Lightning Spear

Lightning Spear, (foaled 5 April 2011) is a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was lightly campaigned in his early career but eventually developed into a top class miler who won the Celebration Mile in 2016 and 2017 and recorded his biggest victory at the age of seven when he took the Sussex Stakes. He was also placed in numerous top-class races including the Queen Anne Stakes, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Lockinge Stakes. Lightning Spear was retired from racing to become a breeding stallion.

Lightning Spear is a chestnut horse standing 16.1 hands high bred in England by the Hertfordshire-based Newsells Park Stud. As a yearling in October the colt was put up for auction at Tattersalls and was bought for 260,000 guineas by David Redvers Bloodstock on behalf of Fahad Al Thani's Qatar Racing. He was sent into training with Ralph Beckett at Kimpton, Hampshire.

His sire Pivotal was a top class sprinter who won the King's Stand Stakes and the Nunthorpe Stakes in 1996. He went on to become an “excellent” sire, getting the winners of more than a thousand races across a range of distances including Sariska, Somnus, Farhh, Kyllachy and Immortal Verse. Lightning Spear's dam Atlantic Destiny showed good form as a two-year-old in England when she won the Sirenia Stakes but had little subsequent success on the track. Her grand-dam Treat Me Nobly was a half-sister to Be My Guest and closely related to Golden Fleece.

On his first and only run as a juvenile, Lightning Spear started at odds of 11/4 in a thirteen-runner maiden race on the synthetic polytrack surface at Kempton Park Racecourse on 29 August. Ridden by Jamie Spencer he tracked the leaders before accelerating to gain the advantage inside the final furlong and won "readily" by three quarters of a length from Alpine Retreat.

For his second season, Lightning Spear was transferred to the stable of Olly Stevens at Chiddingfold in Surrey. After an absence of well over a year the colt returned on 29 October for a minor handicap race over eight and a half furlongs at Nottingham Racecourse. With Jim Crowley in the saddle he took the lead approaching the final furlong and won by one and a quarter lengths from the four-year-old Artful Prince to whom he was conceding nine pounds in weight.

Lightning Spear began his third campaign in a one mile handicap race on the polytrack at Lingfield Park on 29 April in which he was ridden by Jim Crowley and finished strongly to win by half a length from Sacred Act. After a break of two months he carried top weight of 136 pounds in a similar event at Salisbury Racecourse and extended his unbeaten record, coming home two lengths clear of his nine opponents. In this race he was partnered by Oisin Murphy, who became his regular jockey.

In July Lightning Spear was stepped up sharply in class for the Group 2 Summer Mile Stakes and Ascot Racecourse and sustained his first defeat as he finished second behind the favourite Arod, who was also owned by Qatar Racing. In the following month he was sent to Deauville Racecourse in France for the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois and came home fourth behind Esoterique with Toormore, Belardo and Karakontie finishing behind. In the Boomerang Stakes at Leopardstown Racecourse in Ireland he started the 7/4 favourite but was beaten into third behind Custom Cut and Top Notch Tonto. On his final run of the year he was stepped up in distance for the ten furlong Champion Stakes at Ascot in October but made no impact and finished tailed off at the rear of the field.

Olly Stevens retired from training at the end of the year and Lighting Spear moved to the yard of David Simcock in Newmarket, Suffolk.