Cheltenham Trials Day - Best of the Best
A last chance to experience the unique Prestbury Park test before national hunt racing’s premier meeting, Cheltenham Festival Trials Day is when we can really start ramping up the excitement to those four famous days in March.
Often in recent years, we’ve seen a future Festival champion emerge on Trials Day. In the past decade, 10 horses who have won at Cheltenham in late January go on to Festival glory less than two months later.
So ahead of the 2020 Trials Day, we’ve picked out five horses that have given us a taster of what was to come at this meeting.
Frodon – Cotswold Chase & Ryanair Chase - 2019
Stamina was the big question mark that hung over Frodon coming into the 3-mile, 1 furlong Cotswold Chase in 2019. While a regular winner at intermediate trips, his exuberant front-running style left some doubting that a test of stamina was what he wanted.
But while the petrol tank may have ebbed away to near-empty, no one could deny his will to win under Bryony Frost. As the dour stayer Elegant Escape closed to within a length, Paul Nicholls’ seven-year-old stuck his head down to land the Grade 2.
All eyes were then on to the Festival. Dropping back in trip, stamina wouldn’t be an issue this time, but his class would come under the microscope.
It may have been different scenario, but the outcome was the same. Leading from pillar to post, the partnership between jockey and horse captured the hearts of the racing public, as Frodon and Bryony Frost ran out length-and-a-quarter winners from Venetia Williams’s Aso.
Defi Du Seuil – Finesse Juvenile Hurdle & Triumph Hurdle – 2018
Philip Hobbs’ new French recruit was already seeking a hat-trick of wins at Prestbury Park when scoring on Festival Trials Day in 2018. With four victories to his name, including a Grade 1 at Chepstow, he was sent off a very warm £1.10 favourite.
That was for good reason too. Rated at least 20lbs clear of his three rivals (including subsequent Trials Day-Festival scorer Siruh Du Lac), it was a case of how far for Defi Du Seuil.
Settled in nicely behind early leader Rainbow Dreamer, Barry Geraghty pressed go approaching the last hurdle and the pair scampered clear of the chasing pack with the minimum of fuss.
The task on the final day of the 2017 Cheltenham Festival was to be much stiffer. A triumvirate of Irish Graded winners in Bapaume, Landofhopeandglory and Mega Fortune were there to ensure Defi was kept up to his work.
But like on Festival Trials Day, Geraghty waited with his mount until beginning to creep closer turning for home before taking charge just before the last and scampering up his favourite hill for a five length victory and ensuring an unbeaten juvenile campaign.
Lac Fontana – Steel Plate & Sections Handicap Hurdle & County Hurdle – 2014
He may not be as big a name as some of the horses in this list, but Lac Fontana remains the only horse in the last 15 years to win a handicap hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival after victory on Festival Trials Day.
Having been previously campaigned in Maidens and Graded events since switching from Nicolás Clement to Paul Nicholls, the son of Shirocco was engaged in his first Handicap off a mark of just 127.
That rating proved to be a blip from the handicapper. Daryl Jacob oozed confidence as he held his mount up at the back of the 10-runner field before cutting through the field and powering five lengths clear after the last.
The County Hurdle was next on his agenda, and like the handicapper who had since hit him with a 12lb rise in the weights, it appeared the market hadn’t discovered Lac Fontana’s full potential yet as he was sent off a £12.40 chance.
A lack of confidence in the five-year-old was unfounded though, as Daryl Jacob and his mount stayed on resolutely up the hill to land Paul Nicholls his first victory of the 2014 Festival, having suffered a dry opening three days.
Bobs Worth – Classic Novices’ Hurdle & Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle - 2011
For some horses, the Cheltenham Festival just sees them come alive, and Bobs Worth was one of those horses.
His victory in the 2011 Classic Novices’ Hurdle was a precursor to a treble of Festival victories that culminated in Nicky Henderson’s charge landing the biggest prize of them all in 2013.
In pulling two-and-a-half lengths clear of Rock On Ruby, Bobs Worth was defeating another future Festival winner and Champion Hurdler in some style. Though looking like he might get outpaced half-way up the run-in Barry Geraghty’s mount stuck his head down to grind it out in style.
Two months later, a step up in trip suited the six-year-old down to the ground. His love of the Cheltenham hill kicked him into gear as he pulled clear of Mossley to land a Seven Barrows one-two in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.
His 2011 appearance would be Bobs Worth's only appearance at Cheltenham Trials Day but in defeating Rock on Ruby it was a memorable introduction to Graded races at Prestbury Park.
Big Buck’s – Cleeve Hurdle & World Hurdle – 2009
Having unseated Sam Thomas in the Hennessy Gold Cup in the previous November, January 2009 was to be the defining month in the career of Big Buck’s. Victory in a handicap hurdle at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day set Paul Nicholls’s gelding up for a spot in the Cleeve Hurdle on Cheltenham Trials Day.
Ruby Walsh was certainly made to work for victory that day, pushing the six-year-old along from a long way out. It was only after Big Buck’s landed alongside Fair Along and Punchestowns after the last that the staying power we now have to come to know and love kicked in.
A four-length victory in the Cleeve was his first graded win over hurdles for Paul Nicholls. What followed was 16 successful wins over the smaller obstacles and place in every jumps fan’s personal hall of fame.
The difference between himself and Punchestowns at the 2009 Cheltenham Festival was reduced to a length-and-three-quarters, as close as any horse got to him when winning four straight World Hurdles.
Plenty more horses will go on to great success after winning at Cheltenham Trials Day, but few will have such an impact on National Hunt Racing as Big Buck’s.
