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'It's girl power' – Geri Horner and husband Christian have first success as racehorse owners... and win £175
Hannah Henn rides Lift Me Up – named after the former Spice Girl's first solo No 1 – to comfortable point-to-point triumph at Mollington
Geri Horner (née Halliwell), the former Spice Girl, and her husband Christian, the Red Bull F1 supremo, had their first taste of success as racehorse owners on Monday when Lift Me Up, ridden by Hannah Henn, won a point-to-point worth all of £175 at Mollington by 15 lengths.
The six-year-old, which they bought through former jockey Martin Lynch in Ireland, was second at Larkhill on his first start six weeks ago but went one better on Monday in the PPORA Members Maiden to give Henn, a girl-Friday for the Horners, the second success of her career.
“He is named after my song, which went to No 1, and now he has gone to No 1,” said Geri. “I’m very proud it is a female jockey. It’s girl power and she has an amazing female trainer. Sometimes the girls have to boss the boys.”
Her husband said: “It’s one horsepower rather than 1,000. It is a bit of fun. Hannah did a wonderful job and so did Sarah. It has been a good couple of weekends. We won at Imola last weekend, we have won here this weekend and we need to repeat it in Miami.”
Ben Case, husband of the trainer and a successful National Hunt trainer in his own right, explained: “He ran at Larkhill and then they were keen to run at Mollington on Bank Holiday Monday because it fitted in well between Italy and America. It’s nice for new people to come into the sport and have a bit of success. They’re keen to learn.”
He added that the Horners had sourced the horse themselves with Hannah Henn’s father and initially had Lift Me Up at home. “They starteded bring him to use the gallop here. They are quite local but after a while Christian suggested the horse be kept a bit nearer the gallop so he came to Sarah’s point-to-point yard next to my own. He’s a big horse who has quite a nice future.”
Henn, who rides out for the Cases and is soon to join Sky Sports Racing, said: “I have been working for them for about two years. I look after the family horses, taking the kids riding and them riding. We sort of introduced them into pointing and being competitive themselves, they wanted to buy a racehorse.
“It's an amazing opportunity. Geri has always been supportive being a mum and a girl. She has backed me and been a source of motivation. She's all girl power.”