Little Wolf

Little Wolf (foaled 23 March 1978) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was best known for his performances in staying races, but was also capable of winning important races over middle distances. Little Wolf was lightly campaigned, running sixteen times between October 1980 and May 1984 and winning seven races. After winning his only race as a two-year-old he won two of his five races including the Scottish Derby and St Simon Stakes in 1981. In the following year he won the Prix Jean de Chaudenay in France before establishing himself as a high-class stayer with an emphatic win in the Jockey Club Cup. In 1983 he won Britain' most prestigious long-distance race, the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot and followed up with a record-breaking win in the Goodwood Cup. He was injured in his only subsequent race and was retired to stud where he made no impact as a sire of winners. Background Little Wolf was a "strong, close-coupled, quite attractive" chestnut horse with a broad white blaze and a white sock on his left hind leg bred by his owner Lord Porchester. Porchester, later the 7th Earl of Carnarvon, owned the Highclere Stud and served as racing manager to Queen Elizabeth II from 1969. Little Wolf was from the second crop of foals sired by Grundy, an outstanding racehorse who won The Derby and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1975. Grundy sired several other good winners, but his stock tended to be slow-maturing stayers and he was sold and exported to Japan in 1983. Little Wolf's dam Hiding Place was a half-sister of Queen's Hussar (the sire of Brigadier Gerard and Highclere) and also produced Smuggler (winner of the Princess of Wales's Stakes) and Sanctuary, the dam of the Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Sheikh Albadou. Little Wolf was trained throughout his racing career by Dick Hern at West Ilsley in Berkshire. Racing career 1980: two-year-old season Little Wolf ran only once as a two-year-old, when contesting a maiden race over six furlongs at Newbury Racecourse in October. He started slowly but won by one and a half lengths from Casa Esquillina and twenty-three others. In their annual Racehorses of 1980, Timeform described the colt as an "interesting prospect" who was "sure to make a good colt over middle distances".