon.

As a two-year-old in 2005, Katchit ran four times without winning, although he did finish second in a maiden race at Brighton Racecourse. In 2006, Katchit lost his first nine races, finishing second on four occasions. In July he won at the fourteenth attempt when taking a minor handicap race at Salisbury Racecourse. In a bar at the racecourse, Channon agreed the sale of Katchit to his fellow trainer Alan King for £30,000. King passed the horse on to the D S J P Syndicate and took him back to his stable at Barbury Castle in Wiltshire to be trained as a jumper. Before embarking on his hurdling career he had two more unsuccessful runs on the flat.