I never enter a Cheltenham Festival week without thinking of the Irish punter who won enough on champion hurdler Istabraq to pay off the mortgage on his house. He then lost the lot when Ireland’s hope Danoli failed to win the Gold Cup. ‘To be sure,’ he declared, ‘it was only a small house anyway.’ Alas, publication dates mean that this column must be penned before this year’s Festival starts, and I began my week with feelings so mixed about the fortunes of Istabraq’s owner J.P. McManus that they should have been rattled in a cocktail shaker.
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As racing’s biggest benefactor and a man with an impeccable record in looking after his ex-racers, J.P. has deserved every one of the 78 Cheltenham Festival winners he has amassed over 40 years. If by the time you read this he has added any of a Champion Chase, an Arkle, a Plate and the two mares’ hurdles to his list of Festival targets not yet achieved I will be delighted.
Where it gets mixed is over the Gold Cup which he last won with Synchronised 13 years ago. Back in the autumn I suggested to Spectator readers that J.P.’s Inothewayurthinkin, trained in Ireland by Gavin Cromwell, would have a good chance in next month’s Grand National. He is a spring horse who impressed winning the Ultima at Cheltenham last year. Before he ran an intriguing fourth in the Irish Gold Cup won by Galopin des Champs I backed him for the National at 33-1 and have been looking insufferably smug as he was then backed down to 7-1 favourite.
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