Greatest Racehorses: Pappa Fourway 1w1s2v

Pedigree Details

Sire: Pappageno II

Dam: Oola Hills

Dam's Sire: Denturius

Breeder: Ballykisteen Stud

Foaled: 1952

Race Record & Factfile

Races: 15

Wins: 12

Owner: Mrs Elaine Goldson

Trainer: Bill Dutton

Profile

Pappa Fourway’s name is unlikely to come up in many discussions of great horses of the past but he was an outstanding sprinter, the highest-rated specialist in that discipline in Timeform’s experience since Abernant, and Timeform’s highest-rated Flat performer trained in the North – Bill Dutton trained at Malton in Yorkshire. Pappa Fourway’s lower profile was no doubt due to the fact that he never stayed well enough to be considered for the classics, was retired to stud after his three-year-old season and failed to make much a name for himself as a stallion. He came from humble origins too, costing only 150 guineas as a yearling.

Already at two he was a big, well-made colt, and although Pappa Fourway showed above-average ability in his first season there was no indication of the heights he would go on to reach as a three-year-old, when he won all eight races, none of them by less than two lengths.

Two-year-old season (1954)

Pappa Fourway’s two-year-old season earned him praise for his consistency rather than his ability, though with a Timeform rating of 114 he was clearly a smart colt. The Free Handicap rated him a stone below the top two-year-old Our Babu. Pappa Fourway won his first two starts, a maiden at Haydock and a race at Newmarket, and later in the season he was successful in a nursery at Doncaster and, on his final outing at two, in the Moulton Stakes back at Newmarket, in both of those last two wins conceding plenty of weight to the runner-up. Pappa Fourway made the frame in his three other races, though got bogged down in the mud in the best race he contested, the Gimcrack Stakes at York, in which he finished fourth to the filly Precast. His essay in Racehorses that year concluded that “his performances in 1954 were marked by courage and tenacity” and that “he should have a successful career in handicaps”. It was also noted that he raced as though he would never stay much beyond sprint distances.

Three-year-old season (1955)

Pappa Fourway was indeed successful in handicaps at three, but they were only part of the story of his outstanding campaign that season. His first four victories of 1955 came in the Prince of Wales’s Handicap at Chester, in which overcame a bad draw to win by three lengths under top weight, the Stewards’ Stakes at Epsom, which he won by six lengths conceding 19 lb to the runner-up, the Festival Stakes at Birmingham, in which he beat the high-class older sprinter Dumbarnie by three lengths, and then the Gosforth Park Cup at Newcastle which resulted in another three-length victory, conceding weight to some of the best sprint handicappers around.

His busy campaign continued with an appearance in the July Cup. Pappa Fourway’s earlier wins had come at both five and six furlongs, though the fact that he had ‘only’ two lengths to spare at Newmarket over the previous season’s winner Vilmoray was interpreted by some as an indication that he was better at five. It wasn’t until his final race of the season that he disproved that theory, but next up, a fortnight later, was the King’s Stand Stakes - a rail strike meant that Royal Ascot took place a month later than usual in July. Pappa Fourway was always going like the winner and beat the Irish sprinter Democratic by two lengths, conceding him a stone.

It was then October before Pappa Fourway was seen out again. In the meantime, he missed the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood where he had been allotted a big weight for a three-year-old of 9st 7lb, and was prevented from running in the Nunthorpe Stakes when falling victim to a cough. During Goodwood week it was announced that an offer of £25,000 for Pappa Fourway had been made and declined.

When he returned in the autumn for the Diadem Stakes at Ascot, Pappa Fourway had a sole opponent, Trouville, to beat. Meeting him at level weights and sent off at 2/5, Pappa Fourway travelled powerfully before sprinting clear to win by six lengths.

This is how Racehorses described Pappa Fourway’s final race of the season, which was also the last race of his career:

“Pappa Fourway rounded off the season with a magnificent victory in the Tetrarch Stakes at the Manchester November meeting. Success was virtually assured for him by the conditions of the race, one of which allowed 5 lb to horses who had not won a race worth £1,500, and although Pappa Fourway had eleven victories to his credit, no single one of them had achieved that figure…The going was heavy, but neither that nor the sixth furlong had the slightest effect on Pappa Fourway. As soon as the gate went up he was into his stride, and he made all the running. Once he was shaken up inside the last furlong, he quickly went away from the rest of the field and won, without being completely extended, by two lengths and one length from Vilmoray and Royal Palm.”

Major races won                           

• July Cup, Newmarket
• King’s Stand Stakes, Royal Ascot
• Diadem Stakes, Ascot
• Tetrarch Stakes, Manchester

Pappa Fourway at stud

After being bought for 33,000 guineas, Pappa Fourway was retired to stud in California where he sired 120 winners from 13 crops. His most successful foal was Pappa’s All, from his first crop, a leading two-year-old of 1960 whose wins included the Hollywood Juvenile Championship and the Arlington Futurity. Pappa Fourway was exported to Mexico at the age of 18 and died eight years later.

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