Gowel Road won the Betfair Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham

By Ian Ogg

Horse Racing

Sat January 25, 2025 · 2M ago

Gowel Road (5/2 joint-favourite) gained a deserved success in the Betfair Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham.

The consistent nine-year-old had finished second on all four starts this season, three times in handicap company and then behind Lucky Place in the Relkeel Hurdle.

Gowel Road was given a positive ride by Sam Twiston-Davies, already successful aboard East India Dock, as was Botox Has but many eyes were on those further back in the pack, namely Strong Leader and Crambo.

Both have been touted as potential challengers for the Stayers Hurdle but both came into this Grade Two with something to prove. Strong Leader was having his first start after a wind operation having struggled on testing ground at Ascot in the Long Walk Hurdle won by Crambo who had his effectiveness to prove at Cheltenham.

A bad blunder by Crambo five from home knocked the stuffing out of him and left the big question unresolved while a generous spin could be put on the run of Strong Leader who stayed on into a well beaten fourth in a contest dominated by those on the pace.

Monmiral was never far behind the front two and looked the biggest danger to Gowel Road approaching the last but the winner put his head down when it mattered and stayed on dourly to win by two and a quarter lengths.

There was the same distance back to Botox Has in third with three and a quarter lengths to the fourth and another 10 to Crambo in fifth.

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"He really deserved it," the winning jockey said.

"He's bumped into some well-handicapped ones and back in graded company last time bumped into a good one. The way the weights worked out today we hoped he could go and do it.

Trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies added: "Four second and now he's had the win, that's very, very important for him. He's been written off a few times but that was really good.

“The handicapper has been hard on him all season, but now he’s won a race which is good. It’s a lovely race to win and this is smashing. He’ll definitely have to go to the Stayers’, any idea of going for the Pertemps Final is gone now.

“You had to come here confident and on ratings he wasn’t far out. Crambo never runs well here, he was top-rated and I thought we had a very good chance.”

Paul Nicholls was pleased with the performance of Monmiral, saying: “I think he’ll come back here for either the Pertemps or the Stayers’, we’ll have him in both and see what happens. He’s in no man’s land a bit, he’ll have to carry 12st in a handicap or run in a Grade One. He gave 4lb to the winner there.

“I could be tempted to take him to the French Champion Hurdle at Auteuil. Aintree would be too tight for him so he could come here for a race and then to France – he’d like it round there.

“I think the owners would like to roll the dice and go for a Stayers’, but if you’re 20/1 for the Stayers’ and favourite for a Pertemps you have got to run in the race where you can win and top-weights can win handicaps.”

He just doesn't like Cheltenham

A second tilt at the Stayers’ Hurdle for Crambo is unlikely according to trainer Fergal O’Brien who said: “It was disappointing and of course he made the bad mistake. It was probably a race-ending mistake, but I was never happy watching him. I always thought he was on the wrong lead and he made the mistake because he wasn’t as sharp as he was round Ascot.

“At Ascot he just pings and it could be he just doesn’t enjoy the ups and downs here, it could be a number of things.

“I’ll go back and speak to the owners and see where we go next. There was no excuses on the ground, we got a lovely start and a lovely position and although it may have looked like he was travelling well, I just always thought he was on the wrong lead.

“It could well be he just doesn’t like it here. We had excuses in the Stayers’ Hurdle but there wasn’t so many excuses this time, yes it was a bad mistake, but I think he made the mistake because he was never going as well as he can.”