Paradise lost for Foley, Paradise found for Wylie
Cheltenham is a theatre of dreams in more ways than one, but the dream died for Tom Foley and thousands of Irish punters when Royal Paradise failed to justify 9/2 joint-favouritism for the Royal and SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle and trailed in seventh behind No Refuge.
Foley, who kept the nation enthralled throughout the 1990's with his first stable star Danoli, had huge hopes for Pat Delaney's five-year-old and had reasonable expectations of winning this race for a second time, having secured it with Danoli originally in 1994.
It took him eleven years to find a horse capable of doing it and, having scored four wins including a Group 1 success at Leopardstown in his preparation for Cheltenham, Royal Paradise had given every indication that he was that horse.
Bought out of France last summer, reputedly from under the nose of several big name National Hunt players for an undisclosed sum, the gelding had finished fourth in the bumper here last year when under Francois Doumen's care, Royal Paradise had thrived after his move to Foley's Co. Carlow yard.
Yesterday was intended to be the first of many big days for the handsome bay gelding, even though his handler has consistently warned against over-confident ante-post betting, on the basis that the horse was still very inexperienced and could probably do with having another year under his belt before demonstrating his full potential.
Immediately before yesterday's race, however, his usually unflappable demeanour was obviously feeling the pressure and despite the fact that Royal Paradise was vying for favouritism with Phillip Hobbs' former flat star Gold Medallist, he was playing down his chances.
"Hobbs reckons his horse is a stone better on this ground," Foley confided, leaving unsaid the fact that several of his charge's wins this year were on considerably softer going than the good ground here yesterday.
"I've never seen a fella so confident. He can't see his horse being beat," Foley said portentously of his English rival.
And what of his own horse now, so close to his and his horse's moment of truth? "He's grand, he travelled over well, settled in OK and we're happy with him. The most important thing now is that we have a horse to bring home," Foley replied.
Not twenty minutes later with Royal Paradise having struggled from the home turn and found little up the hill and the Carlow man's enthusiasm had been dampened by more than the downpour which swept over the Cotswolds as the tape went up.
"He needs to be stronger to come up that hill," he reflected. "We'll have to go back home and build him up and we'll see what happens then."
Reiterating his earlier mantra, Foley closed off saying: "But we have a horse to bring home and that's the main thing."
For another Irishman, the race had provided further evidence of his emergence as one of the leasing jockeys in the business. Following his success on Arcalis on Tuesday, Graham Lee, born within sight of Ballybrit racecourse in Galway and now the stable jockey for the increasingly strong Howard Johnson string (funded by tech millionaire Graham Wylie) repeated by winning the first at the generous odds of 17/2.
No Refuge was one of five Wylie purchases for Johnson from the flat yard of Sir Mark Prescott and, according to the trainer, was slow to get to grips with racing over flights.
"This fellow is a real street fighter, but he was not a natural when we first popped him over hurdles. But the penny has dropped with him these past two weeks and he schooled well yesterday at home.
For his part, Wylie reckoned that he had been "pretty relaxed" when Arcalis won on Tuesday, but yesterday's win had left him "shaking a bit," although a celebratory drink or two may have contributed to this.
"It just gets better and better, but I did celebrate last night and my head is not as good as it should be," he commented.
So for one camp therefore it was a case of paradise found, while for the rest, all is not lost.
