Grand National hero Many Clouds dies at Cheltenham
Many Clouds dies after win in Cotswold Chase
A CHELTENHAM Trials day supposed to whet the appetite for the Festival in March ended in tragedy as 2015 Grand National winner Many Clouds died after winning the Cotswold Chase.
Minutes after inflicting a first steeplechase defeat on Gold Cup favourite Thistlecrack, Many Clouds collapsed just before his jockey Leighton Aspell was due to give an interview to ITV.
Spectators at the winner’s enclosure waiting to welcome one of the best-known and popular racehorses in the sport were stunned into silence as the news of the 10-yearold’s death was announced over the racecourse PA before a spontaneous round of applause broke out.
Cheltenham can be an emotional place, win or lose. Tears are never far away, some of joy, some of sorrow. But they also flowed from professionals and spectators, many stunned by what they had seen.
What should have been one of the best days in the career of trainer Oliver Sherwood was turned on its head.
After he had broken the news to Many Clouds’ owner Trevor Hemmings, who was watching the football club he owns, Preston North End, play Ipswich in the Championship, Sherwood said: ‘Trevor is devastated. Many Clouds was the horse of a lifetime. I always said he’d die for you and he died for me and my team today doing what he loved most.
‘By God, he wanted to win that race. He was beaten at the last fence and fought in the last 50 yards to get up and win.
‘I have been in the game training now for 32 years and horses like him don’t come along very often.’
Many Clouds’ biggest day may have come at Aintree in April 2015, but he also won the 2014 Hennessy Gold Cup and yesterday’s win was his second in the Cotswold Chase.
He won 12 of his 27 races and was ridden in every one by Aspell.
When Many Clouds ran, he emp- tied the tank and sometimes it showed. After his Grand National success, he needed oxygen. But Sherwood had felt a breathing operation would ensure more fuel reached his engine.
Sherwood said: ‘I never thought he should not run. I thought he might have been struggling for air and the operation might have helped. The doubters will come out now but he died what he loved doing, running and jumping.’
Conditions yesterday were test-
ing but by no means as arduous as they can be at Cheltenham in January. It is not clear yet whether he died of a heart attack or internal haemorrhage. A post mortem will be held.
Aspell, who had taken Many Clouds to the lead four fences from the end of the three-mile one-furlong race, had to ask his mount to dig deep as Thistlecrack loomed.
But a quicker jump at the final fence stole enough of an advantage to hold off his rival by a head, with Aspell sticking well within the rules regarding his use of the whip.
There will inevitably be opponents of jump racing who will seek to portray Many Clouds’ death in a negative way. But it should be viewed in the same light as when a runner collapses after a marathon — a tragic turn of events.
Many Clouds had faced tests even more exacting given the Grand National is run at an unrelenting gallop over four-and-a-half miles.
Sherwood added: ‘In National Hunt racing, people get to know the horses, especially ones that really try for you. It was quite spine-chilling walking back when (his death) was announced, there was the huge (applause). That nearly finished me completely.
‘He died what he loved doing —racing and jumping. I want Thistlecrack now to go and win the Gold Cup to show his win was not a fluke.’
That may still happen but Thistlecrack’s profile has been dented — if not dashed. He is still favourite but Coral have shifted his odds from 4-5 to 7-4.
That bouncing ball of energy that propelled him and jockey Tom Scudamore to victory in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day looked more laboured and was not helped by a jumping error at the fourth last.
Thistlecrack’s trainer Colin Tizzard said: ‘We almost come to expect him to win but I will not make excuses. He went to the last looking like he was going the best and got outstayed.’