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Steve Jones: The top 10 great racing memories from Christmas past
Steve Jones |

December 24, 2020

CHRISTMAS is a time for peace, love and good racing to all men. And women, of course.

Down the years, the festive period has seen some of the greatest performances from the best-loved jumps horses.

Here’s my favourite ten ghosts of Christmas past.

 

1 Desert Orchid – 1986 King George

It might be 34 years ago but I can remember it vividly. As a wide-eyed 13-year-old the quality of the field, I dare say, was lost on me with Wayward Lad, Forgive ‘n Forget and Combs Ditch in the line up to make Dessie an almost unconsidered 16-1 shot. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t aware of the general opinion that he would struggle to stay three miles but I was mesmerised as I watched the grainy picture on my nan’s telly of this stunning grey blasting off in front and eating the fences like a Labrador scoffing mince pies. Of course, Dessie went on the win another three King Georges but it was the first when the legend was born. Some legend, some horse.

 

2 Carvill’s Hill 1991 Welsh National

Forget your Gold Cups and champion hurdles. When it comes to the greatest National Hunt performance of all time it was at Chepstow 29 years ago. No doubt. Carvill’s Hill had only made the switch from Jim Dreaper’s Irish stable in the summer of 1991 and he had made a winning debut for Martin Pipe in Chepstow’s Rehearsal Chase. Then on to Christmas and this was a Welsh National packed with quality. Cool Ground, Party Politics, Bonanza Boy, Aquilifer, Esha Ness, Kildimo, Twin Oaks and The West Awake. They were all in there and Carvill’s Hill was giving them all lumps of weight. Peter Scudamore jumped him off in front and they just kept galloping. He wasn’t the best of jumpers due back problems that plagued him throughout his career but, boy, could he gallop. When he came into view from among Chepstow’s undulations up the final straight he was a country mile clear. His Gold Cup attempt ended in controversy and accusations. It was not the way he should be remembered as his Welsh National win was simply awesome. Watch the replay, go on, you won’t be disappointed.

 

3 Gloria Victis – 1999 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase

Considering it’s over the same course and distance on the same day, it’s surprising few winners of the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase have gone on to win the King George. Long run is an exception and it’s a tragedy Gloria Victis never got the chance to attempt to complete the Kempton double. His 18-length destruction in what was then the Feltham Chase, a few days before the world celebrated the turning of the millennium, was simply awesome. Martin Pipe’s French import returned to Kempton a couple of months later to put up one of the greatest weight-carrying performances I’ve ever seen when giving Marlborough more than a stone and a thrashing. It persuaded Pipe to go for the Gold Cup and he was running a huge race until suffering a fatal injury in a fall at the second-last. He was only six-years-old. An awful, awful loss of a potential champion.

 

4 Kauto Star – 2011 King George

In the mid-to-late 2000s Kauto Star was more of a Boxing Day fixture than hangovers and dry turkey. He had already won four King Georges to equal Desert Orchid’s record but by the time he lined up in 2011 he was starting to be written off by some. Paul Nicholls’ star had finished third behind Long Run in the previous season’s King George and Gold Cup. His emotional defeat of Long Run in the Betfair Chase six weeks before Kempton was not to be believed if the King George betting was anything to go by. By now an 11-year-old, rising 12, he fenced impeccably and he was never going to be caught after getting the jump on his younger rival turning out of the back straight. The length-and-a-quarter winning distance was by far the narrowest of his five King George wins but, given he was just one run away from retirement, it could be argued it was his most impressive Kempton performance.

 

5 Dream Alliance – 2009 Welsh National

These days, even at Christmas, fairy tales are few and far between. In the competitive world of bloodstock they are even rarer with big-spending owners getting an increasingly-larger slice of the top prizes. Dream Alliance was bred by a pub barmaid, whose experience stretched to pigeon racing, and raised on an allotment in south Wales. A tendon injury sustained in 2008 threatened to end his racing career so it was enough of a miracle when he lined up for the following year’s Welsh National against horses owned by some of jump racing’s biggest owners. Living up to his name, Dream Alliance and Tom O’Brien held off dour stayer Silver By Nature in the closing stages for a remarkable win. So remarkable, in fact, the story was the subject of not one, but two, films, which should be essential Christmas viewing.

