2016 GBGB Marathon Performer of the Year Roxholme Magic passes away aged 12

2016 GBGB Marathon Performer of the Year Roxholme Magic passes away aged 12

One of the greatest Marathon performers of all time, Roxholme Magic, has sadly passed away at the age of 12. The news was broken by Mark Keightley, husband of trainer Hayley, on his X account this morning

It's clear from Keightley's post just how much Roxholme Magic was loved, and rightly so.

A greyhound of her calibre and certainly her stamina doesn't come around too often. 

Although officially owned by Hayley, there were three people who were lucky enough to own her, husband Mark, Paul Lawrence and Mark McLaughlin, and Lawrence this afternoon took some time out to reflect on some of his favourite memories and to pay tribute to Roxholme Magic

“We were very proud and privileged owners" said Lawrence. “Kitty” was such a crowd pleaser with her style of running, coming from off the pace to win Marathon open races in track record times” (pictured below breaking the Hove 930m track record)

“She held track records at six different tracks. Many of her races were on televised sky nights, but I loved going to the different tracks to cheer her on. She won back to back Dorando Marathons at Wimbledon in 2015 and 2016”

“My favourite memory was her winning her first Dorando on the same night Rio Quattro won the £250k Derby Final. We were stood in the stands at the first bend with Richard Harkness and Danny Riordan and loads of family and friends. She came so wide to challenge on the run in, I lost sight of her through the crowds of people and she flew home late to win going away” (pictured below breaking the clock at Wimbledon)

“Such good times. She had one litter of pups and big Mark named one of them Dorando Double, and Lorraine and I have “DeeDee” at home with us”

Roxholme Magic had 38 career runs, 23 of those in the UK, and recorded 24 victories, 17 of those in the UK. Along the way, aside from the numerous one off races, she landed some big race successes, namely the Dorando Marathon twice in June 2015 and 2016 taking home the £1,000 prize in doing so, the Ladbrokes 1048 in February 2016 and 2017 securing £1048 on both occasions, and the Harolds Cross Bookmakers Marathon Final worth 9,000 euros in December 2016. 

As Lawrence said, Roxholme Magic was the holder of six track records in the UK, with four of those still standing at tracks today.

Not only did she win the Dorando Marathon at Wimbledon twice, she also produced a track record display over the 894m trip twice in the matter of weeks, the second occasion when winning the 2016 Dorando Marathon

Wimbledon wasn’t the only track where this occurred, as she also broke the 1048m clock at Crayford twice when winning the annual contest held on the finals day of the Golden Jacket meeting in 2016 and 2017 (pictured below)

She also has the track records for Hove’s 930m in 2015, a distance which hasn’t been used since 2017, while Doncaster’s 877m, Kinsley’s 844m and Sheffield’s 934m records were all broken in 2016, and as a result, Roxholme Magic was named 2016 GBGB Marathon Performer of the Year.

Lawrence also eluded to the fact that Roxholme Magic had a litter of six pups with Kinloch Brae in March 2018, the most notable of those being Waltham Magic, winner of the RPGTV Angel of the North at Newcastle in 2020 and finalist in the Ladbrokes Summer Stayers Classic at Monmore, as well as Roxholme Biscuit, who himself landed big race success, when winning the Colossus Bets Grand National in November 2020 for trainer Ricky Holloway, and in doing so, became the GBGB Hurdler of the Year for 2020. 

As Keightley said when signing off on his final tweet, RIP Kitty