15 minute read
Back at Cheltenham
Back at Cheltenham
Leo was not going to miss his annual trip to Prestbury Park for this year’s Festival, and certainly was not going to be enticed to watch the meeting from a bar in Spain
HAVING MISSED OUT ON attending the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, it was one of my New Year priorities to ensure that I made amends this time.
However, I am embarrassed to admit that, for a fleeting moment or two, I was almost influenced by some of the negative commentary leading up to the event, led to believe that the 2025 renewal of one of racing’s centrepieces would be anything less than great. The doomsayers were out in force.
Reading recommendations about the attractiveness of watching this four-day extravaganza from the discomfort of a high-stool in a Spanish bar left me nothing short of saddened, and more determined to attend every day at Prestbury Park with a positive air.
Needless to say my decision proved to be right –jaded, cynical and even-aging racegoers, perhaps myself included, who have attended almost as many Cheltenham Festival race days as we have had hot dinners, had our senses continually heightened by result after result.
One could almost say that there was a deep and spiritual influence on the meeting.
With the opening race of the four days being named in honour of Michael O’Sullivan, the stage was set for what turned out to be an emotional rollercoaster.
The young rider’s two winners at the meeting in 2023, Marine Nationale and Jazzy Matty, incredibly won again within 40 minutes of each other on the second day, leaving even the most sceptical or agnostic race-watcher wondering about some supernatural power.
Connections to Michael throughout the week were evident, but I could add to that the names of people such as John Hales, Robert Chugg, Ronnie O’Neill and Willie Codd, all sadly departed but leaving their fingerprints on this years’ roll of honour. I can not remember a Cheltenham with so many immediate connections to loved ones who are sadly gone.
On a lighter note, there were so many uplifting moments, too, and for me the real takeaway stories of happiness were the successes enjoyed by jockey Rachael Blackmore, trainer Willie Mullins, and the multiple champion owner J.P. McManus.
The late Micheal O’Sullivan with Marine Nationale at Fairyhouse after a first Grade 1 success in December 2022
You might be thinking to yourself, “hang on, they are such obvious choices”, but their achievements nonetheless touched my heart with gladness.
Blackmore’s influence for good is really immeasurable, and for her to complete the full set of major race successes at the meeting is remarkable. Given her relatively late arrival on the racing scene, throughout her career she has displayed a talent that is second to none, alongside having no ego, and always being grateful for her triumphs.
Such luminaries as Ruby Walsh and A.P. McCoy hail her as a great, and they certainly know a thing or two about race riding talent. However, it is also in her day-to-day handling of being an icon, something she would vehemently deny, that she truly shines. In a world in which success can be a fleeting 10 minutes of fame, Blackmore has kept her feet firmly on the ground.
There is always inevitable conjecture about when shemight retire from the saddle – hopefully not for some time yet – but it will have to happen someday. She has already shown that she can turn her hand to much else, including writing a children’s book, but I earnestly hope that racing’s leaders have plans to utilise her experience and media savvy for the ultimate good of racing, assuming that is what she herself desires.
Mentioning retirement, I was amazed to see a headline in an Irish national newspaper speculating about the possibility of Willie Mullins handing over the reins soon. Quelle horreur!
Given the many accolades he has accumulated, and the many more he can still achieve, it is impossible to imagine the racing scene with Willie on the sidelines, looking on. The rich successes earned at Closutton have been down to Willie’s leadership, with Jackie’s and Patrick’s assistance, and the combined efforts of a large and dedicated team.
There is no denying that Willie’s dominance has been the subject of much comment, even derision at times, and jealously might well be an ingredient in that mix.
True, no other NH trainer has ruled for so long, though a look back through the history books will reveal that many have done so for periods of time.
In my lifetime, I can point to multiple champions such as Paddy Sleator, Tom and Jim Dreaper, Edward O’Grady, Paddy Mullins, Annemarie and Aidan O’Brien, Noel Meade and now Mullins.
Is it possible that Mullins could be acclaimed as the best ever? There is a strong argument for saying he is, but he would likely demure if that claim was put to him.
Alongside Vincent O’Brien, he has been a champion not only in Ireland but in Britain too, and Mullins can most certainly be mentioned in the same breath as the great Ballydoyle maestro. Different times bring different challenges and circumstances, and one is not really measuring like with like, but that said, Mullins is without equal in the modern era.
What can one say about J.P. McManus that has not been said before, and if looking back at bygone ages the closest I can ally him to is Dorothy Paget.
