Our Racing Editor recounts an incredibly memorable trip to the 1992 Cheltenham Festival which resulted in several equine champions being born on the track... and a remedial eyepatch off it.
Sheikh Mohammed winning the Champion Hurdle with a horse who’d been first past the post in the Gold Cup at Ascot... Barry Hills and Robert Sangster combining to land the Stayers’ Hurdle... Saeed Manana’s silks carried to victory in the Sun Alliance Hurdle and a Gold Cup that caused such a rumpus it ended with a Jockey Club Enquiry at Portman Square months later.
Welcome to Cheltenham, 1992.
It was the first year of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper too and one that ended with my Dad driving home with one functioning eye, desperately wondering what he could tell the headmaster the next day.
That was on the Thursday – day one belonged to the remarkable Royal Gait. His Ascot disqualification - having beaten Sadeem by five lengths - was one of the great injustices of the turf and one he was unable to put right on the level.
Bought by Sheikh Mohammed and sent to Henry Cecil subsequently, he missed two years with a leg injury before being switched to James Fanshawe (not exactly an obvious choice for a novice hurdling career, but an inspired one).
Clearly expectations were low when he made his debut over timber at Kempton on Boxing Day 1991. Sent off at 12/1, he hung his chance away when second to Travado, but the engine was still there.
Less than three months later he was our champion hurdler, his Road to Cheltenham taking in two wins at Nottingham, a novice hurdle and a handicap from a mark of just 126.
And then his coronation. He again hung left after the last under Graham McCourt, but held off the fast-finishing pair of Oh So Risky (at the time in the Michael Tabor silks) and the enigmatic entire Ruling to win by half-a-length.
It was a fairytale comeback and sadly his final win. Off for 295 days before his next start, he collapsed and died after finishing fourth at Leopardstown the following December. A horse who began his career in Spain before moving to France and becoming a Group One winner in his new homeland and England (before the stewards intervened), and then his stunning reinvention as a hurdler. A truly amazing story.
Nomadic Way was a wonderful dual-purpose horse, the sort you so sadly don’t see nowadays, and he’d finished second to Kribensis and Morley Street in the previous two Champion Hurdles before stepping up to three miles to land the 1992 Stayers'. A deserved moment in the Festival sun for the then seven-year-old.
His rider Jamie Osborne enjoyed a red-letter day, completing a treble after earlier victories aboard Flown in the Supreme and Young Pokey the Arkle. He had one hand on the leading rider award by the time he drove home on Tuesday evening and was never in danger of letting go, the victories of Dusty Miller (County Hurdle) and the brilliant Remittance Man (Champion Chase) making it five for the week.
This was the start of a golden era for the two-mile chasers, Nicky Henderson's charge beating Katabatic and Waterloo Boy to claim the division’s most cherished belt. Young Pokey may have failed to scale the heights post the Arkle, but fourth home Deep Sensation did.
So did a horse who finished third in that year’s County Hurdle off a mark of 125 – Viking Flagship. What a difference a fence makes.
We saw future Grand National winner Minnehoma beat subsequent dual Mackeson winner Bradbury Star, future Welsh Grand National winner Run For Free and another future Grand National winner Rough Quest in a Sun Alliance Chase that would have earned a Timeform 'Strong Form' flag had such a thing existed back then.
The inaugural Champion Bumper was responsible for the Irish banker of the week in Tiananmen Square, a 30 lengths winner over Morceli at Fairyhouse on his previous start. He was sent off at 6/4 but bumped into Montelado who had one gear too many for the market leader, as he did his rivals in the Supreme the following year.
He looked destined for greatness only for injury to intervene.
Thetford Forest, who won the Sun Alliance in the Manana silks for David Nicholson and Richard Dunwoody, was an even sadder story.
A Listed winner on the Flat for Sheikh Mohammed and John Oxx, he won four of his five starts over timber before Cheltenham and made it five from six with a sparkling display, drawing a widening six lengths clear of Muse after the last. He too was surely destined for stardom but tragically suffered a fatal fall at Aintree on his next start.
His was a story of unfulfilled potential – as in many ways was that of Carvill's Hill.
Thursday’s Gold Cup was supposed to be his moment. He had always enjoyed a sky-high reputation, the next Arkle they said, and when he was good, he was very good.
But the Achilles’ Heel was his jumping. As a novice chaser he fell at Leopardstown over Christmas and again in March when connections rolled the dice and took aim at Desert Orchid et al in the Gold Cup.
