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Cheltenham Festival memories: David Ord 2010 reflections

By David Ord

Horse Racing

Mon February 06, 2023 · 2y ago

Our man begins his new series with a look back at the 2010 Cheltenham Festival - four days that had a new edition to its soundtrack.

The Cheltenham Festival doesn’t exactly have a rich musical heritage.

True, the Irish folk duo who played the nearby Prince Of Wales pub every evening for seemingly 30 years did perform a wonderful rendition of The Ballad Of Dawn Run twice-a-night. And twice-a-night ratings experts took exception to the line "And Wayward Lad, he knew he’d met the greatest of all time."

“Come on lads – she was 39 pounds below Arkle with Timeform."

How to kill a party vibe.

Then there was Jim Lewis’ victory chant of “Best Mate, Best Mate, Best Mate…” you don’t need any more, as his triple Gold Cup hero returned to the winners’ enclosure.

“That bloody song,” sighed Henrietta Knight, offering the sort of cutting aside that catapulted Simon Cowell and his original face to TV stardom.

“Ruby, Ruby, Ruby” would bellow out of the stands as he returned on yet another Festival winner, but the male voice choir gathered in the Cotswolds seemingly knew no other lines to the Kaiser Chiefs classic.

But in 2010 we had the charity single Cheltenham – sung to the tune of Downtown by the great and good of the racing game on both sides of the Irish Sea.

It might not have scaled the heights in the charts – performing similarly to David Brent’s self-published If You Don’t Know Me By Now the previous year – but the video warrants replay after replay on Youtube.

Cheltenham (Downtown)

Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson were pitched front and centre of the British combo, joined by the likes of – at the time – just plain old AP McCoy, Mick Fitzgerald and Channel 4 Racing staples John McCririck (stuck out on a wing and as far from a microphone as possible), Derek Thompson (think an ageing Bez), Simon Holt and Mike Cattermole.

Lee Mottershead represented the written press in a tank top – and has genuinely not aged a day since – while over in Ireland a more sombre musical gathering included Jessica Harrington and Colm Murphy, who wore the look of a man who would rather be just about anywhere else in the world than in a recording studio at that moment in time.

But they sang for the Bob Champion Cancer Trust and, through the advancement of modern technology, sounded in tune. Sadly, there weren’t many punters singing it in celebration at the 2010 Festival – nor Ruby, Ruby, Ruby come to that.

He looked set for a stellar week with the Nicholls big guns Master Minded, Kauto Star and Big Buck’s among the star turns. All started short-price favourites – but only one won.

They said the ground was too quick for the former who was on legs of jelly as he weakened into fourth behind Big Zeb in the Champion Chase. At least the winning trainer Colm Murphy had finally found a place he did want to be - in the Cheltenham winners’ enclosure.

Kauto Star was sent off the 8/11 favourite for the Gold Cup but was in trouble a long way out and seemingly beaten when taking a crashing fall four out. Denman couldn’t rescue the situation for the Nicholls team either, Imperial Commander deservedly getting his hooves on chasing's blue riband.

Thank goodness then for Big Buck’s who barely threw in his customary flat spot that served merely to offer false hope to opponents and raise the heart-rate of punters, as he sauntered to a second successive win in the Stayers’ Hurdle.

Big Buck's leads over the last

Willie Mullins’ Quevega was another repeat winner for Walsh, taking the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle, while he teamed up with Nicholls again to land the Fred Winter with favourite Sanctuaire.

Over the four days there was only one other market leader to oblige, Baby Run who was 9/2 joint-favourite for the Twiston-Davies team in the Foxhunters.

It was the year of the Binocular miracle, out for the count and not running in February, to a full resurrection and bounding clear up the hill to win the Champion Hurdle for Simon and Garfunkel – or McCoy and Henderson.

There was a tetchy post-race press conference when attention was turned to the timetable and circumstances surrounding the about-turn in Binocular’s participation, crossed words were exchanged between members of the tabloid and broadsheet press as some, including the trainer, took exception to one line of questioning.

Dunguib was the Irish banker of the week but found Menorah and Get Me Out Of Here too good in the Supreme, the pair fighting out a pulsating finish. Ireland was on the board in the Arkle but not as expected through Captain Cee Bee, but instead with Henry de Bromhead claiming a notable early big prize with Sizing Europe.

It was a good Cheltenham for the north, probably our last one, Ferdy Murphy finding his customary Festival winner with Poker De Sivola, ridden by Katie Walsh. Chief Dan George took the artist known then as the William Hill Trophy back to the Lake District in Jimmy Moffatt’s horsebox, while Peddlers Cross and Ballabriggs completed a big double for a Donald McCain yard threatening to grab a seat at the top table.

Cue Card wins - at 40/1

Walsh (Katie) also won the County Hurdle on Thousand Stars for Mullins (Willie), while Cue Card (40/1) landed the bumper to offer up a very early glimpse of his talents.

He was backed by Sam Matterface and Natalie Sawyer, the golden couple of Sky Sports at the time, who swooped on the outsider because of the TV connotations in his name. They’re no longer together, or on Sky Sports.

It was that sort of Festival for those trying to find a winner – but at least we had a song to stick into the CD player for the long drive home.

All together now... “When you’re alone and life is making you lonely you can always go, to Cheltenham".

What were your favourite memories of the 2010 Cheltenham Festival? Email them to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com.

Feedback

Andrew Pelis: I was lucky to attend the Thursday and Friday of the 2010 Cheltenham Festival which still had a transformative feel to it, with the Ryanair Chase still relatively in its infancy and causing less impact on Champion Chase and Gold Cup fields.

Whilst Big Buck's was a highlight - and a decade later I would have the honour of getting to know him personally - along with Imperial Commander, two races really stuck in my mind and a chance meeting.

Bertie's Dream won a dramatic renewal of the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle, but Weapon's Amnesty's RSA Chase still lives long in the mind as it was a race stacked with quality and he was winning at his second consecutive Cheltenham Festival. For me, he is one of the biggest "what might have beens" of the past couple of decades. He really looked a Gold Cup winner waiting to happen, but injury sadly intervened.

On the Thursday evening, long after racing, our coach back to the hotel was delayed as the driver decided to wait for the traffic to abate. As I walked along the front of the deserted stands in the darkness, I saw somebody giving a horse a pick of grass by the winning post. I wandered down to the rails and met Henry de Bromhead, with Sizing America. We had a good chat for five minutes. It had already been a fantastic meeting for him, with Sizing Europe landing the Arkle. An absolute gentleman and it has been wonderful to follow his career since.

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