A dank afternoon in Warwick isn’t where you would anticipate seeing a former Spice Girl and a Formula One principal but that was the case last week when a Cheltenham dream took flight.
Christian Horner and his wife, Geri, visited the quaint course to see Lift Me Up, the horse they own, gallop on resolutely to win the Hunters Chase. The winner’s cheque was £2053.20 but the joy they felt in seeing the nine-year-old dig in after the final fence was impossible to put a price on.
Trained by Maxine Filby – who was once an elite-level mountain bike racer and competed against Laura Kenny – Lift Me Up is one of three horses that the Horners have at her yard in Banbury and, provided all goes to plan, the intention is run in the St James’s Place Hunters’ Chase in March.
Commitments in Melbourne ahead of the first grand prix of the season will prevent Red Bull chief Horner from attending Cheltenham but he has vowed to be up in the middle of the night, glued to his laptop, to see how Lift Me Up fares in a race that is always a remarkable spectacle.
Cheltenham’s Hunters’ Chase, of course, was the contest in which former Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton finished fifth in 2016 – the queen of the velodrome, famously, had not sat on a horse until the previous year but she guided Pacha Du Polder around the twists and undulations with a great care.
Lift Me Up will have the assistance of Jack Andrews, a jockey who defies physics in that he is able to ride even though he is 6ft 4ins, and there is no doubt the story will provide a fascinating strand to the Festival.
Geri Horner was no stranger in getting to number one in her previous career but this devoted horse enthusiast will be desperate for another smash hit on March 15. Lift Me Up is currently priced 25/1 but, in a race in which anything can happen, those odds are not going to be a barrier to success.
Christian and Geri Horner celebrated their horse Lift Me Up winning the Hunters Chase at Warwick Racecourse last week
Lift Me Up, one of three horses the Horner’s have at their yard, is now expected to compete in the St James’s Place Foxhunters at the Cheltenham Festival in March
Christian Horner has vowed to get up during the night to watch from the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix in March as Jack Andrews, left, seeks to guide Lift Me Up to further success
What happened behind the scenes of the jockey boycott
What a few days it turned out to be following the Professional Racing Association’s threat to boycott television interviews unless they received a £500,000 payment.
Something wasn’t right at Cheltenham on Saturday when there was reluctance from trainers to attach their names to the scheme and a penny for Dan Skelton’s thoughts now after he broke cover on Sunday and said it was a good idea. Whoever briefed him got their message hopelessly wrong.
Aware of the hoopla that had been caused, Peter Savill – who is behind the PRA – spoke with Racing Confidential on Sunday and explained the £500,000 was going to go to the Injured Jockeys Fund and other benevolent causes. He stressed, repeatedly, trainers wouldn’t be paid directly.
It was an important point of clarification but it clearly caused some surprise and many wonder whether the first these groups heard about the intentions was when Savill’s words were published on Mail Online and in a separate interview on the Racing Post.
Either way, the plan was doomed to failure. Television companies would have found a way of broadcasting without speaking to trainers and you can be sure that plenty in the training ranks would have realised they were starving themselves of necessary exposure to promote their businesses.
The boycott was called off on Tuesday and the episode was humiliating for the PRA. Whoever concocted the idea to pursue an unnecessary £500,000 (it wasn’t Savill) should be ashamed of themselves. They have made themselves and a number of others look exceptionally foolish.
The Professional Racing Association called off a threat to boycott television interviews with the likes of ITV unless they received a £500,000 payment
Dan Skelton claimed the demand for trainers to be paid for interviews had significant support
Nicholls adamant Sir Alex-backed horse can achieve success
Paul Nicholls is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve and will vehemently defend the reputation of his horses for his owners.
The 14-time Champion Trainer never stops thinking about where he can find the right opportunities for one from his yard to win and his mind has been working overtime with Caldwell Potter, the horse who cost a syndicate including Sir Alex Ferguson £634,000 almost a year ago.
Caldwell Potter was bought with the hope of winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup but three runs over fences have shown that he is not going to be a champion. It doesn’t mean, though, that there isn’t a big prize within him and Nicholls knows that better than anyone.
Cheltenham is very much on the agenda for the grey and Nicholls, who saw his gallops at Ditcheat submerged this week following the latest storm, is adamant Caldwell Potter will be extremely competitive in the two-and-a-half mile handicap chase for novices.
That should be taken on board. Nicholls has a phenomenal strike rate when he specifically targets a race – look at what Kandoo Kid did when winning the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury last November after a seven-month break – and if he thinks all is not lost, it is wise to keep that in mind.
Paul Nicholls has been working overtime with Caldwell Potter to deliver a big prize for owners
Sir Alex Ferguson, centre, was part of a syndicate who spent £634,000 on Caldwell Potter
Trainer Paul Nicholls believes Caldwell Potter can achieve success at Cheltenham Festival
Owl Of Athens improvement catches attention
There are old-fashioned gambles and then there are the kind of punts that took place at Uttoxeter last weekend that stop you in your tracks. Owl Of Athens – who previously looked to have all the speed of a tractor trundling up a steep, muddy hill – suddenly found colossal improvement.
In four previous runs for Evan Williams, his Glamorgan-based trainer, Owl Of Athens had achieved the following results: sixth of seven, beaten 43 lengths; six of seven, beaten 33 lengths; 10th of 14, beaten 48 lengths and last of 10, beaten 64 lengths.
But someone, somewhere seemingly knew that Owl Of Athens was going to take a big step forward in Staffordshire, as he was backed in from an opening 80/1 into 85/40 favourite and duly galloped his rivals into the ground, winning by eight lengths for owners the Balkardy Breezers.
‘One of the owners had £20 each-way so if that is considered a gamble, the game is knackered,’ Williams argued.
Well, if one of the syndicate got 80/1, they stood to make £2000, which is a nice return when you consider the prize for winning was a paltry £3247.81 – the point is, however, that the improvement came from nowhere and it has caught the attention of the British Horseracing Authority.
It is understood representatives from the Regulatory, Stewarding, Integrity and Handicapping teams will look at Owl Of Athens’s previous performances to see if any rules were breached.
Finding horses from Willie Mullins’s all-conquering stable with untapped potential is a challenge
Blizzard Of Oz, right, could be worth putting on your trackers amid impressive progress
Blizzard Of Oz is one to watch
Finding horses from Willie Mullins’s all-conquering stable with untapped potential is quite the challenge but word reaches Racing Confidential that it would be worth putting the name of Blizzard Of Oz in your trackers.
Owned by the partnership of Simon Munir and Issac Souede, Blizzard Of Oz has only won a bumper in five starts for Mullins and finished third at Gowran Park last Thursday in beginners chase. He was beaten seven lengths by a well-regarded stablemate, Quai De Bourbon, after a mistake at the last.
Connections, however, are delighted with his progress and believe he has the scope to keep developing physically.
He will be winning a race in the not too distant future and, one day in the future, big targets will be on the seven-year-old’s horizon.
