Splash of Ginge battles mud to spark victory jig
Owner ready to party after gallant big-race success Walsh suffers suspected leg break at Punchestown
There were several clues that the jump season was back with a vengeance yesterday: the mud flying as a November afternoon of relentless rain turned the ground to heavy; stamina trumping speed every time; Nigel TwistonDavies winning the BetVictor Gold Cup at his local course; and news from Ireland that Ruby Walsh was expected to miss the core of winter after sustaining a suspected broken leg.
But, more than anything, it was the victory jig and celebrations of Splash of Ginge’s owner John Neild and his Liverpudlian cohorts after the nineyear-old had sloshed through the mud to beat Starchitect by a hard-fought neck at 25-1 that said: This is jump racing and not the Flat.
When Splash of Ginge won the Betfair Hurdle at 33-1 in 2014 in what almost seems like a previous life, Neild took over Twiston-Davies’s local pub, the Hollow Bottom, in Guiting Power, near Cheltenham, and stayed until the following Tuesday. His bar bill, according to the trainer, was in the region of £17,000. It might be worth the biofuel businessman getting his post redirected for the next day or two. But it is a measure of how, when an owner and trainer click, one can become part of the other’s fabric, with a relationship so much warmer than that of a businessman who trains horses and his client.
And in an emotional moment after the cheering had died down, albeit temporarily, Neild dedicated the win to Ryan Hatch, the jockey who might have ridden Splash of Ginge had he not still been out of action nearly a year after breaking his neck in a fall. “He’s part of our family,” said Neild.
Instead, the ride went to Tom Bellamy, Hatch’s housemate, who has been struggling as a freelance since losing his claim last year. Recalling his last winner at Cheltenham (and only previous one), he said it seemed “like 150 years ago now”.
But he rode it like it was his second home yesterday and once he took Splash of Ginge to the front three out, it was always going to take a good one to get past the pair, and a mistake at the second last did not help Starchitect’s cause. Le Prezien was third and Ballyalton fourth.
Twiston-Davies is no stranger to this race, having won it with Tipping Tim, (1992), Imperial Commander (2008) and Little Josh (2010). He said: “He has been a remarkable horse and just lost his confidence a bit over fences last season, so we put him back over hurdles and he has come back like a bull.
“As soon as the rain kept on and on we were hopeful, as soft ground is the key to him. It was the same in the Betfair. I think I’ll be out with the owners tonight – they’ll insist on it. The whole of Liverpool has turned up.”
Being a passionate Liverpudlian, Neild backed Splash of Ginge before he had ever run to win £1 million if he should one day come home first in the Grand National. “The idea was already to prepare him for the National at one point and we might revisit that idea,” added Twiston-Davies.
After winning the biggest race of his career, Bellamy said: “Nigel said, ‘give him loads of light all the way round. He doesn’t want to be behind a horse’. He hung from the word go so I was behind horses all the way and I was thinking, ‘this is not what I need’ but it worked out perfectly.
“He’s amazing. He’s given a few lads very good days. Jamie Bargary had a good winner on him here, Ryan won the Betfair on him and I celebrated with them, so it’s nice they can hopefully do the same with me now. The Hollow Bottom will be rocking tonight.”
Of yesterday’s winners which might realistically return with a chance of honours at the Festival in March, Nicky Henderson’s Apple’s Shakira, full sister of Apple’s Jade, was the pick. Having cost telephone numbers, she then showed so little on the gallops at home the trainer described it as “petrifying”.
“I even inquired as to how Apple’s Jade went at home and was quite pleased to hear she doesn’t show much at home, either. It must be in their genes,” said Henderson after Barry Geraghty rode her to a 17-length victory in the JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial.
If Bellamy’s luck was in yesterday, Walsh’s was out. The most successful jockey in Festival history, with 56 winners, will have a race against time to grace this season’s meeting after sustaining a probable broken right leg in a fall from Let’s Dance at Punchestown.
The jockey was due to ride the returning former Champion Hurdle winner Faugheen in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown today.