Cheltenham Legends

The Cheltenham Festival has thrown up some unlikely winners over the years, but probably none more so than Norton’s Coin, an otherwise unremarkable 9-year-old gelding who won the 1990 Cheltenham Gold Cup at odds of 100/1.

 

Norton’s Coin was bred, owned and trained by Sirrell Griffiths, a dairy farmer from Nantgaredig in Carmarthenshire, West Wales, who trained three horses for a ‘hobby’. Described by Griffiths as ‘an ugly plain chestnut’, was the product of the union between Mount Cassino and Grove Chance, whom Griffiths had bought for a total of £1,160 in 1979.

 

Of course, Norton’s Coin wasn’t completely devoid of ability; he’d won two of his three point-to-point starts, a hunter chase and three other races under Rules – including the 1989 Silver Trophy Chase at Cheltenham – prior to his shock success. However, when stepped in class on the previous Boxing Day, he’d finished last of six, beaten 39 lengths, behind Desert Orchid in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, so he looked a forlorn hope in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

 

However, belying his generous starting price, Norton’s Coin was always going well under Graham McCourt and, although all out in the closing stages, overhauled Toby Tobias – trained by Jenny Pitman and ridden by her son, Mark – on the run-in to win by three-quarters of a length. Reigning champion, and favourite, Desert Orchid – trained by David Elsworth and ridden by Richard Dunwoody – finished a further four lengths away in third.

 

Unsurprisingly, Norton’s Coin never scaled the same heights again, although he did return to Cheltenham in 1991 to win the Silver Trophy Chase for a second time. He was retired from racing two years later and lived the last eight years of his life on Griffiths’ farm, where he was never ridden again. Following his death, from a suspected heart attack, in January 2001, Griffiths said, “It’s a pity we can’t all go the same way instead of suffering goodness knows what.” He was 20 years old.

 

Flyingbolt is one of two horses – the other being Arkle, coincidentally also trained in Co. Dublin by Tom Dreaper – whose names are spoken in hushed, reverential tones in National Hunt racing circles. In fact, it’s rare that the name of Flyingbolt is spoken at all because, despite achieving the second highest Timeform rating ever, he’s been largely forgotten.

 

For the uninitiated, Timeform ratings are, supposedly, the definitive assessment of the ability of a racehorse, expressed in Imperial pounds. Flyingbolt achieved a Timeform rating of 210, just 2lb inferior to Arkle, but 18lb superior to Sprinter Sacre, the third highest rated horse of all time.

 

Flyingbolt was the product of the unlikely union between the 1946 Derby winner, Airborne, who was supposedly impotent and a 19-year-old mare called Eastlock, who was supposedly barren. He was described by regular jockey Pat Taafe as a horse that would “kick the eye out of your head.” Lovely.

 

During his first three seasons under National Hunt Rules, Flyingbolt won 16 of his 18 races, including three different races at the Cheltenham Festival, the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 1964, the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 1965 and the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1966. Indeed, following his victory, at odds of 1/5, in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, he turned out the following day to finish third in the Champion Hurdle.

 

In the summer of 1966, Flybolt contracted equine brucellosis, a highly contagious, recurring disease caused by direct contact with infected cattle, and was never the same horse again. Despite being two years younger than Arkle and racing on for five more seasons, he never fulfilled the potential of his early career and failed to feature, at all, in a poll of all-time favourite horses conducted by the Racing Post a few years ago.

 

Horses that win the same race at the Cheltenham Festival three or four times – think Best Mate, Inglis Drever, Big Buck’s – typically qualify for legendary status so, without resorting to expletives, what adjective can we use to describe a horse that won the same race six times, in a row! More on that grammatical quandary later, maybe, but the horse in question is the now-retired mare, Quevega, who won the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle, now known as the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle, every year between 2009 and 2014 inclusive.

 

 

Bred, and originally trained, in France, the daughter of smart French hurdler Robin Des Champs joined Irish Champion Trainer Willie Mullins as a 4-year-old in 2008. On her first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival, just over a year later, she started favourite – as she would on her five subsequent appearances – and turned the race into a procession, drawing right away in the closing stages to win by 14 lengths. Five years later, Quevega went off 8/11 favourite to make history and, although just threequarters of a length in front of stable companion Glens Melody at the line, did just that. She had looked beaten at the final flight, but Willie Mullins summed her up, saying “She’s got stamina, speed and everything, she’s just class – what more can I say?” Indeed.

Wayward Lad, whose was trained by Tony, Michael and Monica Dickinson at various stages is, ironically, probably best remembered for not winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup on two occasions. On the first, in 1983, when he finished third behind stable companions Bregawn and Captain John in the year when Michael Dickinson saddled the first five finishers. On the second, in 1986, he led halfway up the run-in, only to be overhauled in the closing stages by Dawn Run, in the year she completed the Champion Hurdle – Cheltenham Gold Cup double.

 

Nevertheless, Wayward Lad was a hugely talented steeplechaser. All in all, he won 28 of his 55 races, including the King George VI Chase at Kempton (three times), the Betfred Bowl at Aintree (twice), the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby and the Edward Hanmer Memorial Chase at Haydock. John Francome recalled his victory in the King George VI Chase in 1982 with more than a hint of Schadenfreude, saying, “I remember the year I won on Wayward Lad taking great pleasure in the success because the runner-up, Fifty Dollars More, was a horse I’d been jocked off from Fred Winter’s yard, because he was owned by Sheikh Ali Abu Khamsin who retained Richard Linley.”

 

At the end of his racing career, Wayward Lad spent his retirement with former trainer Michael Dickinson in Fair Hill, Maryland and died in 2003 at the age of 28.