In the next in his series of iconic Cheltenham Festival moments, John Ingles looks back to when Michael Dickinson trained the first five home in the 1983 Gold Cup.
‘I wish people realized what a hell of an achievement it is for anyone to get a horse to Cheltenham fit enough to run well in the Gold Cup. Each year horses drop out of the ante-post betting and to get here, let alone win the race, often seems almost impossible.’
Michael Dickinson was speaking after Bregawn’s victory in an iconic 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup which Chasers & Hurdlers described as an edition ‘that may well join that handful of horse races classed among the greatest sporting moments of our time.’ The trainer might have thought that getting just one horse to run well in the Gold Cup was an achievement in itself, but Dickinson had five in the race, with Bregawn being followed home by his stable-companions Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck and Ashley House. ‘It must be doubted’, said Chasers & Hurdlers, ‘whether the annals of the turf furnish a more astonishing training triumph than that of Michael Dickinson in saddling the first five in steeplechasing’s acknowledged stayers’ championship.’
It remains a unique achievement in Gold Cup history, though Paul Nicholls saddled the first three in 2008 when Denman beat Kauto Star and Neptune Collonges, while a year later, when Kauto Star turned the tables on Denman, Nicholls had four of the first five home, with Neptune Collonges and My Will finishing fourth and fifth.
Ridden by Graham Bradley, Bregawn looked the pick of the Dickinson quintet and was sent off the 100/30 favourite having shown improved form since finishing runner-up to Silver Buck in the previous season’s Gold Cup. He had won four races in 1982/83 prior to Cheltenham, notably when beating Captain John in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury after recovering from a bad mistake at the last. Bregawn completed his Gold Cup preparation with a win in a limited handicap at Hereford on which no betting was returned.
Silver Buck, the senior member of the quintet, had also won four times before defending his Gold Cup title, including when giving weight and a beating to a future Gold Cup winner, Burrough Hill Lad, when winning the Edward Hanmer Memorial Chase at Haydock for the fourth time. Like Bregawn, Silver Buck was found a simple task for his final run before Cheltenham in a handicap at Market Rasen but Dickinson had expressed doubts about Silver Buck’s fitness in the run-up to the Gold Cup resulting in him losing favouritism to Bregawn.
Wayward Lad had also given his trainer headaches in his Gold Cup preparation – hence Dickinson’s quote above – and his participation hung in the balance until days before the race. Lameness in a hock in February had stopped his training and he therefore went to the Gold Cup without a run since winning the first of what were to be his three King George VI Chases with Silver Buck (favourite to win a third King George of his own) back in third. Wayward Lad’s win on Boxing Day, incidentally, made him part of another record-breaking achievement by his trainer that season as he was the among the ‘Dickinson dozen’, the stable sending out twelve winners from 21 runners spread over six meetings on the day.
The Hennessy runner-up Captain John was new to the yard that season and became an all-round improved performer for Dickinson, including in the jumping department. His biggest win came after the Hennessy when he won the SGB Handicap Chase at Ascot but he too had to be nursed back from injury during the winter which he sustained when fourth in the Welsh Grand National. Captain John was another who went to the Gold Cup on the back of a win in much lesser company, in his case an amateur riders race at Kelso.
That left improving handicapper Ashley House as the longest-priced of the five runners from Poplar House. While he had won four of his last five starts prior to the Gold Cup, including wins at Haydock in the Grand National Trial and the Peter Marsh, Dickinson didn’t believe Ashley House was good enough for Cheltenham, justifiably so it turned out, and was in favour of waiting for the Grand National instead. However, with his owner keen to run, Ashley House joined his stablemates in the Gold Cup field where he played a small but crucial part in his stable’s exploit.
Despite his strong hand – besides favourite Bregawn, Silver Buck and Wayward Lad were prominent in the betting at 5/1 and 6/1 respectively – it was far from a formality beforehand that the Dickinson five would dominate to the extent that they did. The three other runners from Northern stables – Richdee, Midnight Love and Whiggie Geo – were all outsiders but that still left 9/2 second favourite Combs Ditch, trained by David Elsworth, and the Fred Winter pair Fifty Dollars More and Brown Chamberlin, the latter pair ahead of Captain John and Ashley House in the betting, as credible contenders. The much-improved Combs Ditch had won his last three races before the Gold Cup, including when beating a ring-rusty Bregawn in the Jim Ford Challenge Cup at Wincanton, while Fifty Dollars More, whose wins included the Mackeson Gold Cup at Cheltenham and the Timeform Chase at Haydock, had suffered his only defeat of the season when splitting Wayward Lad and Silver Buck in the King George.
While the 1983 Gold Cup will go down as a triumph for the Dickinson team, as a horse-race, it was, in fact, a notably one-sided contest. Shaking off the attentions of rank outsider Whiggie Geo from an early stage, from then on Bregawn enjoyed a clear lead as he set a searching gallop for much of the way, and it was only really on the run to the second last that Wayward Lad (ridden by Jonjo O’Neill), Silver Buck (Robert Earnshaw) and Captain John (David Goulding) had all closed to pose a threat with the remainder all beaten off. A tired Silver Buck blundered away any remaining chance he might have had at the last where Captain John and Wayward Lad were still in with every chance, but Bregawn drew away again up the hill to win by five lengths and half a length.
It was clear from some way out that, barring accidents, Dickinson would have the first four home at least. Silver Buck ultimately finished a distance behind Wayward Lad in fourth, while Ashley House, who had given chase to Bregawn early on the second circuit before dropping away, managed to see off the remaining stragglers for the all-important fifth place another 25 lengths behind. Combs Ditch had been well enough placed to spoil the party at the final ditch (where Fifty Dollars More fell when struggling) but capitulated to come home last of the eight who completed.
The Cheltenham stewards allowed all five Dickinson runners to be unsaddled in the winner’s enclosure normally reserved for the first four only. Another rather surprising footnote to the 1983 Gold Cup was that Bregawn was the first outright favourite to be successful since Arkle in 1966.
One last important point to make about Dickinson’s achievement was that it was all the more remarkable for coming in an era when the largest jumping stables were nothing like the size they are today. His yard also housed Badsworth Boy, who, 24 hours before the Gold Cup, won the first of what were to be his three Queen Mother Champion Chases (which remains a unique achievement) by a distance, a performance which made him Timeform’s Champion Jumper that season. The records that Dickinson set in the 1982/83 season for number of wins and amount of prize money won might no longer stand, but his achievement of saddling the first five in the Gold Cup is one that looks sure to endure for a good while yet.
Also read:
Iconic Cheltenham Moments: The Thinker's Gold Cup in the snow
Iconic Cheltenham Moments: Annie Power's final-flight fall
Iconic Cheltenham Moments: Norton's Coin's 100/1 Gold Cup win
Iconic Cheltenham Moments: Monksfield and Sea Pigeon in a Champion Hurdle to remember
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