Local owner David Armstrong's racing column: Coppull is a keeper

​Coppull is our Mr Consistent – and I was very proud of his performance in last weekend’s British Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot.

There is no shame finishing fourth to Europe’s top sprinter Almeraq, who has won three Group One races this term.

And with a tiny bit more fortune Coppull could even have made the frame in his final race of 2026.

Coppull was finding fifth gear when he was checked by another horse, losing his momentum just when he was on the charge.

At this time of year owners often have the dilemma of whether to keep a successful horse in training or retire him in a bid to create the next generation of thoroughbreds.

But I’ve made the decision to keep Coppull in training as a four-year-old with Clive Cox.

Coppull’s father, the brilliant sprinter Bated Breath, one of my equine heroes, enjoyed a remarkable longevity, winning the Temple Stakes at Haydock Park as a five-year-old.

Coppull has his endurance and his mother’s kind temperament, so the target next season is to try to win a Group One race.

With that in mind we are going to campaign him over seven furlongs on good or good to firm ground following his brilliant success over the same distance in the Hungerford Stakes at Newbury in August.

I spoke to Clive this week and he asked me about taking Coppull to the Middle East or possibly Australia this winter.

He thought Coppull would be the type of horse who could do well in some of the big money races in Dubai.

Coppull has had a tough year, though, having run six times since May and I’ve decided that is not for us.

I want to give the horse a good holiday, so he is refreshed and let him strengthen up for next Spring.

We’ve already mapped out his 2027 Flat turf campaign, and we both believe there is more improvement to come from a horse that has already won north of £350,000 in prize money.

When you have a good horse people want to buy them and while Coppull has generated interest from potential buyers I want to keep him.

People often ask us about the names of our horses.

They are nearly all named after places local to us in Lancashire and we will try to keep that theme going.

There have been a couple of exceptions, like our first horse Miss Meggy, who was named after my grandmother, and Mayson, our 2012 July Cup winner, got his name from his mother Mayleaf. I don’t know why we’ve waited so long to name one Coppull, called after the village close to where we live, but I’m glad we did.

Sadly, we lost Miss Meggy recently at the ripe of age of 24.

She enjoyed a lovely retirement at the farm, and a matriarch to the other horses.

Miss Meggy provided us with our first winner, at Thirsk, and weeks later she won the Hilary Needler Stakes at Beverley, which was a Listed race in those days, and she took us to Royal Ascot.

Miss Meggy was very special for us as she bred Mabs Cross, who won the Palace House Stakes twice and the Prix de L’Abbeye at Longchamp before being sold to Qatar.

We only have sprinters – anything over a mile I get a nosebleed.

You have good years and barren years but you need Lady Luck on your side.

A good friend of mine David Parsons had trained classic winning pigeons as a hobby.

He had an encyclopaedic knowledge and told me that the milers and stayers were the stronghold of the big owners and so I’d have a better chance of success with sprinters.

By goodness he was right but never in a million years did we think we’d breed multiple Group One winners. David Armstrong was talking to Tony Dewhurst