Golden moments for Churchtown’s homecoming hero
Thanks to the winning ways of one Lord Windermere, it’s home to not just three, but four Cheltenham Gold Cups.
The horse in question, who returned to the Mallow stables for his homecoming parade at the weekend, was feted by trainer Jim Culloty, himself three- times winner of the Gold Cup from 2002 to 2004.
The former jockey did not rule out running Lord Windermere again this season, possibly in the Punchestown Gold Cup on April 30. Culloty said at the homecoming parade: “My gut instinct is to leave him off and get him ready for Cheltenham next year.
“But having said all that, we’ll discuss it with the owner [Dr Ronan Lambe] and he’ll probably get a few entries at Punchestown and suchlike.
“He might just go straight out into the field, though.”
Culloty said he watched the replay of the race which resulted in a steward’s inquiry when his horse veered right in the dash to the line. His own hat-trick of Gold Cup victories were on board Best Mate.
Speaking about the latest win, he said it was “hard to differentiate between training one and riding one, but they’re both fantastic”.
“As a trainer you get loads of time to think about it, but as a jockey you only have five minutes not to mess it up,” he said,
Sportinglife.com reported that Lord Windermere and Culloty’s other Cheltenham success, Spring Heeled, had both used a tried-and-trusted path ahead of their victories by working on gallops used by Cottage Rake before his three Gold Cup triumphs in 1948-50.
“Both horses galloped on Vincent O’Brien’s oldgallops in nearby Churchtown last week, prior to Cheltenham,” he said.
“The farm is now owned by Vincent’s nephew, Noel O’Brien. He sent me a text after the race saying he had been waiting for another Gold Cup winner to come off the gallops.”
Winning jockey Davy Russell was also present for the homecoming parade.
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