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.
