Cheltenham Festival Focus

In the past decade, the Irish Independent Leading Trainer Award at the Cheltenham Festival has been presented to just four men, Gordon Elliott, Willie Mullins, Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls. Collectively, in their careers as a whole, they have saddled 186 winners at the March showpiece meeting, but, while it’s hard to imagine, there was a time, in living memory, when their aggregate total was absolute, stone-cold zero.

On the eve of the Cheltenham Festival in 1985, Nicky Henderson had yet to shed his maiden tag, having saddled the beaten favourite, See You Then, in the Triumph Hurdle in 1984 and lost another promising young horse, Childown – who broke a leg at the second flight – in the same race. However, he wasted little time in doing so, saddling See You Then to win the Champion Hurdle – the first of three consecutive wins for the fragile, but highly talented, gelding – The Tsarevich to win the Mildmay of Flete Challenge Cup and First Bout to win the Triumph Hurdle. In fact, those three winners were enough to make Henderson leading trainer at the Festival for the first time.

Willie Mullins – currently the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival with 61 winners – began training, in his own right, in 1988, but didn’t break his duck at the Festival until 1995. His initial success came courtesy of Tourist Attraction in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle but, despite building a reputation as a ‘specialist’ in the Champion Bumper – which he won half a dozen times over the next dozen years – he did not become leading trainer at the Festival for the first time until 2011.

Paul Nicholls was still riding, as stable jockey to David Barons, when Mullins took out a training licence. Indeed, that very same year he rode the unsuccessful favourite, Playschool, trained by Barons, in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Nicholls joined the training ranks in 1991 and, although it took him some time to announce his arrival, in 1999, he saddled Flagship Uberalles to win the Arkle Challenge Trophy, Call Equiname to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase and See More Business to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Gordon Elliott, by contrast, is a relative newcomer to the training ranks, having first taken out a licence in 2006. Remarkably, he saddled the winner of the Grand National, Silver Birch, in 2007, before he had saddled a winner in his native Ireland and nearly four years before he saddled his first winner at the Cheltenham Festival. He opened his account at the Festival with Chicago Grey in the National Hunt Chase in 2011, but in seven years since has added a further 21 to his winning tally, including six in 2017 and a record-equalling eight in 2018.

The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, run over 2 miles and 87 yards on the Old Course at Prestbury Park, is the opening event at the Cheltenham Festival. As the name suggests, the race features horses which, at the start of the current season, had yet to win a race over hurdles. Consequently, the field is invariably chock-a-block with exciting, untapped potential, just waiting to be revealed. We’ve had a look the winners over the last decade to see how they progressed, or otherwise, in their subsequent careers.

Go Native (2009)

A rare Cheltenham Festival success for Co. Meath trainer Noel Meade, but subsequently won the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Kempton and the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton before finishing a well-beaten tenth of twelve, when favourite, in the Champion Hurdle in 2010.

Menorah (2010)

A narrow, and controversial, winner for Philip Hobbs, beating Get Me Out Of Here by a head after hampering the runner-up at the second-last flight. Finished a respectable fifth of nine behind Hurricane Fly in the Champion Hurdle the following season before being sent chasing; in that sphere, he won nine of his 29 starts, but just one at Grade One level.

Al Ferof (2011)

Had the distinction of beating Sprinter Sacre and Cue Card to give Paul Nicholls his second winner of the race after Noland in 2006. Sent chasing the following season and ultimately won six of his 18 starts over fences, including a narrow victory, at long odds-on, in the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown.

Cinders And Ashes (2012)

Stayed on strongly to beat Darlan by 1¼ lengths to give Donald McCain his first and, so far, only winner of the race, but that was the pinnacle of his career. He was pulled up before three out in the Champion Hurdle, won by Hurricane Fly, the following season and never won again.

Champagne Fever (2013)

A third winner for Willie Mullins, after Tourist Attraction in 1995 and Ebaziyan in 2007

Mullins, having won the Champion Bumper the previous year. Beaten a head by Western Warhorse in the Arkle Challenge Trophy on his Festival hat-trick attempt the following year and a creditable fourth behind Silviniaco Conti in the King George VI Chase at Kempton, but managed to win four of his 11 starts over fences.

