UK Horse Racing Tips

Istabraq, who won the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 1998, 1999 and 2000, has the distinction of being the latest of just five horses – the others being Hatton’s Grace, Sir Ken, Persian War and See You Then – to win the two-mile hurdling championship three times. Indeed, his Timeform Annual Rating of 180 places him second on the all-time list of hurdlers, ahead of the aforementioned quartet, alongside Monksfield and behind only Night Nurse.

Bought by intended trainer John Durkan, on behalf of J.P. McManus, in 1995, Istabraq was transferred to Aidan O’Brien when Durkan was diagnosed with leukemia the following year. Istabraq made his hurdling debut at Punchestown in November, 1996, where he was narrowly beaten but, having been gelded, won his next three starts on the way to his first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival, in the Royal Sunallliance Novices’ Hurdle. Durkan had predicted that Istabraq would win the latter, which he did, albeit all out in the closing stages.

Istabraq returned to the Cheltenham Festival in 1998, justifying favouritism in the Champion Hurdle with an effortless 12-length victory, made tragically poignant by the death of Durkan, at the age of just 31, the previous January. The rest, as they say, is history. In a remarkable career, Istabraq was, according to Timeform, ‘a giant in an age of pygmies’; all told, he won 23 of his 29 starts, including 14 at the highest, Grade One level, and amassed a little over £1 million in prize money. Having won on four successive occasions at the Cheltenham Festival, Istabraq was denied the chance to make it five when the meeting was lost to a foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001; at the time the Festival was cancelled, Istabraq was odds-on, at 1/2, to win an unprecedented fourth Champion Hurdle.

Few racing events pique the interest of the general public like the Cheltenham Festival. It’s second only to the Grand National in terms of reputation and popularity and has prize money to match. With four days of non stop top drawer racing action it’s no wonder that this national hunt event is so highly anticipated. So what will the 2021 Festival bring I wonder? Can Honeysuckle add the cherry on the cake of an astounding 10 from 10 record by winning the Champion Hurdle? Can Al Boum Photo achieve its place in the record books alongside Arkle and Best Mate to become the third three time winner of the Gold Cup? We’re just days away from finding out, so lets get into the swing of things with a fun Betway Racing Cheltenham Festival quiz featuring a few familiar footballing faces.

Down the years, several men, including the inimitable Donald ‘Ginger’ McCain, trainer of Red Rum and Amberleigh House, and Trevor Hemmings, owner of Hedgehunter, Ballabriggs and Many Clouds, have been known as ‘Mr. Grand National’. However, the first man to lay claim to that title was Fred Rimell who, between 1956 and 1976, saddled four winners of the world famous steeplechase. In so doing, he set a record which, while equalled by McCain in 2004, has never been beaten.

As a trainer, Rimell had few peers, but few that argue that his first Grand National winner, ESB in 1956, was due more to luck than judgement. In a bizarre incident, Devon Loch, with the race at his mercy, inexplicably fly-jumped and slithered to the ground just yards from the winning post, leaving ESB to gallop by and win by 10 lengths. Winning jockey Dave Dick later admitted, ‘Devon Loch had me cold.’

Five years later, in 1961, Rimmel won his second Grand National as a trainer, in more conventional fashion, with Niklaus Silver, who remains one of just three grey horses to have won the Aintree marathon. Ridden by Bobby Beasley, the 10-year-old beat the previous year’s winner, and favourite, Merryman II by 7 lengths.

Win number three, which proved to be the easiest of all, came courtesy of Gay Trip, ridden by Pat Taaffe, in 1970. Having previously run in the King George VI Chase at Kempton and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the 8-year-old outclassed the opposition, winning by 20 lengths. Last, but by mo means least, came the Welsh National winner, Rag Trade who, in 1976, completed a notable double when denying dual winner Red Rum his third win the Grand National, for the second year running.

At the time of writing, Al Boum Photo, trained by Willie Mullins, is a top-priced 4/1 favourite to become the first horse since Best Mate, in 2004, to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running. A beaten third when falling at the second-last fence in the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, the Buck’s Boum gelding has been lightly raced in recent seasons. He has, nonetheless, won five of his six starts, finishing second to stable companion Kemboy in the Punchestown Gold Cup, in the wake of his first victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2019, on the other occasion.

Prior to 2019, the Cheltenham Gold Cup had not been a happy hunting ground for Willie Mullins. Between 2000 and 2016, perennial Champion National Hunt Trainer suffered the frustration of saddling the runner-up in the ‘Blue Riband’ event no fewer than six times, including four years running between 2013 and 2016. Indeed, in 2014, On His Own suffered an agonising short-head defeat, having been carried right by the eventual winner, Lord Windermere, in the closing stages. At the ensuing enquiry, the stewards acknowledged that minor interference had taken place – and suspended Davy Russell, jockey of Lord Windermere, for careless riding – but the result stood.

However, in 2019, Al Boum Photo finally broke Mullins’ lengthening hoodoo when staying on strongly to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup by 2½ lengths. In 2020, he justified favouritism, albeit narrowly, when staying on, all out, to beat Santini by a neck, with Lostintranslation a further 1¼ lengths behind in third place. Still only a nine-year-old, Al Boum Photo won what has become his traditional warm-up race for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Savills Chase at Tramore, with consummate ease on his seasonal reappearance on New Year’s Day in 2021. He remains on course for his bid to join a small, select band of horses to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup more than twice.