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Iconic Cheltenham Festival moments: The Thinker's 1987 Gold Cup in the snow
John Ingles looks back to the dramatic day the Cheltenham Gold Cup was delayed by snow.
Twice early in its history the Cheltenham Gold Cup fell foul of the weather, both times in the 1930s.
The atrocious winter of 1962/63 abated just in time for Cheltenham to go ahead as normal that March but snow on the final day of the 1978 Festival resulted in that year’s Gold Cup, won by Midnight Court, being postponed four weeks until April.
Fears that a similar contingency plan might be needed came when heavy snow started falling at Cheltenham during the afternoon of Thursday 19 March 1987.
The Gold Cup was the third race on the final day of the meeting in those days and the preceding Triumph Hurdle, won by Alone Success, and the Foxhunter, which went to Observe, went off on time. But a sudden blizzard prior to the scheduled off-time of the Gold Cup of 3.30 covered the track and snow was still falling heavily after the dozen runners had reached the start.
But for the weather adding to the drama, the 1987 Gold Cup wouldn’t have been a particularly noteworthy edition, at least in terms of quality, though the shivering crowd were at least warmed by a stirring finish.
The 1985 winner Forgive‘N Forget was a short-priced favourite to regain the crown he’d lost when third behind the mare Dawn Run the year before. Forgive‘N Forget had won four of his five races earlier in the season, his only defeat coming in the King George VI Chase won by Desert Orchid who hadn’t been entered for the Gold Cup, finishing third in the Queen Mother Champion Chase the day before instead. Forgive’N Forget’s latest win had come in the first running of the Vincent O’Brien Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown.
The North had a particularly strong hand in the 1987 Gold Cup because in addition to the favourite, trained at Malton by Jimmy FitzGerald, the second favourite was The Thinker trained by Arthur Stephenson in County Durham. True to his belief that ‘little fish are sweet’, ‘W. A.’ was famously not among those being snowed on at Cheltenham but was saddling a winner at Hexham instead that afternoon.
The Thinker had finished down the field in the Kim Muir at the Festival 12 months earlier but had made tremendous progress in the meantime and had won a couple of the top staying handicap chases in the North, the Rowland Meyrick and the Peter Marsh, prior to the Gold Cup.
Importantly, given the way conditions were deteriorating just before the off in the Gold Cup, The Thinker had also proven that he could stay all day, having won the Midlands Grand National over four and a half miles on heavy ground the previous season, and was to show similar qualities later in his career when finishing third under top weight in the 1989 Grand National.
The placed horses from the latest King George, Door Latch and Bolands Cross, were among those next in the betting, along with Gold Cup regulars Combs Ditch and Wayward Lad, the latter, a three-time King George winner himself, making a fifth bid to win a first Gold Cup at the age of 12 after being passed on the run-in by the rallying Dawn Run the year before.
Other notable names in the line-up were the previous season’s Grand National winner West Tip, one of the outsiders at 50/1, and Charter Party whose Gold Cup turn would come the following season.
With the snow still coming down thickly, the field was initially recalled to the paddock but conditions had improved enough, after an hour and twenty minutes’ delay, for the race to go ahead. Much of the snow on the track had melted by then, at least in the vicinity of the grandstand, though despite the take-off areas in front of the fences being cleared the back straight was still more white than green, particularly on the landing side of the fence at the top of the hill.
So it was that the Gold Cup finally got under way to loud cheers at shortly before five o’clock, ironically in some late afternoon sunshine by then, with BBC commentator Peter O’Sullevan noting the ‘crowd still roaring with delight, quite a carnival atmosphere in the snow-sprinkled arena here at Cheltenham’ as the runners headed towards the first.
The Thinker was down on his nose at that fence at the back of the field but that wasn’t to be the worst fright he was to give his supporters as outsider Cybrandian took them along at a good gallop, ensuring it would be a real test of stamina in the conditions. Charter Party was the first casualty of the race when coming down at the first ditch, and heading out on the final circuit with Cybrandian still at the head of affairs, The Thinker remained in the second half of the field.
The same ditch claimed another victim on the second circuit when Bolands Cross blundered and unseated his rider but, by the time they turned to run down the hill towards the fourth-last, The Thinker had taken much closer order, moving past Forgive’N Forget to have only Cybrandian and Door Latch in front of him.
But at the next fence disaster almost struck as The Thinker hit it hard and buckled on landing, the sort of mistake which has ended the chances of many a Gold Cup contender so late in the race.
Now it was Wayward Lad who had stayed on into second to challenge on Cybrandian’s inner rounding the home turn with The Thinker trying to get back into contention behind them.
Cybrandian still led over the last, just ahead of the hard-driven Wayward Lad and, on their outside, The Thinker. Briefly carried right as the tiring Cybrandian came off a true line coming up the hill, The Thinker’s reserves of stamina came into play as he got to the front halfway up the run-in and was driven out by Ridley Lamb to win by a length and a half.
Two and a half lengths back, the rallying Door Latch got the better of West Tip by a head for third as both of them stayed on stoutly to complete the frame while Wayward Lad, who looked sure to be placed again at the very least jumping the last, faltered in the last hundred yards to finish only fifth. Eight completed in all, with Forgive’N Forget beating only one home after a series of jumping errors.
The Thinker missed the whole of the following season through injury but was in the Gold Cup field again in 1989. The weather gods seemed to have smiled on him once more because rain and, once again, snow had made conditions so testing that Gold Cup day only went ahead after the course passed a midday inspection.
However, The Thinker wasn’t so lucky at the fence at the foot of the hill where he’d made that late blunder two years earlier, falling at the same obstacle but this time on the first circuit in an attritional race which went to Desert Orchid. But that’s another story...
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