Long Run answers all the big questions

CHELTENHAM NH FESTIVAL GOLD CUP REPORT:IT HAS been a week of weeks for Irish horses at Cheltenham with a record 13 victories but Long Run's Gold Cup triumph yesterday could hardly have been more English establishment if the horse had worn a bowler hat instead of ear-plugs.

Even the bright blue plugs blocking the ears of steeplechasing’s brand new champion though couldn’t drown out the roars of approval as Long Run’s jockey, Sam Waley-Cohen, the first amateur rider to win the Gold Cup in 30 years, guided the six-year-old to a seven-length defeat of the former blue-riband heroes, Denman and Kauto Star.

Waley-Cohen, 28, wasn’t even born when Jim Wilson won on Little Owl in 1981 and conforms to the true definition of amateur, running a successful business in London, while at the same time being credited with something of a playboy lifestyle that hardly squares to the seriousness with which he went about defeating his vaunted professional rivals yesterday.

Sown into his saddle were the initials of his late brother, Tom, who died of cancer aged just 20 in 2004 and Long Run carries the colours of his father, Robert, who is about to become chairman of Cheltenham racecourse.

“This all feels very surreal but also very emotional,” the jockey said.

“There were times in the race when I felt things were not happening as I wanted but the horse was so brave. It was real do-or-die stuff out there and if we hadn’t got it right, we would have been eating grass.”

Instead, those who doubted Waley-Cohen’s ability to do the job against Ruby Walsh and Co were left to eat humble pie, just as Long Run’s trainer Nicky Henderson tucked into the satisfaction of a first Gold Cup victory in an already hugely successful career.

The old Etonian could hardly be more English racing establishment either.

But a whiff of controversy from a three-month suspension for a positive drugs test on one of the Queen’s horses in 2009 was compounded last weekend when the Champion Hurdle favourite Binocular had to be withdrawn from the festival due to the failure of a medication for an allergy to clear his system in time.

Henderson’s mood was hardly helped by a series of placings during the week, but no winner, until Barry Geraghty guided Bobs Worth to victory in the race before the Gold Cup.

“That Gold Cup was a great race. All the big horses were there in front of him and he’s gone and beaten them. And he’s only six. I’m not saying he’ll get better but he should be back here again,” Henderson said.

“I’m staggered by what Sam has done. For any young amateur to go out there against the Rubys and the McCoys in the race that means most and do what he has done is amazing,” he added.

Inevitably there were questions asked of Henderson afterwards about what had happened with Binocular but both he and the Waley-Cohens insisted the aftermath of a Gold Cup victory was not the proper time for such questioning.

“I think Binocular would have won,” Henderson admitted. “It was simply very cruel circumstances that he couldn’t run. All we were trying to do was get rid of spots. He hadn’t missed a day’s work since Christmas.”

Plans for Long Run, the first six-year-old to win the Gold Cup since Mill House in 1963, are fluid although Waley-Cohen Snr voiced a view that the Grande Steeple-Chase de Paris, the French Gold Cup, could be an option this summer.

But on a “changing of the guard” moment in steeplechasing’s hierarchy, there was also applause for the former champions.

“He’s run his heart out, but age caught up with him,” Walsh reported of Kauto Star while Paul Nicholls who trained the second, third and fourth declared: “We were just beaten by a younger set of legs. But all those who said those horses should be retired can eat their words.”