Vautour (2014)

Another winner for Mullins and a prolific winner thereafter, with impressive victories in the JLT Novices’ Chase and the Ryanair Chase at two subsequent Festivals among his five wins from nine starts over fences. Put down, as a seven-year-old, after a freak accident at home.

Douvan (2015)

A third consecutive winner of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle for Willie Mullins and a fifth in all, making him the most successful trainer in the modern history of the race. Unbeaten in both previous starts for Mullins, Douvan also won his next ten starts over hurdles and fences, including the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2016, before his shock defeat, at odds of 2/9, when going lame in the Queen Mother Champion Chase the following year.

Altior (2016)

A third winner for Nicky Henderson, after River Ceiroig in 1986 and Flown in 1992, and far and away the best of the trio. Has a perfect 17-17 record over hurdles for the Master of Seven Barrows, including the Arkle Challenge Trophy and the Queen Mother Champion Chase at two subsequent Festivals.

Labaik (2017)

A first winner for Gordon Elliott and a clearly talented, but quirky, sort. Virtually refused race on his next start at Punchestown and hasn’t been seen in public since finishing a never-nearer fourth behind Wicklow Brave at the same course in April, 2017, when he suffered a serious leg injury

Summerville Boy (2018)

A first winner of the race for Tom George, but subsequently found to be suffering from a hairline fracture of his off-hind femur. Nevertheless, following disappointing efforts in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle and the International Hurdle at Cheltenham – before the injury came to light – he was reported to be recovering well, although he inevitably faces a spell on the sidelines.

The Cheltenham Festival evokes what are technically known as episodic memories or, in other words, memories of personally experienced events associated with a time, place and emotions, such as agony or ecstasy. By definition, such memories are personal and different for everyone but, apparently, your favourites are likely to be those from between the ages of 15 and 25. Quite rightly, my own most vivid recollections date from 1984, 1986 and 1990.

I was still a little ‘wet behind the ears’, in racing terms, when Dawn Run won the Champion Hurdle, in workmanlike fashion, in 1984, but considerably more worldly-wise when the mare – reunited with winning jockey, Jonjo O’Neill, for the first time since – lined up for the Cheltenham Gold two years later. Backed as if defeat was out of the question, Dawn Run was one of four horses left in contention as Run And Skip led the field over the second last. On the run to the final fence, she was passed by both Wayward Lad and Forgive ‘N’ Forget but, switched to the outside, accompanied by the ‘Voice of Racing’, Sir Peter O’Sullevan and his famous, ‘the mare’s beginning to get up’ commentary, she galloped into turf history as the only horse ever to complete the Champion Hurdle – Cheltenham Gold Cup double.

Early that same week, in the very first race, in fact, I had enjoyed the entirely unexpected, but rewarding victory of a novice hurdler that I also had backed, when beaten, on his previous start at Ascot. Thirty-three years ago, River Ceiriog, trained by Nicky Henderson – who, at the time, was looking for his second winner at the Cheltenham Festival – lined up for the Waterford Crystal Supreme Novices’ Hurdle as an unheralded 40/1 chance. Indeed, Henderson had told Sir Peter O’Sullevan that he need not learn the correct pronunciation of Ceiriog (‘Kay-ri-og’) as the horse would not feature. O’Sullevan took Henderson at his word, repeatedly opting for ‘Ki-ri-og’, as the horse named after a tributary of the River Dee in north east Wales strode clear in the closing stages to win, unchallenged, by 20 lengths.

Last, but my no means least, of my abiding memories is the victory of Desert Orchid in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1989. On bottomless, nigh on unraceable, ground, and going left-handed, which was never his forte, the doughty grey summoned every last ounce of courage to overhaul the confirmed mudlark Yahoo, who had looked all over the winner turning for home, on the run-in and win by 1½ lengths. Winning jockey Simon Sherwood punched the air shortly after passing the post and so, dear reader, did I.