Auroras Encore | |
---|---|
Sire | Second Empire |
Grandsire | Fairy King |
Dam | Sama Veda |
Damsire | Rainbow Quest |
Sex | Gelding |
Foaled | 10 March 2002 |
Country | Ireland |
Colour | Bay |
Breeder | Mountarmstrong Stud |
Owner | Douglas Pryde, Jim Beaumont & David van der Hoeven |
Trainer | Sue Smith |
Record | 47: 8-7-1 |
Major wins | |
Grand National (2013) |
Auroras Encore is an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2013 Grand National. In a racing career which lasted from February 2007 until January 2014 he won two hurdle races and six steeplechases from forty-seven starts.
Auroras Encore is a bay gelding bred in Ireland by the Mountarmstrong Stud. His sire Second Empire won the Grand Criterium in 1997 and started second favourite for the following year's Epsom Derby. The best of his offspring to date has probably been the Victor Chandler Chase winner Somersby.
Auroras Encore was offered for sale at the Tattersalls Ireland sale in September 2003 where he was bought for €7,000 by Frank Barry. Two years later the gelding was auctioned at Doncaster and was sold for 9,500 guineas to Harvey Smith the husband of the trainer Sue Smith. Auroras Encore then entered the ownership of Alicia Skene and was sent into training with Sue Smith at High Eldwick, near Baildon in West Yorkshire.
Auroras Encore began his racing career in early 2007 when he finished second in National Hunt flat races at Market Rasen and Sedgefield. In the 2007/2008 National Hunt season he ran ten times, recording his first victory in a Novice Hurdle at Sedgefield in December. In April 2008 he recorded his first major victory when winning a handicap hurdle at the Grand National meeting at Aintree Racecourse.