King could dominate for the next few years
It was a great performance from Tom Taaffe’s horse under Barry Geraghty. He stayed on fantastically well and got the trip really well. Just looking at the way he was travelling was very impressive.
Obviously Best Mate wasn’t here and all Kicking King had to do was go and beat the rest, but that was still a tall order. There’s a lot of talk about how Best Mate wouldn’t have been able to live with Kicking King out there yesterday, but we’ll never know how that one would have turned out.
What it does do is set it up very nicely indeed for a great match next year should Best Mate’s connections decide to bring him back for an attempt at a fourth title.
Kicking King is still young, seven years of age, and from what I saw yesterday, there’s no reason why Kicking King shouldn’t take over the crown of Best Mate as the dominant force in the Gold Cup.
I finished my Festival off on a bit of a high with a second place in the last race on Stance. He rode a cracker of a race considering he ran only last Saturday in the Sunderlands Imperial Cup at Sandown, and that might have taken the edge off him a little bit. But he ran a great race.
It was a very good way personally to pull down the curtain on the meeting and, as always, the main thing was that we all got round in one piece.
I did think with the way the crowds were thinned out across four days of racing instead of three for the first time that it made the atmosphere a little bit dead this year, and I would be in favour of returning to a three-day meeting once this present run has been completed.
I’m not sure either that the extra races they added to the cards this week were entirely successful. The exception would be the two-and-a-half mile Daily Telegraph Festival Trophy Chase, which turned out to be a great contest between Thisthatandtother and Fondmort.
The other races I thought lacked a little bit of class, and it reminded me of the fact that there are only so many good horses to go around and they were spread a little too thinly for my liking this week.
There are plenty of plus points overall to take from the week. It was a fantastic meeting for the Irish with ten winners and to take the big three championship races is something I believe has never happened before. And in Hardy Eustace, Moscow Flyer and Kicking King they were three worthy champions as well.
Hardy Eustace in the Champion Hurdle has no problem in the class department whatsoever, though, and the thought of him returning for a third win in a row in 2006 is the thing I’m really looking forward to seeing at next year’s Festival.
I’ve mentioned Kicking King already but Moscow Flyer is still capable of reaching the heights again, even at the age of 12, and of the younger horses I don’t think we’ve heard the last of Willie Mullins’ Bumper winner Missed That.
Inglis Drever’s win over Baracouda and Rule Supreme capped a tremendous week for the jockey-trainer-owner team of Graham Lee, Howard Johnson and Graham Wylie.
They got the Festival off to a flyer with Arcalis and then struck again with No Refuge, but Thursday’s win must have been the pick.
Howard’s horses have been on fire and they’ve had a great week. Graham Wylie is only relatively new to the owning game but he’s put a lot of money into his horses and he’s getting the rewards now. Hats off to him for bringing new money into racing and it’s good that’s he getting some success.
As for Graham Lee he’s on the way back from a broken collar bone and you couldn’t wish for a better comeback than getting three winners at Cheltenham.
I know him fairly well, he’s a good fella and well able to talk, and I’m delighted for him that he’s getting some success now. The weighing room is very pleased for guys like him.
