Over the past 14 years, Fergal O’Brien has loaded 48 horses into a box for the short trip from his Gloucestershire yard to Cheltenham’s Festival meeting. Every time he has returned home empty-handed. Hope, though, springs eternal for one of the most engaging and popular trainers in the game and in Crambo, the narrow winner of the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle here on Saturday, he may yet prove to have found the horse to break his Festival duck.
Dysart Enos, a winner for the yard at Cheltenham this month, is the ante-post favourite for the Mares’ Novice Hurdle on the third afternoon in March, but Crambo is now a live contender for the Stayers’ Hurdle earlier the same day after edging out the veteran Paisley Park by a short head.
Victory for Paisley Park would have put the 11-year-old alongside the great Baracouda as a four-time winner of the Long Walk, so Crambo’s narrow success was possibly not the result most neutrals were rooting for as he battled for the line against a rival who is nearly half his age. But it was a big moment for O’Brien and Jonathan Burke, Crambo’s jockey, whose experience arguably made the difference after the trainer took the difficult decision to replace the six-year-old’s regular jockey, Connor Brace, for Saturday’s Grade One contest.
“He never knows he’s beat,” O’Brien said. “He’s still very young and I can’t believe he’s here, winning a Grade One. I could tell two furlongs out he was going to get there.
“He’s a bull of a horse. Noel Fehily [the former jockey] bred him with Jared [Sullivan, his co-owner] and Noel always has him home and pre-trains him and has done a great job with him.”
O’Brien has been a fixture in the top 10 of the trainers’ championship for the past three seasons, but this was just the second Grade One win of his career, Poetic Rhythm landed the Challow Hurdle in December 2017.
Sedgefield
11.45 Wild Side Of Life 12.15 Imperial Measure 12.50 Contre Ordre 1.25 Getaway Glory 2.00 Heartbreak Kid 2.35 Tom Creen 3.10 Northern Reel
Wetherby
11.52 Sweet Honey B 12.27 Aristobulus 1.00 Velasco 1.35 Into Overdrive (nap) 2.10 Santos Blue 2.45 Cornerstone Lad 3.20 Coup De Coeur
Aintree
11.55 Realisation 12.30 Riders Onthe Storm 1.05 July Flower 1.40 Bucksy Des Epeires 2.15 Some Scope 2.50 Heros 3.25 Farland
Fontwell Park
11.57 Nashville Nipper 12.32 Naturally High 1.07 Tea And Chats 1.42 Clondaw Robin 2.17 Ellerton 2.52 Pilot Show 3.27 Halondo
Market Rasen
12.05 Shetland Tony 12.40 Macanogue 1.15 Benny Baloo 1.47 Jigginstown King 2.22 Tara Brooch 2.57 Animal 3.32 Decorated
Wincanton
12.18 So Said I 12.53 Lily Luna 1.28 No Hubs No Hoobs 2.03 Kingofthewest 2.38 Glance At Me 3.13 Lord Snootie 3.45 Yalla Habibi
Kempton Park
12.45 Idalko Bihoue (nb) 1.20 Hermes Allen 1.55 Constitution Hill 2.30 Allaho 3.05 Court In The Act 3.40 Classic Lord
Wolverhampton
1.50 Hot Front 2.25 Sports Coach 3.00 Written Broadcast 3.35 Time Patrol 4.05 Intervention 4.35 King’s Code 5.05 Distinction 5.35 Percy Willis
“He’s unique,” the trainer said. “Noel was telling me today he was two weeks premature and the mum foaled herself and he is just one of those. You honestly wouldn’t know he was in the place at home, he’s so straightforward.
“We took him away a couple of weeks ago because I wanted Johnny to have a sit on him. He said he didn’t give him much of a feel, but I said: ‘Just trust him on the day,’ and that is what he did. I can’t thank Johnny enough, he’s given him a fantastic ride.
“He’s been riding in Grade Ones since he was 18 years of age. It was my decision, I’ve never hidden behind the owners and I just felt coming here today I needed to tick all the boxes. Connor has done a fantastic job and, to be honest, Connor has made this horse over the years.”
Nicky Henderson had a double on the card here and two more winners at Haydock before a huge afternoon for his yard on Boxing Day, when stable stars Shishkin and Constitution Hill will be making their seasonal debuts on the King George VI Chase card at Kempton Park.
Luccia beat Impose Toi to record a one-two for Henderson’s yard in the valuable handicap hurdle at the end of the card, while Excello beat the odds-on favourite, Solo, in a three‑runner graduation chase.
“It’s always nice when the horses are running well,” Henderson said. “You’ve got to make the most of it because you can get bad patches, but they are being very well behaved at the moment. [But] it doesn’t make me any less nervous for Tuesday as they are all doing different things.”
