Cheltenham Gold Cup: David Ord's favourite memories in race's 100th year

So, when did it hook you?

Despite being asked by a straight-faced colleague if I worked at the Sporting Life newspaper in 1976 this week, I was foaled too late for the Arkle era.

No, for me it was MH Easterby and M W Dickinson during another golden age of staying chasers in the early 1980s.

In 1981 Peter saddled a one-two in the great race, Little Owl winning under amateur rider Jim Wilson. But it was Night Nurse team Ord were roaring on, I remember my dad, brother and myself on our feet in a straight line in front of a small colour TV roaring the second home as he rallied under Alan Brown.

We knew Night Nurse you see. Not only from his memorable Champion Hurdle bouts but from appearances on the northern tracks as he gained experience and match practice over the larger obstacles.

He was in our team. And the same sense of belonging was attached to the Dickinson famous five who made history two years later.

We’d been there, on cold afternoons at Wetherby and Doncaster, as they learned their trade, were developed and brought to a peak by a master of his craft.

And we weren’t alone.

On that famous March afternoon Bregawn was having his seventh start of the campaign, having won four of the previous six including a defeat of stablemate and Cheltenham runner-up Captain John in the Hennessy.

He, Captain John, was racing for the fifth time that season, winning twice including the SGB Chase at Ascot and sustaining an injury when fourth in the Welsh National.

Wayward Lad, silky, strong travelling Wayward Lad, was having his fifth start and was two from four, notably the first of his three King George victories at Kempton. He’d been on the easy-list in the build-up having reportedly been lame for a fortnight in February.

Then there’s Silver Buck, who had Bregawn back in second when leading home a one-two for the yard in the 1982 Gold Cup. Well, a year later he was having his sixth run the campaign and had won four times. He wasn’t at his best on the day, finishing fourth.

Ashley House completed the clean sweep in fifth on his seventh run of the campaign and he’d won four of his last five races.

These were rare auld times for Dickinson. At the start of the week William Hill were 1/5 he trained the winner of the Gold Cup and 66/1 he saddled the first-five. No winning slips on the artist formerly known as twitter in those days. He was 33/1 with Coral not to train a winner all week.

Four beaten favourites on the opening day of the meeting had set tongues wagging, Dickinson himself more than a little concerned. Relief came when Sabin Du Loir won the opener on Wednesday after which the trainer said: "When they all got beat yesterday, I had felt like jumping off the Cheltenham grandstand."

After Bregawn led his ‘boys’ up the hill three days later Dickinson said: "I worried so much while preparing the five horses that I lost a stone in weight. You need luck to get one horse fit for Cheltenham."

In the end he produced domination on a par with the modern day – even with a string of only 55 horses, 19 of whom ran at the Festival that week.

It was a wonderful time for the race too. A year later Burrough Hill Lad won for Jenny Pitman, the first female trainer to snare the sport’s most prestigious prize.

Forgive N’ Forget under a patient Mark Dwyer followed in his hoofprints, before Dawn Run sparked scenes of celebration that lit the blue-touch paper for the years that followed by rallying to break mine and Wayward Lad’s heart and do what poor Night Nurse had so agonisingly failed to achieve by becoming the first – and only – horse to win a Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup.

The Thinker won his blue riband in a race delayed by snow and run with the white stuff still covering the famous turf.

Desert Orchid in 1989 somehow conjured the spirit of Dawn Run to rally and raise the roof having looked set to play second fiddle to Yahoo on ground he hated and at a track where his previous Festival form figures read 11th in Champion Hurdle, pulled up in Champion Hurdle, third in the Arkle Chase, third in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and then second in the same race the following season.

Subsequently he finished third in both the 1990 and 1991 Gold Cups. Yet somehow on that day he got the job done, against all the odds. I vividly remember my English teacher wheeling the school television in our classroom so we could watch the race – an act no doubt motivated by the fact he had the Triumph winner and Dessie in an ante-post double.

But that race was big news at the time, a story on the front and back pages of the national newspapers, prominent on the TV news bulletins. Dessie was public property, the Gold Cup really mattered.

It did too in 2004 when Best Mate had Simon Holt roaring “three Gold Cups” as he overcame traffic problems to follow in Arkle’s legendary hoofprints. Henrietta Knight and Terry Biddlecombe were a huge part of the story and criticised in many quarters for what was perceived to be conservative campaigning of their star. By modern standards it was cavalier.

But think back to the earlier Dickinson quote about the tightrope he walked to get horses to the Festival every year – and it’s also worth pointing out that while lauding the workload of his famous five, Bregawn was the not-so-proud owner of a double Timeform squiggle less than 12 months after his day in the Prestbury Park sun.

From 2007 to 2011 we had our last golden era in the great race.

These were the days of Kauto Star and Denman. Of battle buses, rosettes and placards. Pick a side – you had to pick a side – and stick with it.

But they had company for the top seat every March – and wonderful company at that. The likes of Imperial Comamnder, Long Run and Exotic Dancer. It was a stellar cast for five memorable years.

In 2007 it was Kauto, a year later the answer was Denman. Then most upliftingly of all in 2009 Kauto Star became the first horse in history to regain the Gold Cup crown.

Paul Nicholls remarkably saddled the 1,2,4,5 that year. 12 months previously the 1,2,3.

And these stars had longevity. In 2011 the Ditcheat pair didn’t quite have the strength to fend off the younger legs of Long Run but were carried out on their shields.

There was the memorable moment when course commentator Richard Hoiles roared: “So as they turn down the hill and race towards the third last in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup it’s the old guard that show the way. Imperial Commander, Kauto Star and Denman, a who’s who of Gold Cup history.”

One final snap-shot of a quite wonderful time for the race and the sport.

Since then Al Boum Photo won successive renewals for Willie Mullins and Rachael Blackmore and A Plus Tard combined to shatter the race’s final glass ceiling in 2022.

This year we have a defending champion in Galopin Des Champs who could just take his rating up towards and past some of those greats of yesteryear (okay, we’re betting without Arkle here).

And in against him is a strong support cast. Fastorslow has beaten the Mullins juggernaut on two of their last three meetings, Shishkin has a Timeform number that could trouble the market leader even on his very best days. Then there’s last year’s second Bravemansgame, L’Homme Presse for Venetia Williams, the very talented Gerri Colombe, Charlie Hall Chase hero Gentlemansgame and last year’s Grand National winner Corrach Rambler.

It's the race of the week. But then again, it always is.

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