Cheltenham Festival: Hunters' Chase glory for Yorkshire mare Sine Nomine as Fiona Needham completes double

The 8-1 shot, ridden by amateur jockey John Dawson, claimed victory in the shadow of the post in yesterday’s St James's Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters' Chase – known as the ‘amateur Gold Cup.’

It completed a remarkable double – 22 years in the making – for trainer Fiona Needham, who won this race in 2002 riding 20-1 shot Last Option which was bred, owned and trained by her father, Robin Tate.

Sine Nomine, a £2,400 purchase, is also owned by Tate and the family are stalwarts of the Yorkshire point-to-point scene, with Dawson, like Needham before him, donning the family’s yellow and maroon silks for his famous victory.

Yorkshire only had a handful of runners at the entire Festival, including The Real Whacker who was pulled up in the preceding Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, making Sine Nomine’s victory for people who are the backbone of the sport, all the more sweeter.

Sine Nomine travelled towards the back and out of trouble under Dawson but as the race reached its climax, it looked like she may have to settle for a place, as David Christie’s long-time leader Ferns Lock gave way on the run to two out and eventual third Time Leader took things up.

Dawson elected to make his challenge up the inner where Derek O’Connor on the favourite Its On The Line, was blocking his path meaning at the last, Dawson had to switch her right and regather his mount before launching one last assault up the Cheltenham hill.

It was a challenge timed to perfection as although Its On The Line (11-8 fav) soon had Time Leader covered, he had no answer to Sine Nomine’s late thrust for victory, with Time Leader back in third at 50-1.

A thrilled Needham, who is general manager and clerk of the course at North Yorkshire’s dual purpose Catterick Bridge track, said: “This is a dream come true and what a ride by John. I told him to try to save a bit for the final hill and boy did she pick up. She’s a star.

“I was screaming my head off and making it very embarrassing for myself, but it means so much to me and my father Robin. I thought if she was third she’d have run a very good race, and that was where I thought she was going to finish, but then she picked up.

“It’s a long way from Catterick to Cheltenham but the decision to train and then bring her here has paid off.

“You don’t get highs like this at Catterick!”

The eight-year-old’s name means ‘without name’ in Latin and Needham told The Yorkshire Post earlier this week: “She is out of a dam called Hymn to Love and a sire, Saint Des Saints, and there is a hymn called For All the Saints (written by the former Bishop of Wakefield, William Walsham How) and the tune for that is called Sine Nomine – hence the name.”

The horse went into the race, worth £24,500 to the winner, with a rules record of three wins, a second – at Cheltenham last May – and a third and rather prophetically, the ebullient Needham said in the same interview: “She has been very consistent and been a star, really.

“She took a little while to gain her confidence when jumping, but every time we seem to chuck her in at the deep end, she continues to come up trumps for us."

Sine Nomine – with five wins and five seconds on her pointing record – warmed up for her Festival engagement with victory in the Vickers Customer Racing Club Open Hunters' Chase at Wetherby on February 3 under Dawson – before the focus turned to Prestbury Park.

The horse is trained in Boltby, a few miles outside of Thirsk, an area which is very hilly and a great place for training jumpers, according to Needham, who is a familiar face on the Yorkshire racing scene and also does race day clerking at Redcar, Thirsk and Wetherby and took the mare to Gloucestershire on the day of the race.

Dawson has ridden the horse since she was a youngster and also trains pointers. He savoured his moment in the spotlight, saying: “It’s just a dream. I just never thought for a moment we’d be mixing it here with these top jockeys – watching Derek O’Connor yesterday; top, top riders, and to have our name on that trophy is something.

“I’m getting on a bit now, riding, I’ve been round the block a bit, and I’ve been down here a few times on long, long shots, and you sort of know your fate before you come here, but with her, I genuinely didn’t know how good she was, and today she’s proved that.

“For Yorkshire and the northern point-to-point circuit to have someone like that flying that flag, and to prove that British point-to-points can produce top-level horses.

“Fiona is fantastic to ride for and there’s no pressure. She has the knowledge and experience, she understands what will go wrong and right, and they are fantastic supporters of point-to-pointing – year in, year out they will have five or six pointers, and have stuck at it.

“I’m just pleased to be on a really, really nice one.”