Hurley hopeful Whyso can double up in Foxhunters

ON FEBRUARY 8, 1998, Imperial Call ran his final race under the guidance of Fergie Sutherland, who had famously trained him to success in the 1996 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

He finished eighth of eight runners that day in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown and most racing observers were writing him off as a spent force in Grade 1 steeple-chasing.

The great horse was not seen on a racetrack again until October of that year when he turned out at the Munster Grand National in Limerick. Sutherland had retired and the horse’s owners, Lisselan Farms, had replaced him with a young man called Raymond Hurley who few in racing had ever heard of.