Golden touch
Sizing John grabs glory in Cheltenham showpiece
Cue Card race ends at third-last fence yet again
Sizing John gave the Irish further cause for celebration on St Patrick’s Day when he galloped relentlessly up the Cheltenham hill to beat Minella Rocco by two and three quarter lengths in yesterday’s Timico Gold Cup and inscribe his name on jump racing’s most celebrated honours board.
Trained by Kildare-based Jessica Harrington and ridden by Robbie Power, who had spent much of the season nursing a fractured cheek and eye-socket and the lingering consequence of that, double vision, the 7-1 shot landed in front at the second-last fence, winged the last and set determinedly about proving those critics who seriously questioned his stamina before the race wrong.
Added to two wins in the Champion Chase with Moscow Flyer and the Champion Hurdle with Jezki, it completed the set of Cheltenham’s Holy Trinity of races for Harrington.
For Power, as much a horseman as jockey who spends much of his summers competing in top level showjumping events, victory in jump racing’s blue riband came 10 years after he won the Grand National on Silver Birch.
Asked which was best he replied: “This. I was 25 when I won the National and thought I would win everything. I’m 35 now and realise I’m not going to win everything.”
The horse’s owner Alan Potts, who made his fortune designing ‘sizing’ machinery for the mining industry and began devoting a large proportion of it to buying National Hunt horses a dozen years ago, described the victory as ‘unreal.’
“It’s been the dream since we got into this 12 years ago,” he explained. “I invest heavily so we can hopefully pick the best. It’s the first horse we’ve ever run in the Gold Cup and only a couple of weeks after we won the Irish Gold Cup. Pretty good!”
Harrington pointed out that the presence of Douvan in the two-mile chasing ranks and the jockey’s belief that Sizing John would stay further encouraged her to step the horse up in trip. Although she favoured the Ryanair Chase this year as a stepping stone to next year’s Gold Cup, it was on the owner’s insistence, she said, that they go for Gold.
The race could not have gone smoother for the jockey. Having planned to take a wide route, he switched to the inside once he was over the second fence, where Lizzie Kelly’s involvement came to a premature end when Tea For Two made a seismic mistake and the two parted company.
“I saw there was more room on the inside,” said Power, “but if something had brought me down she [Jessica] would have kicked my a---.”
Sizing John was always travelling well. Free-wheeling down the hill to the third-last while Native River and Djakadam were vying for the lead, piling on the pressure, Power sat just behind them.
Unlike last year, when he was going like a winner, Cue Card was under pressure and appeared to be back-pedalling when, for the second year running, he crashed out at the third-last. Trainer Colin Tizzard reported that he was none the worse for the spill.
Rounding the home turn, Power switched his mount to the outside of the Willie Mullins-trained Djakadam, who was getting the better of the argument with Native River.
All three were in the air together at the penultimate obstacle but there, critically, Djakadam, the 3-1 favourite looking to break his trainer’s hoodoo on the race – he has finished second six times – atomised at least two bundles of birch. Ruby Walsh felt the mistake cost him second place, for what would have been a third time.
Sizing John, however, landed in front and soon quickened into a two length lead. Already in unknown territory as far as distance was concerned, he met the last fence well and galloped all the way to the line.
From way off the pace Jonjo O’Neill’s Minella Rocco, an 18-1 shot who had been flat to the boards all the way owing to the strong pace, stayed on stoutly to overhaul Native River and Djakadam close home, but he never looked likely to catch the winner.
Power, who also ruptured a disc in his back two weeks before winning the Irish Gold Cup on Sizing John in February, said: “It’s unbelievable. Jessica Harrington’s a genius.
“I always said that when Sizing John stepped up in trip it would be the making of him. From the first day I rode him behind Douvan, I felt all he did was stay.
“I’ve been to plenty Cheltenham preview nights and people were saying it was a bad Gold Cup – I was kind of insulted because every good Gold Cup winner has Grade One form [he was placed in both the Supreme and Arkle] over two miles. He has that bit of speed.”
Harrington, who was only sent the horse by Potts in the autumn – along with Wednesday’s Coral Cup winner Supasundae – paid tribute to the horse’s former trainer, Henry de Bromhead, whose pain at seeing the victory will, up to a point, have been softened by Special Tiara’s brave win in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
“I do feel very sorry for Henry,” she said. “He bought them and did all the work with them as youngsters. I only inherited them in September.”
With the past two winners of the Gold Cup, Coneygree and Don Cossack, sitting this one out through injury, Harrington was cautious about Sizing John defending his title in a year’s time.
“He is only seven and horses peak at seven or eight,” she said. “The last two winners haven’t come back. We’d like to come back, but there will be younger horses around and we’ve got to keep sound.”
Harrington and Power went on to win the last race with Rock The World to make it three wins from six runners this week. When asked how she would celebrate she said Harrington,, who has been a houseguest of fellow trainer Nicky Henderson all week, said she was booked on a plane bound for home. But if Power is seeing double in the morning it will be nothing to do a fractured eye-socket.