 

6 Harchibald – 2004 Christmas Hurdle

Rarely has a horse divided opinion like Noel Meade’s mercurial hurdler. To some he was a characterful cracker, to others a frustrating canine of a horse. When he was good her was very, very good but when he was bad he was a terror. He announced himself as one of the top hurdlers with a smooth victory in Newcastle’s Fighting Fifth the previous month and he was odds-on to follow up in the Christmas Hurdle despite the presence of former Champion Hurdler Rooster Booster. With no obvious pacesetter, Richard Johnson charged off on the Rooster. The pair were 30 lengths clear going down the back and were still ten lengths in front jumping the second-last. It was a target, hindsight was to reveal, that suited Harchibald ideally. Paul Carberry needed only to nudge his partner on the run-in as the pair cruised home. Harchibald’s mettle was to be found out in that memorable Champion Hurdle three months later when he looked all over Hardy Eustace until turning down the invitation to take hurdling’s greatest prize but on Boxing Day in 2004 he was truly sublime.

 

7 Sprinter Sacre – 2015 Desert Orchid Chase

When Sprinter Sacre arrived at Kempton over Christmas in 2013 he was approaching legendary status. A perfect 10 out of 10 wins over fences, seven of them grade 1s, and he was the Champion Chaser. It was no surprise he was almost unbackable at 2-9 but it was clear all was not well before halfway. Barry Geraghty soon pulled him up. The unbeatable was beaten with a heart problem the root cause. Fast forward two years and Sprinter was on the comeback trail. He had pulled up in that year’s Champion Chase and a Cheltenham win the previous month was merely a step in the right direction. His Desert Orchid defeat of former Champion Chaser Sire Du Grugy in 2015 was a long way off his brilliant best but it was more important. The three-quarter-length victory proved not only was his heart working as it should, it was all there again. Redemption was Sprinter’s and he went on to reclaim his Champion Chase crown. Truly a heart-warming Christmas tale.

 

8 Florida Pearl – 2001 King George

When Florida Pearl lined up for his second crack at the King George he was only a week away from his tenth birthday. He had already won three Irish Gold Cups but Britain’s top chases had alluded him. Willie Mullins’ ace had been placed in two Cheltenham Gold Cups, finding the final climb beyond him, and he had also been runner-up behind First Gold in the previous year’s King George.

The unenviable moniker of the ‘next Arkle’ – handed out after his 1998 RSA Chase win – had long since been forgotten so it was, maybe, ironic that the horse he saw off in a rare old Kempton tussle was Best Mate. Of course, he was to become the first horse since Arkle to win three Gold Cups but on Boxing Day in 2001 there was no beating Florida Pearl and Adrian Maguire.

 

9 Native River – 2016 Welsh National

Despite winning the top Christmas prize when Cue Card won the King George in 2015, Colin Tizzard was still trying to shake off the farmer-turned-trainer tag going into the following festive period. In Native River he had a horse to make people forget about the friesians. He had already won the Hennessy Gold Cup when he arrived at Chepstow for the Welsh National and was sent off favourite despite attempting to become the first horse to win the marathon contest under top weight since Carvill’s Hill 25 years earlier with the smoothest of performances. Third place in the Gold Cup was to follow before Native River saw off Might Bite in an epic battle up the Cheltenham hill for the top prize the next season. Tizzard sold his dairy herd not long after and Native River’s part in that decision to concentrate on the horses cannot be underestimated.

 

10 Coneygree – 2014 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase

Everything about Coneygree was exceptional. He had been a smart novice hurdler until injury, which was the plague him throughout his career, ended his campaign. The Plumpton vets had forced his withdrawal ahead of his scheduled chase debut after nearly two years off the track so he was sent to Newbury for a grade 2 contest he duly won. Sent off second favourite behind Paul Nicholls’ Saphir Du Rheu for the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, he was taken on for the early lead. The race fell apart as jumping frailties in the opposition were exposed by the strong pace and Coneygree was left to cruise home fully 40 lengths in front. Those who crabbed the form were left with egg on their faces when he become the first novice for more than 40 years to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. A string of injuries stopped him from running in jump racing’s greatest prize again but what Mark and Sara Bradstock achieved with Coneygree was remarkable. While his Kauto Star win cannot be called the highlight, it was a staggering performance of a stunning horse.

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