A Champion Crowned As A Champion Bows Out

CHELTENHAM, UK–It is a rare moment when a beaten horse elicits a more rousing reception than a winner, but then Tiger Roll (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}) is the rarest of beasts. An enigma sometimes, but scintillating on his many days in the sun, he retires a proper champion of a horse after giving his all for one final run in relentless rain. 

Nobody could claim that the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase is a championship race – in fact there are those who call for its exclusion from the Festival – but the quirky up-hill-down-dale marathon contest is one that has seen one of the most popular horses in training at his very best over the years. Tiger Roll has won the race three times since 2018, and going into this swansong year for one last hurrah it looked very much like the script had been read and understood. Indeed, it had been by Tiger Roll, who despite the sodden ground looked dead set on giving the Cheltenham faithful the result they longed to see. But his younger stable-mate Delta Work (Fr) (Network {Ger}), who was promoted to favourite as the rain continued to fall, decided to play the role of party-pooper. 

With Tiger Roll skipping round in his usual workmanlike manner in the hands of Davey Russell, the master of the National Hunt weighing-room, the duo led the field a merry dance through the final lap, but danger loomed as Delta Work and Jack Kennedy came to challenge over the final flight, setting up a battle royal up the stamina-sapping run-in. At the line, the 12-year-old Tiger Roll, a five-time winner at the Festival and a dual Grand National hero, was but a length down, giving Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown House Stud and Gordon Elliott a truly memorable quinella.

“Tiger is the horse of a lifetime and he's going to have a brilliant retirement back at Gigginstown,” said Elliott as both horses were welcomed back to the winner's enclosure in tandem.

“He's been with us for nine years now, we've always had faith in him and we've really enjoyed today. Tiger made it the race it was. In one way I'm delighted with the one-two, but if he'd won that would have been really special. But I'm delighted with him and he got the reaction he deserved.”

Eight years ago, on just the third start of his life, Tiger Roll landed his first win at Cheltenham in the G1 JCB Triumph Hurdle over two miles. Three years later he took the National Hunt Chase over double the distance under Elliott's assistant Lisa O'Neill before returning 12 months on to win his first Cross Country Chase followed by his first Grand National just a month after that. He bows out having won 13 of his 44 starts, but the stats don't really do the little horse justice. The son of a Derby winner, bred for the Flat and bought initially to race for Sheikh Mohammed, he was considered surplus to requirements at Godolphin and was sold unraced for just £10,000 to Nigel Hawke, who trained him to win on his debut before he changed stables again.

“He is a great horse and he has got a fitting send-off,” said Russell, who rode Tiger Roll to both his Grand National victories. “I always felt Jack breathing down my neck and I would say the rain and the ground just caught us out as Delta Work is very effective on that ground and I'd say Tiger is not as effective on it.

“He went down on his sword the way he deserved to go down. You can see the public are fantastic. It doesn't matter where they are from they are cheering both horses. It is such a marvellous sport we have and we are so lucky. He is just a marvellous horse.”

In eight appearances at the Cheltenham Festival, Tiger Roll has finished in the first two on seven occasions to force his way into the hearts of those who make the annual pilgrimage to the Cotswolds. It will be a while before we see his like again – or hear a winning favourite booed over the line.

Mullins Leads The Irish Charge

Willie Mullins, a man as urbane as he is successful, extended his comfortable lead at the head of the Cheltenham Festival trainers' roll of honour, with another three victories on Wednesday to add to his win in Tuesday's finale. For Mullins, winning races comes as naturally as breathing, but a glaring omission in his well-rounded curriculum vitae had been the G1 Queen Mother Champion Chase. Thanks to Energumene (Fr) (Denham Red {Fr}) that is no longer the case.

The race had been billed as one of the clashes of the week but a variety of factors led to Wednesday's feature being as damp a squib as the racegoers dodging in and out of the rain that persisted throughout the afternoon. The ground, which was downgraded from good to soft, to soft, and then to heavy as the day wore on, was no hindrance to the winner, however, even though it apparently scuppered the chances of the only horse to have beaten him in more than two years, Shishkin (Ire) (Sholokhov {Ire}). From the off, Energumene's main rival was never travelling and his usually exuberant jumping folded in the heavy going. Sensibly, Shishkin, who has lit up the last two Festivals with his authoritative victories in the G1 Supreme Novices' Hurdle and G1 Arkle Trophy, was pulled up by Nico de Boinville soon after the eighth fence. Disappointing but no disaster.

