Alpinista’s groom Annabel Willis has paid an emotional farewell to the Arc heroine after she left training to begin a new career as a broodmare.
For the last four years Willis and the superstar grey mare became inseparable so when the time came for the six-time Group 1 winner to leave Sir Mark Prescott’s Newmarket yard for owner Kirsten Rausing’s Lanwades Stud it was a huge wrench.
“Ours was a very close relationship because I rode her every day and looked after her every day,” said Willis.
“It was a fantastic journey together over four years because fillies and mares are often not racing at five so I got an extra season to enjoy. It would never be enough time with her. I always wish I could have more time. But I was very grateful to have her as long as I did.”
Alpinista, who was also bred by Rausing, won ten of her 15 starts, earning more than £3.3 million in prize-money.
Unbeaten since September 2020, she ended a perfect five-year-old campaign by defeating Vadeni and 2021 race winner Torquator Tasso in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe under jockey Luke Morris.
The daughter of Frankel was being readied for one last hurrah in the Japan Cup when the trip had to be cancelled after she suffered a training setback last month.
“It all happened rather abruptly because we were supposed to be going to Japan for the Japan Cup,” said Willis, 23. “I had everything packed up and the wheels were in motion for the trip. When it was halted It was a big shock for everyone but it was definitely the right decision to make.
“And, as it was decided she wouldn’t leave until after the December Mares sale, I got a few more weeks with her, which was nice.”
Willis, from Banbury in Oxfordshire, is one of Prescott’s two travelling head grooms having joined the Newmarket stable as a teenager on work experience and staying permanently.
“I was only 19 when I started looking after Alpinista and I had only been working for Sir Mark for 18 months,” she said. “She had come in as this little yearling. I liked her immediately. She had a fantastic pedigree.
“I was put down to ride her on her very first day. She had quite a sassy nature and the more we did with her, the more she seemed to really enjoy it.
“That was one of the great things about her, it never felt laboured or hard work to get her to do things because most of the time she wanted to do it more than you did. She would bound out down the yard to do her morning exercise. She loved every day of being a racehorse.”
Younger stable staff often move around to experience different yards, but not Willis.
“She has been my main reason to hang on in the job,” she explained. “I’ve been with Sir Mark for six years and that’s largely because of her. I could never have left her.”
Arc day in Paris was “nerve-wracking”. “The ground was always a bit of a question mark because she had never encountered conditions like that. Everything went to plan and it was a magical feeling. Luke gave her such a fantastic ride,” said Willis, who is godmother to Morris’s one-year-old son Henry.
She added: “I am going to miss Alpinista incredibly. She will be such a tough act to follow. Miss Rausing has been so fantastic with me about her retirement. She said I can go and see her anytime.
“It was very emotional when I took her back. I watched her turned out with another mare and it was lovely to see. It was my job done, she’s safe. She is in a forever home with fantastic people to look after. I will make sure to check in with her whenever I can.”
