Cheltenham Trials Day January 2008
With no football match at Ipswich and a good weather forecast it was decided to get up early and hit the road to Cheltenham. It was the first time I had been there for a number of years and my Best Mate and I thoroughly enjoyed the excellent days racing.
Aigle d’Or won the first in the colours of J.P.McManus and looks a good novice hurdler in the making. No doubt will be Festival bound.
Arturio won the Timeform Novices Handicap Chase for Paul Nicholls and Ruby Walsh, while Maljimar was a very popular winner of the betchronicle.com Trophy Chase for trainer Nick Williams and jockey Daryl Jacob.
The feature race of the day was the £100,000 Letheby and Christopher Chase run over 3 miles one furlong. Paddy Brennan rode a patient race on Knowhere allowing the more fancied horses to take each other on from the off and then outstay them up that Cheltenham hill. Picture shows him outstaying Our Vic who looked all over the winner jumping the last fence.
Franchoek went off at slight odds on for the Wragge & Co Juvenile Novices Hurdle and at this stage looks a worthy favourite for the Triumph Hurdle after storming up the Cheltenham hill. This was another winner for J.P.McManus.
For me the most enjoyable race of the day was seeing Inglis Drever win the Byrne Group Cleeve Hurdle from the younger contender Blazing Bailey. Richard Johnson came in for the ride and rode his usual strong finish to galvanise Inglis Drever up the hill.
There was a nice touch during the afternoon when all the jockeys came out of the weighing room to wish Ollie McPhail all the best in his retirement from race riding.
The countdown to the Festival continues with just under six weeks to go. I am sure we saw a couple of Festival winners last Saturday in Franchoek and Inglis Drever. Lets hope they stay free from injury.
For all the runners and riders with the jockey's colours go to Paddy Power and click on "Horse Racing".