With another of the leading lights, Chacun Pour Soi (Fr) (Policy Maker {Ire}), taking a tumble five fences from home to further weaken the field, Energumene crept into contention after being hunted round toward the rear under a canny energy-saving ride from Paul Townend. He challenged eventual runner-up Funambule Sivola (Fr) (Noroit {Ger}) for the lead three out and thereafter the race was at his mercy, with the 8-year-old striding clear from the penultimate fence to win convincingly.

“He jumped so well, he got me into the race and I was able to fill up everywhere,” said Townend after riding his second winner of the day for Mullins, who is now the most successful trainer of all time at the Festival with 82 winners to his name. 

“Riding a Champion Chase winner for Willie is great. Ruby [Walsh] didn't leave many behind him but we are glad to pick up what scraps he left. We were out of luck yesterday but in luck today, so that's all right and everyone's in one piece.”

Jumping may be the name of the game at Cheltenham but arguably the race in which Mullins has been feared the most over the years is the G1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper, which traditionally brings the curtain down on Wednesday. In fact, the trainer even rode his first winner of the Festival bumper, Wither Or Which (Ire), in 1996, and he has trained another 11 winners of the race since then. The most recent is doubtless one to savour as Facile Vega (Ire) (Walk In The Park {Ire}) is the son of a Festival darling in the six-time G1 Mares' Hurdle winner Quevega (Fr) (Robin Des Champs {Fr}). 

“To me, the fact we had the dam and she was so good, and that he has come through and he looks to be as good as her is fantastic,” Mullins said. 

“He is very easy to train and we just keep a lid on him all the time. The only pressure I had with him was the pressure I put on myself. That's what I just see at home every day. This horse just travels and now you're seeing what I see. He really impressed me in Leopardstown and just impressed me again today. He's a real sort.”

The 5-year-old Facile Vega is now unbeaten in his three starts and his owners in the Hammer & Trowel Syndicate will be hoping he can follow a similar trajectory to his stable-mate and last year's Champion Bumper winner Sir Gerhard (Ire) (Jeremy). The Cheveley Park Stud representative has been beaten only once in his life and ensured the day started well for the Mullins team when winning the G1 Ballymore Novices' Hurdle.

Man On A Mission

Rumours of the death of British National Hunt racing appear to have been greatly exaggerated, certainly in the novice chasing division. Victory for Alan King in Tuesday's Arkle with Edwardstone (GB) (Kayf Tara {GB}) was followed by another five-time winner this season, the exciting L'Homme Presse (Fr) (Diamond Boy {Fr}), who slogged through the mud under jockey Charlie Deutsch in the manner expected of a Venetia Williams trainee to claim the G1 Brown Advisory Novice Chase from the Lucinda Russell-trained Ahoy Senor (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}).

“He has been absolutely fantastic,” said Williams. “All credit to Andy [Edwards, owner], who picked him out and has seen him right the way through to here. I'm just thrilled and honoured to have been the custodian of him.”

She continued, “Andy was recommended him when he had had two runs in France and he had ended up with a tendon injury. He was damaged goods at that point but with most tendon injuries if you do the right thing and give them time you can get them back. He joined me just a year after that injury in the September and he didn't have his first run for us until Grand National day.

“It was a long played-out story but here we are. He is a big horse and always looked like he was going to be a chaser. What a fabulous ride Charlie gave him, he did everything right. We can dream about anything now.”

Both Williams and Russell hold the rare distinction of having trained a Grand National winner and the two trainers, one based almost in Wales and the other in Scotland, are clearly great friends.

Russell, who struck on the first day with Corach Rambler (Ire) (Jeremy) in the G3 Ultima Handicap Chase, said sportingly after finishing second, “I'm delighted for Venetia. If I'm going to get beaten by anybody I'm happy that it's Venetia.”

The two women join Nicky Henderson, his former assistant Ben Pauling, and Alan King on the winners' sheet for Britain but, as widely expected, the Irish team has surged ahead after two days with eight winners on the board to the home team's six. At half-time in Cheltenham after a brutally wet day, every victory over the final two days will be hard earned.