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Winner of the 2019/20 Tote Ten to Follow, Richard Hutchinson, has an impressive Cheltenham Festival performance to thank for helping him claim the £177,961 top prize.

Richard, 50, recorded seven victories at the Prestbury Park showpiece, including four of the designated Bonus Races, ensuring his stable finished with a total of 584.6 points.

The Ipswich resident named Champion Hurdler Epatante, Ryanair victor Min, last-gasp RSA supremo Champ and Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo in his ‘Ping Ponger 61’ stable.

Between them the 10 horses in the winning stable won 14 Grade 1s and picked up more than £1.8 million in prize money throughout the competition period.

The return of the competition was a real delight for racing-mad Richard, having gone close in previous years.

“When I saw the competition had come back, I was so pleased. I absolutely fell in love with it in 2010 when I actually finished ninth overall. That year I had a runner for my stable in the Grand National, Ballyfitz, which would have won me the £250,000 first prize, but unfortunately he fell.

“The competition just engrosses me, from trying to pick the horses, to working out who will run where, to which one are going to run at Cheltenham,” Richard explained.

“I’ve amazed myself really that I managed to pull it off actually!”

Big plans for the winnings

The winning stable wasn’t just the work of one man, as Richard had entered a number of stables in a syndicate of family and friends. 

Taking 50% of the winning ticket was friend Garry Ambrose, who along with Richard is a huge racing fan as well as being a part-owner of the Neil King-trained mare Marienstar. The week of the Cheltenham Festival was special for Garry for more than one reason.

“[Garry] had some great fun with [Marienstar] over those few years, but unfortunately she got injured in January and was retired. On the Thursday of Cheltenham she was covered by Dartmouth, and Garry found out soon after that she was in foal,” Richard explained.

“Of the back of that, Garry is looking to start a racing club with Marienstar’s offspring.”

We’ll be keen to follow the story of Marienstar’s foal and formation of the Garry and Richard’s Racing Club in the future, but in the short term the pair are launching their own tipping service, MegaTipsters.co.uk, off the back of their Ten to Follow win.

Richard Hutchinson and Garry Ambrose

“Because of the current climate it’s going to be hard to get the syndication done in regards to the racing club. We’ll probably look to buy a horse later on in the summer if we can pick one up to go over the jumps with and have a dual purpose horse.”

“As it stands, we’re focusing our initial efforts with getting MegaTipsters.co.uk up and running. That is by far our most immediate requirement and the racing club will follow in the next few months.”

With the launch of the new Tote Ten to Follow flat competition Richard is sure to be entering his stable in pursuit of another big prize. But with jumps success in the bag, our winner would rather keep his strategy close to his chest.

How the competition was won

Looking at Richard’s winning stable, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was 10 of the most obvious horses to include in any Ten to Follow stable, but of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

At the start of the season the stable of ‘Ping Ponger 61’ looked like this;

  • Klassical Dream
  • Samcro
  • Buveur D’Air
  • Al Boum Photo
  • Honeysuckle
  • Fakir D’Oudairies
  • Defi Du Seuil
  • Champ
  • Envoi Allen
  • Paisley Park

The first half of the competition was full of up-and-downs for the stable. The defeats and subsequent injuries to Buveur D’Air and Klassical Dream, as well as the final fence fall of Champ in the Dipper Novices’ Chase would have been enough to dent the confidence of any player.

But with Honeysuckle claiming a Bonus Race success, as well as Grade 1 triumph for Fakir D’oudairies, Defi Du Seuil and Envoi Allen, things were still looking up.

Fast-forward to Cheltenham where his stable’s form really ramped up to the next level. Day one was a rip-roaring success with Mares’ Hurdle success for Honeysuckle, runners-up bonus points for Arkle second Fakir D’Oudairies and Champion Hurdle glory for transfer window addition Epatante.

Wednesday was a mixed bag with an emphatic win for Envoi Allen followed by late drama in the RSA as Champ surged to victory, before one of the shortest-priced favourites of the Festival, Defi Du Seuil let Richard, and many others down.

Thursday was where everything started to come together for the winning stable. Hot favourite in the Stayers’ Hurdle Paisley Park may have been defeated, but the Irish double-header of Samcro and Min helped ‘Ping Ponger 61’ up to 7th place in the leaderboard.

Richard was all too aware of the importance of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, scheduled to be the penultimate Bonus Race.

“We had Al Boum Photo in the Gold Cup, and having looked through all the stables above us, I saw none of them had him. So we went into Friday knowing that if it was Al Boum Photo won, we’d be number one. It was a crazy week, it was just so exciting!”

And so it transpired, Willie Mullins claimed back-to-back Gold Cups and Richard and his syndicate were able to celebrate landing top-spot, which soon became the final standings when racing was halted due to the Coronavirus.

Substitutions were key

Astute use of the two Transfer Window substitutions undoubtedly played a major part in Richard’s success. A swap of the injured Buveur D’Air for Epatante was a no-brainer, while Klassical Dream also needed removing from his stable.

“I knew I needed a Ryanair horse, but I had the biggest dilemma with whether I put A Plus Tard or Min in,” Richard explained.

“Last year I backed A Plus Tard when he hosed up in the two-and-a-half mile handicap at the Festival, so emotionally I was quite attached to him. But I had to put that to one side and go with my head, and in the end I sided with Min.”

That decision proved vital as Rich Ricci’s chaser atoned for previous Cheltenham Festival defeats to make it third time lucky, and put Richard and Garry well on their way to Ten to Follow triumph.

Want to be our next Tote Ten to Follow winner? Enter your stable for the flat season today.


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