Cheltenham Festival column: David Ord sets the scene ahead of this year's meeting
From Arkle to Honeysuckle - David Ord asks what was it that first got you hooked on the Cheltenham Festival?
So here we go. The Paddy Power Imperial Cup has been run, John Kettley’s bespoke weather forecast scrutinised, and we’re ready. Ready for the best week in the sporting calendar.
So what was your hook?
There are those fortunate enough to have seen Arkle beat Mill House in 1964 and go on to hit numbers that only stablemate, near neighbour and contemporary Flyingbolt got close to.
If you were foaled in the next generation then you walked into the golden era of hurdling – Monksfield, Night Nurse, Sea Pigeon serving up classic renewals of the Champion Hurdle year after year, with a stellar support cast including the likes of Pollardstown and Birds Nest.
I still have the tape recording of the BBC Radio commentary of Sea Pigeon’s win in 1981 with my late dad roaring home John Francome as the veteran 11-year-old rolled back the years for a final time.
Then came the Michael Dickinson glory days for the north, stars everywhere, Badsworth Boy and Rathgorman at two miles and in the three-mile chasing division he ruled supreme.
In the 1983 Gold Cup Dickinson saddled the first five home as Bregawn led the Harewood procession from Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck and Ashley House. No-one has come close to such dominance since.
Wayward Lad must be the best three-mile chaser never to win a Gold Cup, he looked set to do so in 1986 only for Jonjo O’Neill to conjure a rally from Dawn Run up the hill which carried her to victory and immortality. She’s still the only horse still to win a Champion Hurdle and a Gold Cup.
See You Then’s racecourse appearances were so rare he became See You When and See You Again to Sir Peter O’Sullevan as he won a third successive Champion Hurdle in 1987 – we had to wait 11 years for the next multiple winner of the race – but my was our patience rewarded.
Istabraq ruled the roost from 1998 to 2000 and would have won it again in 2001 but for errant sheep wandering too close to the track during an outbreak of Foot And Mouth disease.
JP McManus’ star first shone at the Festival in the 1997 Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle, landing an almighty punt just as Danoli had three years before.
The race became the home for the Festival banker for a short run as French Holly, Barton and Monsignor raced to wide-margin victories in front of their adoring – and financial richer – public.
Best Mate had Simon Holt roaring “three Gold Cups” in 2004 as he joined the greats with his hat-trick in the race. A wonderful horse who history is revisiting now as criticism of his relatively sparse campaigns is compared to the path the stars of today tread.
From Remittance Man in 1992 through to Martha’s Son in 1997, the two-mile chasers burned brightly with Deep Sensation, Viking Flagship (twice) and Klairon Davis claiming the speed crown after a series of epic battles.
Tony McCoy lifting Edredon Bleu home in 2000 was remarkable before Moscow Flyer won in 2003, fell a year later only to dust himself down and fend off Well Chief 12 months on.
Master Minded was breath-taking in 2008, impressive in 2009 but never quite took the stranglehold that seemed likely.
Neither did Sprinter Sacre following his brilliant win of 2013 but after heart problems and being on the verge of retirement, his impossible dream success of 2016 still has the hairs on the back of the neck standing up.
Stayers’ Hurdle winners tended to hang onto their titles for longer, Baracouda 2002-3, Inglis Drever 2005 and 2007-8 were good – but Big Buck’s (2009 to 2012) even better.
Four Festival wins at this level is remarkable – Quevega managed six in landing the Mares’ Hurdle from 2008 to 2014. Incredible.
But she wasn’t even the headline act at those Festivals – we had Kauto Star and Denman, battle buses, scarves, rosettes and all.
The answer was Kauto in 2007, Denman in 2008 before his near-neighbour became the only horse to reclaim chasing’s blue riband 12 months later. This was sport for the ages.
Imperial Commander and Long Run were around at the same time and had their own, deserved, moments in the sun in the 2010 and 2011 renewals but even then – as veterans and carrying their own battle scars - Denman and Kauto were in the thick of the action.
“So as they turn down hill and race towards the third last in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup it’s the old guard that show the way, Imperial Commander, Kauto Star and Denman, a who’s who of Gold Cup history,” Richard Hoiles told the Cheltenham crowd to a deafening roar. We suspected the younger legs of Long Run would get them, but it was a special moment.
Maybe it's a bet in the handicaps that springs to mind when you think of Cheltenham. McCoy on Unsinkable Boxer or Blowing Wind in the Martin Pipe heyday, a winning ride on Wichita Lineman that still defies belief as you watch the replay again.
Is it Might Bite taking in the full width of the run-in before regaining momentum in the nick of time to beat Whisper a nose in the 2017 RSA? Champ somehow winning the same race three years later despite being ten lengths adrift of Minella Indo and Allaho at the last? Harchibald flattering to deceive in the Champion Hurdle as Hardy Eustace, the toughest hombre in a fine generation of gunslingers, lifted the crown.
Did Annie Power’s fall at the last cost you a big pay-out?
Did you roar her home in the following year’s Champion Hurdle or boo Top Cees back as he returned past the stands after taking the 1998 Coral Cup? Did you applaud in front of the TV as Honeysuckle stretched her unbeaten record and won a first Champion Hurdle last March as Rachael Blackmore and Henry De Bromhead enjoyed a spring that was beyond even their wildest of dreams?
Was it the partnerships? McCoy and Pipe, Walsh and Nicholls, Walsh and Mullins, Fitzgerald and Henderson?
Were you there the year of Windy Wednesday that left us with bumper cards on the Thursday and Friday and punters and racegoers punch drunk?
Whatever it was – once Cheltenham has you there’s no escape. Forget the ludicrous talk of a five-day Festival, the controversy surrounding the meeting taking place on the eve of the country shutting down two years ago.
Forget the fact the Prestbury Cup scoreboard is going to look like a Six Nations result at 5.45 on Friday.
Just sit back, relax and enjoy. Oh, and find a winner or two.