The New Lion could not deliver JP McManus a Champion Hurdle success on his 75th birthday but the sport’s biggest owner still celebrated in style with a 208-1 handicap double at Cheltenham on Tuesday.
Saratoga bounded clear under Mark Walsh to land the McCoy Juvenile Hurdle for Curragh trainer Padraig Roche and the extent of McManus’s Anglo-Irish strength was underlined when the outsider of his three runners in the Ultimate Handicap Chase, Johnnywho, emerged on top.
That winner, trained by Jonjo and AJ O’Neill, edged out McManus’s 3-1 favourite Jagwar although any betting pain was temporary compared to an 86th festival success for Cheltenham’s most successful owner.
“It’s unbelievable to have a double here, and with Richie [McLernon] riding him too. He rode a winner of this same race for me a few years ago on Alfie Sherin (in 2012),” McManus said.
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The perennial champion owner in Ireland and Britain also revealed an earlier meeting with his rival, Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary – “He wished me a happy birthday and said, ‘only the good die young!”
The surprise element to Saratoga’s success for many will have been the 10-1 SP for a horse touted for some time as a likely contender for the ultra-competitive handicap.
Padraig Roche, son of McManus’s old ally, Christy Roche, won it with Saratoga’s half-brother Brazil in 2022 and the grey landed it with some authority.
“They were praying that the ground would be fast, as he bounces off it. They were worried the ground might be a bit too soft for him a couple of weeks ago, but every day it was drying out,” McManus revealed. “Everybody leans towards coming to Cheltenham and it means so much to so many.”
Nicky Henderson has been coming to Cheltenham even longer than McManus and he got a perfect start to the festival when the 15-8 favourite Old Park Star landed the Skybet Supreme Novices Hurdle. Some highly touted Irish novices got wiped out and couldn’t even make the first four.
“He had to be brave to come up the hill like that. He’s still a big baby in our opinion – I think in another year he’ll be a much better horse,” Henderson said. “He’s got a huge future in front of him.” A stewards’ inquiry into interference after the last judged it to be accidental.
Henderson completed a first and last race double as Holloway Queen completed a notably successful day for mares by staying on best of all in the marathon National Hunt Handicap Chase.
Madara provided some compensation to the Skelton team for The New Lion’s Champion Hurdle defeat by justifying favouritism in the Plate Handicap Chase.
“He came here as a fresh horse and he is relatively unexposed. He did a great bit of work at Warwick a few weeks ago. I can’t call him a Grade One horse, but he is definitely a Graded horse in a handicap,” Dan Skelton said. “I had no doubt he had plenty of pounds in hand today, it was just how it went on the way around.”
Just as last year, the opening festival day results saw British trainers eclipse their Irish rivals by four to three.
