Festival Diary

Among the smattering of Americans at Cheltenham yesterday was the Englishborn Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Graham Motion. Cheltenham was not his primary reason for being here, however, he was over for the memorial lunch for his wife’s uncle, Ron Shaw, at Sandown’s Grand Military Gold Cup last Friday.

On his first visit to the Festival in 1987, he led up the US Champion Hurdle challenger Flatterer, the length-and-a-half runner-up to See You Then, who was completing his hat-trick of wins in the race. Even so, Flatterer was given a hero’s reception returning to the winner’s enclosure.

“We were coming in cold turkey after the Colonial Cup [in November] when all the British horses had been running all winter,” recalled Motion, who has also won a Dubai World Cup and often has a runner at Royal Ascot.

“There was a debate about whether to use a British jockey, who knew the track, or the jockey who knew the horse. In the end, we went for his regular rider, Jerry Fishback, who waited until the foot of the hill before making his move and I think See You Then just got the jump on him.”

For years, Colin Tizzard, whose Native River may even go off favourite in Friday’s Gold Cup, has been the starter at his local Blackmoor and Sparkford Vale point-to-point. “When I was just a dairy farmer, I’d wave the flag and they’d trample me before I’d dropped it,” he said. “Now I’m a trainer, they all do as they’re told!”

Following Aintree’s lead, Cheltenham now has two electric cooling fans set up in the “also-rans” unsaddling enclosure in case horses overheat. They look a bit like jet engines. The irony of the day they were tested was not lost on clerk of the course Simon Claisse – in the wind-chill, it was -17C.