Our man on his favourite and least favourite Gold Cups via a short detour on broken hearts, romantic failings and pub toilet poetry.
I’m no romantic.
I’d offer up for evidence the Valentine’s poem I produced earlier in the week, but it’s no longer mine to give away.
Attempts to channel an inner Keats or Byron failed dismally, so rather than a lyrical declaration of love it turned into the sort of bawdy limerick that was once the reserve of postcards or the toilet wall of well-to-do country pubs.
So, my least favourite Gold Cups? Dawn Run and Norton’s Coin.
Yes, I know the mare was magical – but she beat Wayward Lad and broke my heart. For all bar the final five strides of that contest he was about to ensure he didn’t go down in history as the best staying chaser never to win the sport’s blue riband.
But, thanks to the brilliance and bravery of his Jonjo O’Neill-ridden rival, that’s what fate had in store.
And Norton’s Coin? Look I’m not heartless. The fact a 100/1 outsider, trained by Sirrell Griffiths, a dairy farmer who had only two other horses in his stable, could win is the stuff of fiction. But couldn’t it have lived on the bookshelves instead of YouTube?
Yes, I backed Toby Tobias.
Onto happier memories then.
Either of Kauto Star’s two wins are high on the list, particularly 2009.
That was the year he became the first horse to reclaim the crown having been ground into submission by the relentless and remorseless Denman 12 months earlier.
I had to quickly push my Kauto scarf under the press room desk that day – and it was nowhere to be seen when I needed it a year later – but the performance and reception he received afterwards mean it’s a firm entry in the ‘Days That Never Fade’ chart.
But my favourite of all – Garrison Savannah in 1991.
I wasn’t at Cheltenham that year. A student at the time who was about to bitterly regret taking economics at A Level, a trip to Prestbury Park was never on the agenda.
One to the Black Rock pub in Wakefield was, though, a place where Tetley’s (brewed in Leeds) was like milk and £1 a pint.
I was joined by fellow academics, also destined for summer grade disappointments, for the afternoon and they had the pleasure of watching me grow confident as Mark Pitman got a tune out of the previous year’s Sun Alliance Chase winner who belied his troubled preparation and 25/1 starting price.
I began to get overconfident as he took a length out of his rivals at each fence and as he pinged the last in front I began the windmill celebration, the equivalent of a boom tweet in the days before social media and about as well received as that particular art-form is by the wider world nowadays.
No, I hadn’t spotted The Fellow closing him down. No, I didn’t realise how desperate it was at the line. And no, I hadn’t heard Peter O’Sullevan urging the French raider past in his BBC commentary to the nation.
The Fellow was to go on and enjoy a far more significant career and finally get his hand on the prize several years later.
Garrison Savannah never scaled the heights again but did go agonisingly close to becoming the first horse to win the Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same season only a few weeks later.
Oh, my least favourite National you ask?
Seagram’s.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org
Fast Results
Scores