An aristocrat by birth, she was the champion owner on the Flat in 1943 when Straight Deal won the Derby at Epsom. She was a multiple champion NH owner too and, aided by Golden Miller’s five wins in the race, she won the Gold Cup at Cheltenham seven times. Additionally, she had four Champion Hurdle wins, Insurance being successful twice.
Only one horse has won the Gold Cup at Cheltenham and the Grand National at Aintree in the same year, Paget’s Golden Miller achieving the feat in 1934, he owner’s only triumph in the great Liverpool race.
For a short time, the prospect of this year’s Boodles Gold Cup winner, Inothewayurthinkin, emulating Golden Miller seemed a possibility, but trainer Gavin Cromwell
dashed those hopes in the days following Cheltenham. Inothewayurthinkin is the first supplementary entry to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, having been added to the field on the Saturday prior to the race at a cost of £25,000. His victory was a second win in the race for McManus after Synchronised in 2012.
The Limerick native is the most successful owner ever at the Cheltenham Festival with 84 winners, and there was added delight as his wife Noreen bred Inothewayurthinkin.
Six of McManus’s tally of wins were gained this year, and he had at least one winner every day. Five different trainers or training partnerships provided the halfdozen wins, which says so much about the depth of the owner’s investment in racing. Apart from the Gold Cup hero, he won with The New Lion, Fact To File, Dinoblue, Puturhandstogether and Jagwar.
The green and gold colours sported by McManus runners were on 36 runners over the four days – and there were just 28 races. His runners at Cheltenham came from 13 different yards. Apart from involvement in racing, his philanthropic work is mind-blowing, but he is not one to seek applause for this.
His nature is to be quiet-spoken, and he generally shuns the limelight. I have a particular story that, for me at least, says the world about his persona. Mark O’Meara was the outstanding golfer in the world in 1998.
That year he won the British Open, but in the weeks leading up to the competition he, alongside Tiger Woods and others, were guests of McManus at The Curragh, and I was the paddock commentator and master of ceremonies.
As a golf fan, I entrusted photographer Peter Mooney with the task of taking a picture of myself and O’Meara looking “as casual as possible”. Peter succeeded and, shortly afterwards, presented me with a large print to remember the occasion, but with a suggestion.
“Why don’t you ask J.P. to get the photograph signed?”, said Peter. As I did not know McManus, I put the idea to the back of my mind, but it would not go away completely.
Finally, I summoned up the courage – or brass neck –to write to Martinstown Stud and ask if there might ever be a chance, albeit it a longshot, of getting the picture signed. A telephone call from someone in McManus’s office asked that I send the picture to them, and they would see if a signature could be obtained when the boss met O’Meara again.
Weeks, and maybe months passed, and I was sure that was the end of the dream. Then, out of the blue, another call from Martinstown came with the news that the signed portrait was there and would be on its way to me. Imagine my delight when the print arrived with the following inscription: “To Leo. Thank you for your support. Your friend, Mark O’Meara.”
Keen that as many people see this keepsake, I decided to put it hanging in a room that almost every visitor to my home inhabits at some stage – it is in the loo.
A Saudi Cup thriller
If this year’s Champion Hurdle was one of the oddest races that I can recall, it came just weeks after I had the pleasure to witness in person one of the best finishes I have seen in my lifetime. The $20 million Saudi Cup was always likely to be a match race between the Hong Kong-trained Romantic Warrior and the Japanese hope Forever Young – and so it proved to be.
The two served up a thriller, with victory going to Forever Young, and this on a night when once again Japan flexed its muscle on the international racing stage, winning four of the six Group races for thoroughbreds.
To illustrate the pair’s superiority in the feature race, Ushba Tesoro finished third, some ten and a half lengths in arrears, and he was beaten a neck when second in last year’s Saudi Cup, having won the 2023 Dubai World Cup. With a winners’ purse of $8 million, and successful for
the seventh time in nine starts, Forever Young boosted his career earnings to almost £11.5 million, while Romantic Warrior’s take of $3 million stretched his winnings to just shy of £21 million.
Their performance cemented the race’s status as a worthy global Group 1 contest, much to the delight of Prince Bandar, the man whose dream has become reality.
Peter Lau Pak Fai, the owner of Romantic Warrior, and the trainer Danny Shum, deserve great praise for taking on such a challenge for start number 24 in the career of their superstar.
There were other Turf options, albeit not so richly endowed, and they came agonisingly close to making the dream a realisation. For me, it was an occasion when the hairs stood on the back of my neck.
Romantic Warrior was bred by James and David Egan’s Corduff Stud, with their American friend Tim Rooney, but none at the County Kildare farm will have watched the race with more interest and emotion than David’s wife Henrietta.
