Anyone that has seen the film Dream Horse, starring Hollywood titans Toni Collette and Damian Lewis, knows that horse racing is a sport apt for silver screen storytelling.
And there might be a new release coming to a streaming service near you in the future following the exploits of Stephen Allen and Jamie Brace at Worcester Racecourse this week.
They synopsis? How about a trainer without a winner in three decades teaming up with a jockey on his first start after breaking his back… and landing a 10/1 gamble for their backers.
The Ful Monty
To make the story all the more remarkable, the horse that the duo had primed for success at Worcester – Grillon De Monty – hasn’t exactly had the most glittering of National Hunt careers.
His last win came back in April 2023, but that was when he was part of the Dan Skelton yard. The now ten-year-old was deemed surplus to requirements in 2024 by the best British trainer in the business, but found a new home at Allen’s Oxfordshire base.
Grillon De Monty has been campaigned largely in the Midlands since, although his time with Allen did not get off to the most auspicious of starts – he was pulled up in three of his first four starts for his new trainer, with the anomaly a fifth-place return in a low-quality contest at Hereford.
But 2025 has brought with it signs of improvement, with a fourth-place finish at Warwick back in April just agonisingly short of the places for those that had backed Grillon De Monty at an SP of 100/1.
His next outing came in a three-horse race at the same track in May, where he found himself four lengths clear at the business end of the race before idling down the stretch and getting caught.
A return to two miles last time out was not a success, so Allen hatched a plan to get Grillon De Monty back over 23F at Worcester – with regular jockey Jamie Brace, who quite literally broke his back just three months ago, back in the saddle.
It was a strategy that would work like a charm…
Brace Yourself
On April 25, Brace was lying prostrate on the turf at Perth Racecourse after a heavy fall. He was barely able to move.
It was the sort of fall that others haven’t come back from, but Brace was lucky – if you can call breaking two vertebrae lucky – and was back in the saddle on Thursday evening aboard Grillon De Monty.
“You’re always a bit nervous getting on that first horse back, especially going straight over fences again. But once you’re over the first, everything goes out the window. At the end of the day, it’s your job, isn’t it?” he said, with typical understatement.
The conditional jockey had partnered with the horse five times before, so was aware of his eccentricities, and so he was happy to race from the rear of the field at Worcester and take it from there.
Sean Bowen, the champion jockey for 2024/25, was in the saddle of the 11/10 favourite, Unwanted Attention. He rode prominently from the outset, seemingly in a bid to push the pace of the race.
But after making a mistake at the eleventh fence, Unwanted Attention weakened and left a vacancy at the front of the field – which Brace was happy to fill with Grillon De Monty travelling well.
They took the last safely and found themselves four lengths clear on the home stretch, with I Am Rocco in behind and looking likely to challenge.
But as Grillon De Monty stayed on, I Am Rocco had nothing left to give in the final furlong. And while Radharc Na Slaine ran in as if he’d been fired out of a cannon to finish second, it would be an emotional triumph for Brace, Allen and Grillon De Monty.
Eased down!
Grillon De Monty shrugs off his rivals and survives a late scare to win with something in hand at @WorcesterRaces for @jamiebrace97 and Stephen Allen! pic.twitter.com/La8pa6rlQT
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 17, 2025
This was Allen’s second win under rules in 31 years – his last? Blue Danube, who prevailed at Cheltenham back in May 1994.
The 70-year-old is, for the most part, known as a point-to-point trainer, but this victory meant plenty – as his tears afterwards in the winner’s enclosure showed.
“The win brought a tear to Stephen’s eye. I promised him after the injury that I’d ride him a winner, and I’ve done that now. He was absolutely over the moon,” Brace said afterwards.