I feel honoured and privileged to be given the task of reviewing the greatest racing show on earth and today was an absolute blinder, stories galore attached to almost all of the races and as someone who used to work with the Gary Moore yard (remember the Alan Brazil days Gary?), an afternoon that I revelled in.
Starting at the beginning (always a good idea), the bookmakers took an absolute caning and could be seen licking their wounds and ordering more cash after Faugheen won the opener at odds of 6/4 (3/1 overnight and backed as if defeat was not an option). Bets of £20,000 and £18,000 to win were spotted in the ring and landed with the minimum of fuss by the Mullins challenger who is another being hyped for next year’s major hurdles races.
The RSA Chase for novices over three miles was next to run and a personal disaster. O’Faolains Boy won it for Rebecca Curtis at odds of 12/1 having won last time out at Ascot at odds of 8/1, and despite being told he was a decent horse (possible future Grand National winner?), I failed to back him on either occasion – everyone has a bad day (or two). I will happily add that I would be amazed if he is good enough to even contend a Gold Cup as I felt this was a poor renewal, but he could do no more than win and congratulations to connections for landing this valuable prize.
The Coral Cup at 2.40pm was, as expected, totally beyond me but the first “story” of the day as Nico De Boinville won on board Nicky Henderson’s Whisper who I had failed to even consider. Claiming five pounds, that made all the difference as he fought off Champion jockey A P McCoy by a short head which takes some doing, and the unbridled joy of his young jockey bought a tear to many an eye.
On Wednesday the feature race is the Queen Mother Champion Chase which may have been deprived of defending champion Sprinter Sacre due to illness, but still had all the makings of a cracking contest. Cards on the table and as mentioned I am a big fan of trainer Gary Moore and was at as much of a loss as he was as to why the racing press seemed happy to put down his chances with Sire De Grugy, but he had them all eating humble pie with a comfortable and impressive six length success. Certainly the biggest win of his trainer’s career to date, and the first Festival victory in the saddle for son Jamie, the fact that his fellow jockeys came out of the weighing room to give him a guard of honour is testament to the camaraderie they have and just how important this win was for the sport.
Few take a lot of notice of the cross-country chase other than as a novelty event but I don’t mind a bit of change and admit to having a small each way bet on Any Currency for the Martin Keighley yard. As is my habit so far this week I was touched off by Richard Johnson on board Balthazar King in a photo finish after yet another cracking race, though why it never goes my way is a separate question? A place at 10/1 here made a small profit as did my other places yesterday at 9/1 twice and 16/1 but please, just one winner would do me to put me in profit for tomorrow?
Two more races to go and the shred money seemed to be for Ivan Grozny, though my own fancy Dawalan sat in high order in the opening shows and was sent off a frankly silly 7/2 favourite having been freely available at 7/1 minutes earlier. Like most of my bets this week he failed to read the script leaving others money weighing down the bookies satchels as 33/1 shot Hawk High ran on strongly to score for Tim Easterby and a victory for a northern challenger.
Luckily, we ended with a 22 runner bumper (or National Hunt flat race to give it the proper title), and as always no prisoners were taken from flag fall onwards as Black Hercules took them along at a decent clip which he sadly failed to continue inside the last couple of furlongs. Nope, 16/1 shot Silver Concorde scored for the legend that is Dermot Weld, and although hindsight is a wonderful thing, I can’t believe I failed to spot his chances. That said, unlike previous years we did not have a cruise away winner (more like hard work to be honest), and I will not be knocking down the bookmakers doors for prices for next year in any of the novice hurdles and would prefer to let the form pan out a little before drawing any outrageous conclusions.