She has been invested in Romantic Warrior since the start, and could likely tell you what he has in his feed every day. She loves him.
Given how closely Henrietta follows the horse’s career, it is good to know that Romantic Warrior’s owner has indicated that the gelding will return to Corduff on his eventual retirement.
I was unable to be present at the funeral service for Michael O’Sullivan as a result of being abroad, but I watched the ceremony online. Knowing the young man’s family, and how quiet and reserved his parents William and Bernie are, I was floored by the eulogy delivered by Michael’s dad. I have rarely heard words spoken with such pride and love.
Michael’s death just short of his 25th birthday left the racing world in mourning; a sadness felt in Ireland, Britain and further afield, too. From the moment I went through the gates of Cheltenham on day one, and the first group of people I encountered were members of his family, it seemed that Michael was very much present.
From the moment William spoke at the funeral, he summed his son up. He said: “I was very lucky in life to meet Bernie and to have two wonderful boys, Michael and Alan. Michael was a joy from the start”.
Cheltenham has always had a special place in the hearts of the O’Sullivan family, and I clearly recall the last gasp victory of Lovely Citizen in the 1991 Christies Foxhunter Chase, trained by Eugene, ridden by William and owned by their father.
Michael achieved so much in his short life, and was on the cusp of something even bigger – he had style and talent in the saddle, but he was so much more than that. Everything about Michael’s life was touched with some magic, and it seems that he is still very much a presence.
His two Cheltenham Festival winners doing so again this year in back-to-back races was one such instance.
I also found it heartbreaking to read that Michael’s first winner on the track was Wilcosdiana, trained by his uncle Eugene. The race at Cork was the Jack Tyner Memorial Hunters Chase, named after a 19-year-old rider who died following a fall in a point-to-point in 2011.
I also found it heartbreaking to read that Michael’s first winner on the track was Wilcosdiana, trained by his uncle Eugene. The race at Cork was the Jack Tyner Memorial Hunters Chase, named after a 19-year-old rider who died following a fall in a point-to-point in 2011.
The Tyner and O’Sullivan families are part of the DNA of Ireland’s racing scene, and now both are bereft.
My thoughts are with Michael’s family.
The late Richard Botterill
WHEN I moved from Tattersalls Ireland to Goffs as their NH manager, Richard Botterill was already there. He was hugely popular with vendors, and he enjoyed travelling the roads of Ireland in search of equine talent.
He had a tough gig at the time, as Goffs was then a small player in the NH sales scene, but the company was determined to change that imbalance, and the seeds of change were planted in the late 1980s.
He had a tough gig at the time, as Goffs was then a small player in the NH sales scene, but the company was determined to change that imbalance, and the seeds of change were planted in the late 1980s.
Richard continued to be at the centre of the business until his passing, and will be missed by many colleagues and friends, and especially by his family. Leo Powell
I got to work closely with Richard for just over a year, sadly not long enough at all.
I had not really met Richard before starting to do some work for Tattersalls Cheltenham, but, of course, I had heard all about him and had seen him in action on the rostrum.
And that was right from the days when I started riding racehorses and would be eagerly attending Ascot sales on the hunt for a point-to-pointer or two, those sales then run by the family firm Botterills, to watching wide-eyed at those tentative early point-to-point sales held by Brightwells in Cheltenham’s Centaur Building.
We now take the existence of bespoke point-to-point sales as an integral part of the industry, but 20 years ago they really were quite unique, and under Richard’s early vision have been transformative.
In the last decade of Richard’s career, he proudly wore his Tattersalls tie and sold young jumps horses for six-figure sums at Cheltenham and Fairyhouse.
Much has been written about Richard’s passion and dedication to the industry, but, when I was writing his obituary, I was struck by his acute business acumen.
He spotted niches and he worked hard to make them work. Through his career he sold two businesses – first his own fledging start-up to Russell, Baldwin & Bright (later Brightwells), the company keen to develop its bloodstock sector.
Then, once that bloodstock business had reached its zenith, the Cheltenham and Ascot sales were sold on to Tattersalls.
Richard was genuinely a good man, and kind, and he never lost touch with his roots, the basis of his life that had served him so well.
It is such a cliché after someone passes, but I wish I’d had the chance to get to know him better. I wish I had used my time chatting and conversing with him more wisely; put off deadlines and talked to him about his life.
At the Cheltenham Festival, I would see him on the steps outside the weighing room, taking the chance to talk to clients.
Even for the short time I had got to know him not seeing him there this year left a void. Sally Duckett
