Now Sir Alex and Harry are bossing the Festival!
CHELTENHAM felt more like Wembley yesterday as two legendary managers — Sir Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp — won their first races at the Cheltenham Festival.
With Sam Allardyce and Bryan Robson looking on, too, Ferguson did the double — winning the Pertemps Hurdle with 25-1 shot Monmiral, ridden by Harry Cobden, and the Ryanair Chase with 17-2 chance Protektorat, guided home by Harry Skelton.
As the British hit back — they outscored the Irish five wins to two yesterday — Redknapp’s name was chanted from the terraces around the winner’s enclosure after 8-1 shot Shakem Up’Arry carried his colours to victory in the TrustATrader Plate Chase.
Ferguson did the Double twice with Manchester United, in 1994 and 1996, plus a Treble in 1999, but the man who won it all in football looked almost overwhelmed by his racing wins.
Ferguson, who shares ownership of both horses with friends Ged Mason and John and Lisa Hales, said after Monmiral’s shock victory: ‘I’ve waited a long time for this but that was fantastic. What a jockey, deary me, he was brilliant.
‘It has been probably 20 years I’ve wanted to have a winner here as when I first started (in racing) I just had Flat horses and no National Hunt ones.
‘It 100 per cent makes it more enjoyable having a winner with friends. Everyone looks forward to Cheltenham, while on the Flat you have the Derby. These two events are unsurpassed.’ Ferguson and his racing pals are having quite a time of it. Spirit Dancer, the Flat horse Sir Alex also bred, has won races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia this winter, bagging almost £1.5million in prize money.
But a win at the Festival cannot be measured purely in monetary terms. That showed in the reaction of Redknapp who reflected that his love of racing, fostered during his playing days at West Ham, is probably in his genes.
Redknapp said: ‘I wouldn’t like to find out how my heart rate is. I’m so pleased. I’m lost for words. I’ve grown up with racing as a big part of my life.
‘My old Nan was the bookie’s runner down our street in the East End and she used to get locked up every day for taking bets. To be here now in this position is incredible.
‘When I was at West Ham as a player, we had a team of punters, because that was how it was in those days. We all loved a bet and we all loved racing.
‘I’ve been lucky to be able to get into racing as an owner. You buy horses and you dream of having a winner at Cheltenham.’
The victory of Protektorat, who fended off the challenge of favourite and 2023 winner Envoi Allen to win by four lengths, justified trainer Dan Skelton’s decision to drop the gelding back to the shorter, and easier, Ryanair Chase after he had twice come up short in the Gold Cup.
Skelton hopes that race will be on the agenda next season for his Grey Dawning, who won the Turners Novices’ Chase after seeing off Ginny’s Destiny by two lengths in one of the more exciting finishes of the week.
It took Skelton’s tally for this Festival to four wins, not enough to match Willie Mullins, who still has six after drawing a blank yesterday, but still wonderfully impressive. Skelton said: ‘I can’t believe it. We all plan to do this as trainers but it doesn’t come together that often.’
To extend the football theme of the day, Irish trainer Gordon Elliott has been enduring a frustrating week, his better shots hitting the crossbar.
But he finally found the back of the net when Jack Kennedy piloted the favourite Teahupoo to a convincing three-and-threequarter-length win in the feature race of the day, the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle.