By Emma Berry
Nine years after winning the Grand National in his first season with a trainer's licence, Gordon Elliott has added steeplechasing's blue riband to his list of achievements after Don Cossack (Ger) (Sholokhov {Ire}) galloped his rivals into submission in the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Prominent throughout, the 9-year-old favourite denied the team of Willie Mullins, Ruby Walsh and Rich Ricci another big-race success at this year's Festival by taking a commanding lead from the third-last fence and staying on strongly to leave Djakadam (Fr) (Saint Des Saints {Fr}) trailing by four and a half lengths, with another Mullins contender, Don Poli (Ire) (Poliglote {GB}) a further 10 lengths back in third. The two 'Dons' are owned by Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown House Stud, which first tasted Gold Cup glory a decade ago with War Of Attrition (Ire).
Winning jockey Bryan Cooper, 23, has had mixed fortunes at Cheltenham over the years. He first rose to prominence in 2013 when posting three Festival victories, but a sickening fall at the following year's meeting in his first year as Gigginstown's retained jockey left his career hanging in the balance after he broke two bones in his leg.
“I can't thank Michael and Eddie [O'Leary] enough,” said Cooper, whose father Tom has trained two Cheltenham Festival winners. “From the time I broke my leg here two years ago, they have supported me all the way. Last year was hit and miss–I had a couple that got away from us, but they really stuck by me. That gave me plenty of confidence. We're a great team and this was a great team effort. Don Cossack has beaten what's been put in front of him and that's all he can do. He's the best I've ever sat on.”
Elliott, who has enjoyed three winners at Cheltenham this week, struggled to find the words to describe his delight at landing such a major prize for his biggest owner, Ryanair boss O'Leary, who sponsored two Grade 1 contests on the Thursday of the Festival.
The trainer said, “That was brilliant, unbelievable, I can't believe it. I can't thank Michael and Anita and Eddie and Wendy enough, and all the team at Gigginstown–they supported me from the start. I've never been so nervous in my life. I'm just so happy for all of us, all the staff in the yard, my mother and father.”
Dream Triumph for Joseph O'Brien…
The name on the licence may read Aidan O'Brien, but the pre-eminent flat trainer of his generation makes no secret of the fact that the man calling the shots at Piltown, the County Kilkenny home of G1 JCB Triumph Hurdle winner Ivanovich Gorbatov (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), is his son Joseph, who recently announced his retirement from the saddle.
At the age of just 22, O'Brien junior already has a formidable string of riding successes to his name–including 30 Group 1 winners and 10 Classic victories–and his second career, though yet to be rubber-stamped with his own training licence from Horse Racing Ireland, has got off the ground in the best possible fashion with a debut Cheltenham Festival triumph.
Aidan O'Brien is of course no stranger to National Hunt racing, and neither is his wife Annemarie, the couple each having held the licence at the Piltown stable of Annemarie's father Joe Crowley and each becoming Ireland's champion jumps trainer during that time. After moving to Ballydoyle and switching predominantly to the Flat, O'Brien still held Cheltenham in his thrall for five seasons as conditioner of the treble Champion Hurdler Istabraq (Ire) (Sadler's Wells). And, just like the mighty Istabraq, Ivanovich Gorbatov is a former flat performer who has taken to hurdling with great aplomb in the colours of Cheltenham's winningmost owner JP McManus.
“I can't really put it into words to be honest,” said Joseph from the middle of a giant media huddle after his star juvenile hurdler led home a trio of Willie-Mullins-trained horses. He added, “It feels slightly surreal. It's completely different to being in the saddle. When you're riding, you don't get a chance to take in the whole occasion, but now I don't have much to do on the day itself as the job is done, so there's more time to get nervous. Barry [Geraghty] was as confident as anyone. When he got off him last time out, he said he hated the ground and couldn't jump. We were in no doubt he would be better on better ground and he was. He could be a Champion Hurdle horse–he's entitled to go into that grade but it will be a huge step up.”
The youngster has around 70 horses under his care, a mixture of flat and jumps horses, 15 to 20 of which are 2-year-olds, and he hopes to be operating under his own licence by June.
Asked if he was daunted by following in the footsteps of his father, he said, “I don't think of it in those terms. I just want to get each horse I have as fit and well as possible and to do the best I can. For the last year I've struggled with my weight and I knew I wasn't going to be able to ride forever. I'm very lucky to have ridden the horses I did.”
Pendleton Impresses But Carberry Wins Again…
Britain's most decorated female Olympian, the former cycling champion Victoria Pendleton, has been riding as an amateur jump jockey this winter in the Betfair-sponsored 'Switching Saddles' challenge and faced the biggest test of her equine career at Cheltenham when lining up for the St James's Place Foxhunter Chase.
Positioned out the back of the 24-runner field for the first half of the race, she gradually urged her mount Pacha Du Polder (Fr) (Muhtathir {GB}) into a more forward position to finish strongly for a running-on fifth place–a remarkable performance for a rider of her inexperience. She was no match, however, for the leading lady of the amateur scene, Nina Carberry, who recorded back-to-back wins in the Foxhunter and her sixth overall at the Cheltenham Festival aboard the JP McManus-owned On The Fringe (Ire) (Exit To Nowhere).
Pendleton, 35, who has been guided by the Oxfordshire-based training duo of Alan and Lawney Hill, said, “This is right up there with anything I've done. It's such a rush, such a thrill. I think it's one of my greatest achievements. I feel lucky. To be accepted as part of this, by the crowd and by the other jockeys today, I just want to say a big thank you. I feel an immense sense of achievement.”
Speaking of her new-found passion for riding, which she took up just a year ago, Pendleton confirmed that she plans to continue to compete in hunter chases and point-to-points. She said, “I've loved every minute of it. I can't believe how much I enjoy riding out every morning. I can't wait to get to the yard–I love the smell of horses, everything about it. To be here riding at Cheltenham on Gold Cup day is an unbelievable privilege.”
Paul Nicholls trains Pacha Du Polder, on whom Pendleton secured her first victory in a hunter chase at Wincanton earlier this month.
The champion trainer said, “She's not won, but she's ridden a winner today in everyone's eyes, and you saw the reaction from the crowd, it's what this sport is all about.”
When Harry Met Harry…
Champion trainer Paul Nicholls posted a double on the day to finish joint-second on three winners for the week to Willie Mullins, and it was also a breakthrough day for two of his former assistants.
Harry Fry, who ran Nicholls's satellite yard from which Champion Hurdler Rock On Ruby (Ire) was trained, now has a Grade 1 Cheltenham success in his own name, almost literally, for when the Sir Harry Lewis gelding Unowhatimeanharry (GB) came up for sale last year, he was the obvious choice for the Harry Fry Racing Club. The 8-year-old's determined late run from the final flight was enough to win the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle by a length and quarter from Fagan (GB) (Fair Mix {Fr}).
Another former Nicholls employee, Dan Skelton, saddled Superb Story (Ire) (Duke Of Marmalade {Ire}), ridden by his brother Harry, to win his first Festival race, the G3 Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle.
The Prestbury Cup, which pitches English-trained runners against their Irish counterparts, finished honours even at 14 winners apiece.
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