- Monday, 21 March 2011 16:49
- Written by David Pipe
Following all of the preparation and efforts of everyone at the yard it is difficult to believe that the Cheltenham Festival is over for another year. Once again we had a wonderful time of things with two winners as well as numerous placed horses over the course of the four days, and just when I thought that things couldn’t get any better, we won the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter on Saturday with 25/1 chance Minella Four Star. Dad won the race in 1991 with the great Bonanza Boy and I was pleased to do the same twenty years later - who knows in another twenty years it could be my son Jack lifting the trophy...as you can see from the picture below, he is only too keen to get his hands on it!
"One day I will win this too!"
It was certainly a week to remember for young Conor O’Farrell, who managed to get us off the mark at the Festival with his positive ride aboard the gallant ten year old Buena Vista in the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle Final. Buena Vista really is a special horse and he jumped his rivals silly from the front, gaining lengths at every flight to follow-up his 2010 success in the race. He is owned by Matt Archer and the late Jean Broadhurst who have had many great horses down the years. You would always know when they had had a winner as Jean’s bright red lipstick would be on the cheeks of anyone within a 100 yard radius! Jean, who sadly passed away in 2005 certainly doted on all of her horses and I know that she would be immensely proud of her boy.
Conor gave Buena Vista a great ride and to be successful on his first mount at the Festival is a brilliant achievement. I am sure that win has filled him with confidence, and this was demonstrated with his self-assured ride aboard Minella Four Star in the Midlands Grand National – only his second winner over fences.
Our other Festival winner (also on the Thursday) was Junior, and I widely tipped him as my best chance of the meeting. Backed almost to the exclusion of all others, the 100/30 favourite didn’t disappoint in the concluding Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase for amateur riders as he came home twenty-four lengths clear of his rivals under accomplished Irishman Jamie Codd. He is due to go up by 19lbs in future handicaps, so life is certainly going to be more difficult from now on. Making it a stable 1-2 was Faasel (who also finished runner-up in the race last season) to end the day in the best possible manner.
There were a number of other praiseworthy performances, not least from the gallant grey, Grands Crus who really served it up to Big Buck’s in the World Hurdle. Tom Scudamore gave him a fantastic ride to deliver his challenge at the last, and just for a moment as he narrowly headed the defending champ for a stride or two I thought that Grands Crus might just do it, however Big Buck’s picked up again when we came to him and he really is an exceptional horse – congratulations to his connections for making history with his third successive victory in the race. Nonetheless, Grands Crus is still only a six year old and this was only his ninth career start so he certainly has time on his side. The ground was plenty fast enough for him and I would have loved for him to take his chance on a softer surface, however the ground wasn’t dangerous and I am pleased to say that he has come out of his race well. We will be keeping an eye on the skies in the forthcoming weeks, and if we do not have any significant rain, he may well have run his last race of the season, otherwise he could turn out again at Aintree or Punchestown. He will make a cracking good chaser, and I will be speaking with owners Roger Stanley and Yvonne Reynolds in the near future with a view to whether we stay hurdling or go novice chasing next season.
Great Endeavour was in the process of running a big race when coming to grief at the penultimate fence of the Stewart Family Handicap Chase. He was still upsides and would probably have reached the frame but for hitting the deck. I am pleased to say that he too is okay and is another lightly raced bright prospect for the future. Leo’s Lucky Star, Battle Group and Consigliere were the others to reach the frame at the Festival.
Cheltenham should be congratulated for the work they had done leading up to the Festival. They produced beautiful safe ground and the meeting was wonderfully organised as always – all in all, the meeting could only be described as a triumph.
I went to the England versus Ireland Six Nations rugby match in Dublin on Saturday and I have to say that with hindsight, I would rather have gone to Uttoxeter for the Midlands Grand National! The result was never really in doubt with the Irish outplaying England and fully deserving the victory.
Following the frantic preparations and four days of Cheltenham, we are in for a relatively quiet time of things on the runners front this week. However, with just over two weeks to the start of Aintree’s Grand National meeting the tempo will soon be picking up again!
