FERGIE WINS THE DOUBLE REPORTS
GORDON ELLIOTT knows all about having to compete with Willie Mullins.
Training over 200 winners in a season won’t beat him to this year’s Irish trainers’ championship.
He’s been runner-up to the Carlow colossus for the past 10 years. His two horses were even second and third in the race where Mullins sealed his century of wins.
So he knew to be patient this week at Cheltenham and trust some of his best chances to deliver when their time came.
Teahupoo captured the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle and even though Brighterdaysahead was surprisingly mugged in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle it was still a good day for Elliott.
Asked about that relief in finally winning, the Meath man gave a typically honest answer:
“Willie is an amazing man.
“I’ve to see Willie every day of the week. You’ve only to see him a couple of times a year, so you can imagine what it feels like.
“He’s a gentleman and to be in the same era as him is unbelievable.”
Elliott’s horses had been running well, three seconds and three thirds on the opening two days, but yesterday it was finally his turn to celebrate in the winners’ enclosure.
Teahupoo’s success in the Stayers’ Hurdle was overdue. Not just for Elliott but also for the horse, who blew his chance in this same race 12 months ago.
That day he weakened out at the crucial stage behind stablemate Sire Du Berlais but not yesterday.
A year older and fresher from not having gone to Gowran for the Galmoy Hurdle in January, he travelled super smoothly for Jack Kennedy and not even a bad jump at the second last ruined his chances.
The seven-year-old stayed on strongly up the hill to beat the gutsy Flooring Porter, dying with his boots on in a race he won here in 2021 and 2022, with Home By The Lee in third.
Elliott was emotional. This is a
JACK OF TRUMPS: Jack Kennedy on Teahupoo and (below left) with Gordon Elliott tough week for these big yards and if you don’t get the results, it can be a real kick to their business.
“It’s so hard to get a winner. To be honest, I’ve nearly got tears in my eyes, I’m so happy,” he said.
“It’s just great to get a winner – we’ve hit the crossbar all week,” added Elliott, who was saddling his 38th Festival winner
“The horses are running well and there are no excuses and no hardluck stories either, but to win the Stayers’ Hurdle is just unbelievable — for the whole team and for Jack and for Robcour.
“We’ve always been back-end heavy so far as our best chances were concerned.
Chances
“We’ve loads of chances still, but this one and Brighterdaysahead were probably our best of the week.
“This was always the plan with Teahupoo. He runs well fresh and so we came straight here.
“I was a bit anxious at the top of the hill when he missed the secondlast, and then he probably got there a bit soon as he [Kennedy] had to give him a squeeze.
“But I had loads of confidence in Jack as he’s a world-class jockey and you don’t need to tell him what to do.
“He’s a nice lad, too.”
Kennedy rode his first winner here as a 17-year-old in 2017 on Labaik but is now one of the established jockeys in Ireland and was enjoying his 11th win having missed last year with a broken leg.
He said: “He’s an amazing horse; he makes my job very easy.
“You can put him wherever you want in a race and he jumps great.
“He is a pleasure to ride. We missed the second last, but other than that it was all straightforward.
“He’s an honest horse and he came up the hill very well.”
ALEX FERGUSON did the double — again — as Protektorat and Monmiral got on the scoresheet at Cheltenham.
The legendary former Manchester United manager’s old sparring partner Harry Redknapp also got his hands on some silverware as Shakem Up’Arry lifted the TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase.
It is 30 years since Ferguson first guided the Old Trafford giants to lift the Premier League and FA Cup.
It would be a feat he repeated two years later — before adding the Champions League to the top two domestic pieces of silverware for the iconic treble in 1999.
Famous
The Scot was as famous for his fiery temper as his success in the dugout, and Harry Cobden looked in danger of getting the hairdryer treatment when he anchored the Paul Nichollssaddled Monmiral at the back of the 22-runner field assembled for the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle Final.
But
Cobden