The winning jockey had tough choice between two fine horses, but got it right by staying loyal to A Plus TardThey say it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind but such is Rachael Blackmore’s quiet determination to be known first and foremost as just a jockey, rather than a female one, that it ought to have come as no surprise that she stuck to her guns and elected to ride A Plus Tard in this year’s Gold Cup despite being beaten into second place on him 12 months ago.While the novelty value of Blackmore’s gender in a massively male dominated, often brutal profession has gradually dissipated to the point where it barely merits a mention, it is worth noting...
Victory in the blue riband of chasing at the Cheltenham Festival would complete a full house of jump racing’s premier prizesMinella Indo and Rachael Blackmore go back a long way at Cheltenham. Three years ago almost to the day, he was her breakthrough Grade One winner, an unconsidered 50-1 shot in what turned out to be one of the strongest novice hurdles of recent years. Allaho and Lisnagar Oscar, in third and fifth, were Grade One winners themselves at future Festivals, and Blackmore too soon moved on to even better things.His Festival form figures are 1-2-1. He loves the track and thrives in the spring. And yet, for the second year running, when Minella Indo goes to post for the...
Tributes paid as Yorkshire trainer who won Cheltenham Gold Cup and three Irish Gold Cups dies aged 85Peter Beaumont has been hailed as among of the last of his kind, following the Gold Cup-winning trainer’s death on Monday morning at the age of 85. Based near Brandsby in North Yorkshire, Beaumont was a quiet man who never sought the limelight and never had more than 30 horses under his care but had a fantastic eye for a long-distance steeplechaser and won some of the sport’s biggest prizes. Related: Talking Horses: Richard Hannon counts blessings and plots way back for racing Continue reading...
Robbie Power feels his Gold Cup mount has been written off after one bad run, but has hopes for a better effort this timeIf only punters could get it right! Mere hours after Gordon Elliott referred to Delta Work as “a forgotten horse” it was the turn of Robbie Power to claim that Lostintranslation was not getting enough love in the Gold Cup conversation. Power compared him to Sizing John, who he rode to Cheltenham glory in the 2017 race in defiance of pre-race fears about unproven stamina.“He’s coming in, a little like Sizing John, under the radar because people didn’t think Sizing John was going to stay,” Power told a gathering of racing media at Punchestown on Tuesday. “Now...
Animal welfare is just one problem for a sport that will have its moment in the sun at the Cheltenham festivalThirty years ago this week, after Desert Orchid had winged up the Cheltenham hill as if auditioning for a role as Pegasus, the Observer’s Hugh McIlvanney noticed something unusual: everywhere he looked tears were being shed by people who didn’t normally cry.“The flood of emotion was so extraordinary that it invited us to wonder how many human champions, let alone horses, have ever commanded such undiluted devotion from the British public,” he wrote after Dessie’s stunning Gold Cup victory, lauding the horse as the embodiment of what makes racing “an irresistible sport to so many”. Related: Harry Cobden: ‘The more...