A thrilling battle between those two old stagers My Tent Or Yours and The New One revived what had become a joyless day at the races, the crowd having been shocked into near silence by the earlier death of Starchitect. The six-year-old had seemed on the brink of glory in the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup when he stumbled on the run to the second-last and broke a hind leg in full view of the grandstands.
Immediately aware that something awful had happened, Tom Scudamore was able to pull up Starchitect before reaching the fence, steering to the inside so the rest had room to go around and avoid further casualty. Guitar Pete ran on dourly to beat Clan Des Obeaux but few major handicaps here can ever have met with such a muted response. Dismay prevailed and, for most, all enjoyment of the contest ended a quarter of a mile from home.
Richard Linley, racing’s senior inspector of courses, had a good look at the spot of Starchitect’s stumble but found no indication that any defect in the course might have caused it. Scudamore, eyes red-rimmed, said he had no reason to think anyone had been at fault.
“There were no signs, anything,” the jockey said. “He’d never felt better and it probably looked that way. I haven’t seen a replay of it and I’m not going to. It’s very, very sad for everyone. I just feel sad for the horse. He’d been knocking on the door so many times and today was possibly going to be his day and it wasn’t to be. I don’t know why it’s happened. You couldn’t blame anybody.”
This was already one of the least boisterous fixtures staged at Cheltenham in recent memory, a card short on talent having attracted what seemed a thin crowd, most of which hid itself indoors, away from the chill. Parts of the site felt no busier than they had been on the day before the Festival, when no actual racing was taking place.
The grimness of Starchitect’s demise drained away the atmosphere, such as it was. The feeling of upset was even more widespread than when Many Clouds collapsed here in January, which happened several seconds after the race, allowing some of those present to remain oblivious for a while.
Shoulders slumped, eyes were cast down. Ryan Day, the 23-year-old rider of Guitar Pete, who ought to have been able to celebrate wildly, told reporters: “I’m sorry to Mr and Mrs Rooney [owners of Starchitect] and everyone connected. It’s a terrible thing. We’re lucky to have won it.”
The day seemed irretrievable but somehow the runners in the International Hurdle restored a bit of faith in the appeal of jump racing, the three market leaders meeting the final obstacle in a line. Melon, the well-backed favourite, would have been a most popular winner. Success for The New One, a prolific winner here and the first ride back from injury for Sam Twiston-Davies, would also have gone down well.
But somehow the crowd found it in their hearts to give a huge welcome to victory for My Tent Or Yours, an enormously talented beast who has somehow gone four years without a single success over obstacles. Runner-up in three Champion Hurdles during that time, he has often been beaten by soft ground but got a drier surface here and showed he still has plenty of pace at the age of 10. Remarkably, his rivalry with The New One goes back to April 2012, when they were first and second in the last race on Grand National day.
Nicky Henderson and JP McManus, the winning trainer and owner, hugged each other as if they had won a race of much greater import. A tearful Henderson said he had felt like “a fiend” when beating My Tent Or Yours with another horse from his yard, Buveur D’Air, in the latest Champion Hurdle.
The trainer added: “JP and I both went straight to Tent after the Champion Hurdle, only to say: ‘Well done, mate.’ He’s special. When you’ve lived with them for seven years, you become quite attached to them.”
But the general good feeling was not shared by Nigel Twiston-Davies, trainer of The New One, who raged about how the conditions of the race meant his horse carried 6lb more than the winner. Had the race been elevated to Grade One status, they would have been equally burdened.
“It should be a Grade One but it is not,” Twiston-Davies fumed. “It’s pathetic. In Ireland, it would be and then we would not be giving 6lbs. It’s the most travesty of justice.
“It is a £100,000 race and it should be a Grade One. Why should a horse rated the same as him [the winner] be giving him weight? It is just typical of British racing running itself down, really. How many Grade Ones did [Irish-trained] Hurricane Fly win? Hundreds. How many have we won? Hardly any because there aren’t any.
“He has run a superb race, probably the race of his life. He beat the favourite and battled on up the hill, having to make his own running. If something would have come and helped, that would have helped, too. He has got to come to the Stayers after that.”
Chris Cook’s tips for Sunday
Carlisle
12.05 Sweet As Candy 12.35 Lough Derg Jewel 1.05 Saint Freule 1.40 Itstimeforapint 2.15 Royal Salute 2.45 Oak Vintage (nap) 3.15 Lily’s Gem
Southwell
12.25 Global Domination 12.55 Shanty Town 1.30 Santo De Lune 2.05 Gunfleet 2.35 Oscar Rose (nb) 3.05 Oscar Star 3.35 Groundunderrepair
Chelmsford
12.45 Line Of Beauty 1.15 Ejtyah 1.50 Huddersfilly Town 2.25 Ebtkaar 2.55 Bahamian Heights 3.25 The Eagle’s Nest 4.00 Dynamic Girl