In all he won 14 races for Jim Dreaper before the deep pockets of Paul Green eventually brought him to England and the Martin Pipe yard.
His career for the Pond House team was to span only four races. It started with a rout of a strong Rehearsal Chase field which included the then champion chaser Katabatic, a race-fit Celtic Shot, Cool Ground (more on him later) and stablemates Aquilifier and Bonanza Boy.
Despite the odd error Carvill's Hill ran them into the ground before producing a performance of the ages to win the Welsh National under 11st 12lb. It was a display of brutal power as he thundered home 20 lengths clear of subsequent Grand National winner Party Politics (who was in receipt of 19 pounds).
There was still time for a return to Ireland and a lap of honour in the Irish Hennessy before the Gold Cup. Here - finally - was Carvill's Hill at the peak of his powers. He’d earned a Timeform rating of 182 and was sent off an even-money favourite.
But it went wrong from the start. Golden Freeze, a stablemate of another leading fancy Toby Tobias, took him on for the lead and the favourite crashed through the first fence. A horse who was all about rhythm and momentum found both hard to come by. There was another shuddering error at the ninth and while he was still in the firing line two out, long after Golden Freeze had been pulled up, a third significant mistake there ended his chance. He finished an exhausted last of five and was never to race again.
There was controversy over the tactics employed by Michael Bowlby aboard the early leader. Some felt he’d been employed as a spoiler, a subject taken up by many in the press. Jenny Pitman, his trainer, was outraged and the Jockey Club eventually decided to hold an enquiry.
The race went to Cool Ground, an also-ran in the Rehearsal but who cut down French raider The Fellow in the dying strides under an Adrian Maguire ride that was an early nod to his remarkable strength in the saddle.
Watching all the on-course drama unfold from by the second last was team Ord, well my father and I. His one lament about being a schoolteacher was the fact that the Cheltenham Festival always fell during term-time.
But as he headed towards retirement, he got bolder with the odd duvet day – and unlucky with them too. His first venture to the Festival was marked by a close-up shot by the BBC TV camera crew of him sitting on a bench reading the Sporting Life as Julian Wilson set the scene for a watching nation ahead of the 1989 Supreme.
Thankfully, Betamax was cutting edge technology at the time and video evidence a distant dream for school governors and football officials alike.
And this second duvet day had a sting in the tail - well eye - too. You see during the Gold Cup – and unbeknown to him, a lens had fallen out of his glasses while he followed the action through binoculars. We realised something was wrong after we’d crossed the course back to the grandstand and despite a panicked retracing of our steps, it couldn’t be found.
As we were in the midst of a stand-off over who should pay the additional fee to add me to the insurance for his new Ford Sierra (kids ask your own dad), I was ineligible to take the ride for the drive back home.
So instead, with one eye lens free, he navigated the M5, A42 and M1 back to the warm glow of West Yorkshire.
It was a fine feat of driving but one that came at a cost. That left eye was bright red and completely closed by the time I helped him locate the handbrake on our drive.
And from Gold Cup day 1992 the most difficult questions posed were not those to Pitman at the Golden Freeze enquiry, where she was completely exonerated, but those aimed at Mr Ord as the beige Sierra pulled into his car park space at Lawfield Lane School the following day.
Startled pupils and staff wanted to know exactly what was the 24-hour virus that came and went so quickly but left the patient requiring an eyepatch. And more importantly, was it contagious?
What were your favourite memories of the Cheltenham Festival in the 1990s? Email them to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com.
FEEDBACK:
Andy Crook: Cheltenham Gold Cup 1992, what a race! But first, the background. My friend, Paul and I were down on our luck, working as labourers.
Approaching the Festival, I was convinced that Cool Ground would win. On the day I decided that my friend should also be in on the occasion. He had no knowledge of horseracing and had never placed a bet - his wife would would have killed him had she known!!!! I spent the whole morning convincingly him. We were earning £40 /day and money was tight. Eventually, he agreed to my pleadings and we put £40 each on Cool Ground at 40-1 win only, such was my confidence!!
We watched the race in the pub and despite my exuberant celebrations, Paul had no idea that we had won. The local bookies couldn't pay out for 24 hours.
Paul later told me that if the horse had lost then divorce was a strong possibility! The money started our own business and Paul hasn't had another bet to this day.
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