Hendo’s own staff behind Glory bid
THE list of owners who will employ the services of Nicky Henderson during the Cheltenham Festival is a roll call of the rich and powerful racing elite.
But the owners of Theatre Glory hail from much closer to home as the upwardly-mobile Warwick winner prepares to tackle one of the week’s hottest contests.
That is because the six-year-old is owned by Canter Banter Racing – the brainchild of Katie Croft and David Fehily, who are both head staff at Henderson’s Lambourn base.
To continue the Henderson connection, Theatre Glory – who is set to take her chance in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle on Tuesday
– came into their possession via another graduate of the Seven Barrows academy – former jockey Jerry McGrath, who has become a key player in the Canter Banter set-up.
“Myself and David are both head staff for Nicky and we’ve been here for 12 or 13 years. We just wanted to do something different and for ourselves,” said Croft.
“Jerry gave us this filly which was actually unsold at the sales for under £5,000 as a three-year-old. They broke her in, liked her and then said to us ‘why don’t you have a crack with her, we think she’s quite nice’.”
Although unwanted in the ring, Theatre Glory has attracted plenty of admirers following her runs on the track – including the bookies, who made her around a 10-1 chance for the Coral Cup.
However, that race barely crossed Croft’s radar and the 145-rated mare will attempt to give syndicate-owned horses back-to-back victories having scooped her second Listed prize in style last month.