WHY VETERAN SPRINTER HOLDS SPECIAL PLACE IN OWNERS’ HEARTS

Features | 4th September 2025

No wonder veteran sprinter Intervention has earned a special place in the hearts of the Bird family, who are enjoying a golden summer as part of the Horse Watchers syndicate he represents.

The eight-year-old will attempt to roll back the years on Saturday 6th September in pursuit of his third big prize of the year following success in the Racing League and the prestigious Great St Wilfrid Handicap.

Matthew Bird, a meat trader from Brinsley near Nottingham, is hoping he can add the Unibet London Sprint Series Final Handicap on the Kempton Park Polytrack to his 14 career successes.

“Intervention gives us so much fun and excitement and shows no sign of slowing down, even though he’s had over 100 races,” says Matthew, whose wife Venessa is also part of the syndicate.

Intervention Owners 'The Horse Watchers'

“We got involved in him for relative peanuts when Chris and Martin Dixon of the Horse Watchers bought him out of Ireland as a 21-race maiden in 2021. We liked what a big, strong gelding he was but had no idea what he’d go on to achieve.

“Seeing him go into the summer with 12 wins to his name was extremely fulfilling but then he added to that in the Racing League at Wolverhampton and, of course, the Great St Wilfrid at Ripon, which was unbelievable.”

Chris Dixon explains: “Running him in that race was an after-thought. We saw the race wasn’t filling up so knew we could get in off a light weight. He’s a well-balanced horse so we were fairly confident he’d handle the undulations.

“We booked young apprentice William Pyle to take off 3lb and he gave him a superb ride, allowing him to bowl along in front. When he was still there with a furlong to run we all began to get very excited.”

Matthew and Vanessa have an interest in around 12 horses with the Horse Watchers but Intervention is the one who has fuelled their interest in ownership the most. “He means the worlds to us. Our daughter Freya worked for his trainer Mick Appleby for a while and led Intervention us for a couple of his wins which were priceless family moments.

“Mick deserves most of the credit for the way he’s handled the horse and intends to keep him as a hack when he eventually retires. Stable jockey Ali Rawlinson has also done so much work with the horse behind the scenes as well as winning on him several times.

“Wherever Intervention goes, we go to watch him, even if we have runners elsewhere, and we plan to be at Kempton on Saturday in the hope he can land another big one,” adds Matthew.

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