For all but the final half-second of the December Gold Cup on Saturday, it seemed Richard Hobson’s long litany of frustrations at the home of jumping would extend into the new year. He arrived with a 0-43 record at Cheltenham that included four runners-up from his past five starters and 11 second-place finishes in all – but left as the happiest trainer in Gloucestershire thanks to Fugitif’s last-gasp success in the day’s feature race.
Even Gavin Sheehan, Fugitif’s jockey, thought he was booked for second at best as they came down the hill still well adrift of a strong pace, which had been set from the off by Frero Banbou and Il Ridoto. Mid-race, it was hard to believe either horse would last home, but while Frero Banbou gave way in the straight it was clear as Il Ridoto jumped the last that Bryony Frost, his rider, had judged the fractions almost to perfection.
Plumpton 12.40 Junkanoo 1.10 Pepe Le Moko (nb) 1.40 Koenigsstern 2.10 Guguss Collonges 2.40 Embolden 3.10 Shaw’s Cross 3.40 The Secret Pearl
Musselburgh 12.25 Joanna I’m Fine 12.55 Got Your Back 1.25 Bella Bluesky 1.55 Jackhammer 2.25 Lihyan 2.55 Deep Charm 3.25 Callan Queen
Wolverhampton 5.00 Hannah’s Return 5.30 Handsome Chap 6.00 Reverberation 6.30 Story Horse 7.00 Ippotheos (nap) 7.30 Star Of St Louis 8.00 Kingwell 8.30 Brave Display
It was, so nearly, a repeat of Frost’s memorable front-running ride on Frodon in the same race seven years ago. As Il Ridoto kept up the pace and jumped well in front, better-fancied rivals were struggling to stay in touch. Thunder Rock, the warm favourite, was tailing off with nearly a mile to run after a series of mistakes, while So Scottish, his main market rival, fell four out.
Fugitif and Sheehan, though, were just close enough landing over the last to launch a charge up the hill, reeling them in with every stride before Fugitif got in front on the line to win by a short-head.
It was no more than Fugitif deserved after a series of fine runs in big handicap chases here, which edged him up the weights without a first prize to show for it. For Gloucestershire-based Hobson, meanwhile, it ended an eight-year wait for a winner at his local track, during which four of his 11 runners-up were beaten by a length or less.
“He was quite far back, but we had a top jockey on and we got there in the end,” Hobson said. “The plan wasn’t to be that far back, but he has ridden a lovely race on him.
“I’ve had 11 seconds here and you think, is it ever going to happen? Albeit we’ve been running at the top end, we haven’t been coming here with a well-handicapped horse. We’ve been trying to punch above our weight.
“I hoped he would get his day in the sun, off [a mark of] 151 today it’s just an incredible performance. As they went past the post, I thought it was a near-miss again, but thankfully it went our way for a change.”
Hobson was not the only trainer to break their Cheltenham duck as Jack Jones saddled An Bradan Feasa, the 5-4 favourite, to win the Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle.
Jones, at 28 and one of the youngest trainers in Britain, is in his first full jumps season with a licence, having already sent out 22 winners on the Flat this year from his yard in Newmarket.
He was a few lengths away from registering a Cheltenham winner at the first attempt when An Bradan Feasa finished second at the November meeting and Saturday’s success was relatively stress-free as An Bradan Feasa appeared to have got the better of Kourosh, the second-favourite, when he fell at the last.
“I’ve been coming here for as long as I can remember,” Jones, a former point-to-point rider, said. “To have a runner here a month ago was the stuff of dreams and for him to do it like that, I’m speechless.”
An Bradan Feasa was cut to around 33-1 for the Triumph Hurdle in March, but Jones feels that the Festival’s juvenile handicap hurdle is a more realistic target. “He’d be 50-1 in a Triumph Hurdle,” he said, “but although he will go up again for today, he’d still have a competitive weight in a Fred Winter.”
The novice Broadway Boy was a gritty winner on his handicap debut over fences later on the card and Nigel Twiston-Davies, his trainer, will now prepare him for a return here at the Festival. “He could go for either the National Hunt Chase or the [Grade One] Brown Advisory,” he said. “We will have to see what the opposition looks like.”
