Newmill makes dream a reality
Yesterday's Queen Mother Champion illustrated the point clearly as fairytale became reality for Batty and Theresa Hayes, John Murphy and Andrew McNamara a tale to be re-told and cherished for countless generations.
And it's all down to the eight-year-old Newmill the wonder horse who made their dreams a reality.
At the other end of the scale, the Moscow Flyer fairytale finally unravelled. The horse, who won this race twice for owner Brian Kearney and trainer Jessica Harrington, was retired after a flagging performance which belied his legend.
Their relief at still having a legend to bring home was as palpable as the joy Newmill's connections experienced as their relatively unfancied 16/1 shot led all the way for a sparkling nine-length win over the JP McManus owned and Mouse Morris-trained Fota Island.
But the Newmill story is not simply about a horse winning a championship race at the hallowed Cheltenham festival. In fact, it is more akin to a Hollywood blockbuster because so many disparate threads have had to be woven together to make it complete.
And while Moscow Flyer might be legend enough to have had a book written about him, the Newmill tale is all the more intriguing because of unlikely twists of fate.
Having formerly been a very successful hurdler under Clonakilty trainer Thomas O'Leary, he joined Murphy's Upton operation just over a year ago. And the former show jumper turned race horse trainer has utilised his vast experience as a horseman to hone Newmill's jumping skills.
However, for Murphy and owners Batty and Theresa Hayes thoughts of victory in the Queen Mother Champion Chase was as much a pipe-dream as any other owner/trainer combination.
Yesterday, however, it took just three minutes and 51 seconds for Newmill and his connections to write themselves into a little part of racing's vast and colourful history.
Ironically, this victory may well have been signaled by Tuesday's Champion Hurdle win by Brave Inca, with whom Newmill locked horns on many occasions over flights and very rarely came away embarrassed.
Indeed up until two weeks ago, John Murphy was toying with the idea of running his horse in the Champion Hurdle, such was his new-found confidence in a horse for whom confidence itself was often the key factor missing from his make-up.
Patience, the key to any horse training feat, was writ large in the rebirth of Newmill and that was rewarded in considerable style yesterday when he repaid the faith of his connections.
And the front-running manner in which the horse delivered was probably the thing that shocked most seasoned observers here.
Boldly ridden by Andrew McNamara, he led from the front and avoided the carnage at the third fence which saw red-hot favourite Kauto Star step into the obstacle and take Mark Pitman's Dempsey with him.
"I heard some noise behind me at the third and I knew I'd avoided trouble, but he travelled really well the whole way," McNamara said later.
He said he was worried when the horse took "a blow or two" climbing the hill but when he got his breath back coming down the far side the horse "really started to travel with me again".
He was "not surprised," he said, by the horse's performance, especially after a recent schooling session at his father's place in Limerick.
"I asked him at the second last when I shouldn't have and he was cleverer than I was, but he jumped amazingly throughout. I took one look over my shoulder before the last and saw we had the rest of them at that stage. I could hear the roar and feel the buzz coming up the hill."
Murphy reported later that at the top of the Cheltenham hill he was a little worried that Dessie Hughes' Central House would unsettle his horse in the final stages.
"Everything went right out there in front, but I was a bit frightened that Central House might buzz him up and take him on he gets buzzy when he thinks about jumping and thinks about life but Andrew did everything right."
And so Newmill's future burns brightly, much as pleasant retirement beckons for the vanquished but gallant Moscow Flyer.
But that's what fairytales are all about.
