Tobefair a sorry also-ran at Cheltenham Festival
IT wasn’t to be for Tobefair. The horse once given to a pub landlord free of charge and jointly owned by 17 locals there, was the bookies’ favourite for the Pertemps Hurdle Final at the world-famous Cheltenham Festival yesterday.
More than a hundred people travelled from west Wales to cheer on the horse owned by a Pembrokeshire syndicate.
But the fancied racehorse owned by the regulars at the Cresselly Arms had a disappointing race.
Despite being the favourite in the Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle at 2.10pm, he jumped poorly at the third-to-last fence and finished well down the field.
Tobefair syndicate member Andy Parnell said: “We’re gutted. But there we are.
“He didn’t run that well today. We will look at all of that now with the jockey and the trainer. He looked as if he was going so well too, I’m not sure what happened.
“We thought that we would be a bit closer up the front but that didn’t happen.
“Now we’ll probably watch a few more races, lose a bit of money and head back later.”
Pub landlord Colin Evans, 51, and 16 other regulars clubbed together to pay to train racehorse Tobefair after local man Michael Cole was gifted the gelding in 2014.
The syndicate, named the Down The Quay Club, after the pub they are based in, spent £20,000 on training the horse.
Majority shareholder Michael Cole paid £10,000, while the rest was split among the other 16 members.
Before yesterday the horse had won seven races from 13 in total and earned £47,212 in winnings.
Any winnings are put into a kitty for Down The Quay Club members, who will decide what to do with it at a later date.
Speaking ahead of the festival, Colin said: “To think something we all got together on after a couple of drinks in the pub one night could go on and achieve is just amazing, we know nothing about horse- racing.
“The horse has become so popular in the pub we have even had to turn the rugby off the TV so they could watch the race, and in Wales that is saying something.”
The horse was given to the syndicate’s major shareholder, and pub regular, Michael Cole, as a gift for looking after two fillies for three years by the stud that bred them.
But he did not have enough money to train him so turned to his drinking buddies in Pembrokeshire, who were more than happy to chip in.
The horse has been so successful that when it won a race at Warwick, the local Coral bookmakers had to borrow £20,000 from the bigger Coral Carmarthen branch to pay out the winnings.
Yesterday a bus was laid on for a whopping 57 regulars to make the journey to the festival.
The Cheltenham Festival ends today with the showpiece Gold Cup.
More than 260,000 people visit the event each year and are expected to have bet a staggering £300m across the UK and Ireland in what is the biggest betting week of the year.
Last year bookies Ladbrokes suffered its worst-ever Festival, which cost the industry an estimated £60m.