However many Gold Cups he finally wins, Paul Nicholls will look back on his fourth with matchless affection. This was the day when he proved that great jumping horses really can come back, no matter the deterrent of history. And it was the day when the horse closest to his heart repaid his unshakeable faith.
Before Kauto Star's breathtaking triumph yesterday, no horse had ever regained a Cup first contested in 1924. The statistic itself betrays the attritional nature of this race, yet Nicholls worked comparable wonders with its latest hero and casualty, restoring the spirit of Denman when even he had begun to fear it may be impossible.
This time, Denman finished 13 lengths behind the stablemate he beat by seven a year ago - still a striking contribution to another masterclass from the champion trainer. Nicholls saddled four of the first five home, only Exotic Dancer in third a gatecrasher. So close to emulating Michael Dickinson's Famous Five of 1983, Nicholls also secured three of the Festival's four feature races, having failed by only a neck in the first.
Adding to the overwhelming sense of history, the Gold Cup was a fifth winner of the meeting for Nicholls and a seventh for the silver-haired artist among modern jockeys, Ruby Walsh. The previous record was five and Walsh joked: “I just hope I don't wake up and find it's Tuesday morning.”After three days of predictably deflated crowds, Cheltenham was shoulder-to-shoulder bedlam for a Gold Cup with disparate strands of anticipation. At its romantic heart was the royal runner, Barbers Shop, which guaranteed the Queen's presence for only the third time and - in finishing seventh - gave her genuine hope for next year.
The monarch wore a rust-coloured coat rather more modest than the startling purple number sported by Harry Findlay, co-owner of Denman. You could not miss either in a parade ring hectic with expectation and the queasy expression of Nicky Henderson, the royal trainer, told of the unusual pressure on his shoulders.
Walsh looked ridiculously cool, as he must have been to ride Pride Of Dulcote, a horse that had put him on the floor three times, immediately before the Gold Cup. “If you start thinking ‘I don't fancy riding that fellow', you might as well give it up,” he said. Still, many would have taken the safer option.
When the tapes rose, Neptune Collonges imposed himself in front, depriving and disheartening Madison Du Berlais. Snoopy Loopy tried to match strides but eventually paid the penalty. All the while, Denman and Kauto Star kept each other company, just as they do at home.
Last year, Sam Thomas had been audaciously aggressive on Denman but now he was restrained by orders and logic. Alongside him, Walsh felt the Bentley engine of Kauto Star purring, his jumping slick and occasionally spectacular. “He has unbelievable scope, the power to stand off an awful long way,” the jockey said.
Turning downhill for the last time, only Exotic Dancer was travelling well enough to defy another Nicholls win. Walsh looked across once more to check how Denman was moving. He said: “I was surprised he was still there and he takes a lot of credit. I hadn't planned to be in front so early but when we winged the fourth last, I was committed.”
Kauto Star never looked like failing him. Striding clear up the hill with a zest that eluded him last year, he gave demonstration leaps at the last two fences and came home to an earsplitting roar from a properly appreciative crowd of 64,908. Cheltenham may be a forum of opinions and prejudices but it is also a parish that loves a superstar.
As he waited for his victorious flock, of which only Star De Mohaison disappointed, Nicholls resembled an anxious kindergarten mistress. Yet unlike last March, when the strain had shattered his nerves, his transparent expression was joy. A year ago, he spent the days after Cheltenham staring moodily at Kauto Star's box, unable to believe he had been beaten. The horse is a massive emotional investment for his trainer and this was payback day.
“I actually managed to enjoy watching today, because he did what Ruby and I believed he would,” Nicholls explained. “I always dreamed of having one as good as him and he was the first to come along. He's good for racing and he's not finished yet.”
An exuberant Findlay was busy telling everyone that the same applies to Denman, for whom rescaled peaks are now feasible again. Neptune Collonges will go back to Ireland for easier pickings, while Exotic Dancer and My Will ran compelling rehearsals for the Grand National.
These, though, were support artists to a billtopper supreme.
Quietly, unobtrusively, the man who rides him every day, who lives and sleeps his changing fortunes, gave his verdict. Clifford Baker, Nicholls's head lad, beamed contentedly as he declared: “That was the best he will ever run in his life.”
Source:the times
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