The finish of Wednesday's Weatherbys Champion Bumper threatens to be dominated yet again by Irish-trained runners, but a clutch of British trainers headed by Oliver Sherwood and Ben Pauling are hoping that the ante-post markets have it wrong.
There have been only seven home-trained winners since the Weatherbys Champion Bumper was first run in 1992, and the last of them was back in 2016, when Ballyandy prevailed by just a nose in a finish which saw bumper maestro Willie Mullins take the next three places.
With only ten of the 33 acceptors - and several of those earmarked for elimination if the 48-hour declarations exceed the maximum 24 - the odds are stacked firmly against the home team, but Queens Gamble and Fiercely Proud boast strong course form and their trainers are proven winners at the Festival.
Sherwood was a regular in the Cheltenham winner’s enclosure in the days of The West Awake and Rebel Song, and while his last win there with Corton in the Catchcart Chase was back in 1995 he is looking forward to returning with a live chance.
He said: “It’s nice to have one going there and she’s entitled to be running. The weather isn’t ideal, as she’s never run on soft ground, but we don’t know that she won’t handle it and the intention is to run.”
Outlining how Queens Gamble came to him and how her career has gone so far, he added: “She was bred by Alex Frost, who is the front man of the consortium which bought the Tote, along with his brother-in-law in Ireland, who had the dam Gambling Girl, a decent winner for Jessie Harrington. She came here around 18 months ago through Josh Apiafi, and although she was all legs and not a lot of body I always liked her.
“I wanted to start her on decent ground and the race she won at Cheltenham in April was perfect for her. There was a lot of talking through the summer about what we should do next with her, and we decided that we would go for some black type at Cheltenham in November, and that if she won that we’d stick to bumpers, but if she was beaten we would try hurdling. She won again, and so here we are.”
Queens Gamble has been beaten since, at Market Rasen, but only by a promising filly of Fergal O’Brien’s who received weight in a race in which Sherwood admits the tactics were wrong.
He explained: “It was a cock-up from both trainer and jockey. The rest rode to get her beat and Johnny (Burke), had her too handy and kicked too soon. He should have ridden her for speed, which she’s always had, and while it was annoying to get beat it wasn’t the horse’s fault.”
Pauling has been training only ten years, but very early on he had an outstanding bumper horse in Barters Hill, who went to Aintree rather than Cheltenham, and he has since enjoyed Festival success with Willoughby Court, Le Breuil and Global Citizen. A move to all-new premises at Naunton, just a few miles from Cheltenham, is paying off handsomely, and he is already way ahead of his previous seasonal best.
He trains Fiercely Proud for Tim Radford, who enjoyed Festival success with Mister Whitaker and whose company Timico are former Gold Cup sponsors, and he rates the four-year-old highly.
He said: “Fiercely Proud is a Shadwell castoff, by Iffraaj, and he’d won a bumper at Market Rasen for Don Cantillon when we bought him at Cheltenham in November to go and try and win the juvenile bumper there on New Year’s Day, which we achieved..
“The Festival is something of an afterthought, but he has course form good enough to entitle him to have a go, so why not roll the dice. He’s an exceptionally nice horse who jumps very well, and he’s now not just a bumper project but a horse who I think has a very bright future as a jumper and also as one who will also prove to be very talented on the Flat.
“He’ll be ridden with the future in mind, so dropped in and ridden to finish nicely, and if they go a good gallop and he picks them up at the end we’ll be thrilled.”
Paul Nicholls will saddle another unbeaten runner in Captain Teague, as will Alan King with Favour and Fortune, but nobody is under any illusions as the Irish team looks exceptionally strong.
However, while the last six runnings have all gone to either Willie Mullins or Gordon Elliott there’s scope for a refreshing change this year in the shape of A Dream To Share, who is trained by almost certainly the oldest trainer with a runner at the Festival in 85-year-old John Kiely, and will be ridden by possibly its youngest jockey in 18-year-old John Gleeson, the amateur son of the horse’s breeder and former owner Brian.
Now that would be one of the stories of the meeting.
Graham Dench