Potentially memorable week lies ahead for Yorkshire

Even though Gold Cup hopeful Cape Tribulation, and Stan James Champion Hurdle prospect Countrywide Flame, will be competing against illustrious opposition in the National Hunt Festival’s two ‘blue riband’ races, the many similarities are actually uncanny.

Both horses were shock winners at last year’s Festival – Cape Tribulation took the Pertemps Hurdle, while Countrywide Flame finished with a flourish to land the Grade One JCB Triumph Hurdle.

Both have sound form on the Flat after low-key starts to their respective careers; Cape Tribulation was an eye-catching second at York last autumn while Countrywide Flame was only beaten by an agonising half-a-length in Newmarket’s Cesarewitch.

Both will be ridden this week by Denis O’Regan, one of the most gifted horsemen of his generation, whose shrewd judge of pace enhances the prospects of the two runners.

And the respective trainers, the quietly-spoken Malcolm Jefferson and the more outgoing John Quinn, are realists – both simply say that they want their stable stars to run to their full potential and return home in one piece.

If they win, both men say, it will be a bonus.

First up tomorrow, 32 years after Sea Pigeon won a historic fifth Champion Hurdle for Great Habton trainer Peter Easterby, is Countrywide Flame.

A winner late last year of the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, Countrywide Flame suffered a reverse in Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle – the lack of pace was a factor – before plugging on to finish second to Rock On Ruby, the reigning champion, at Doncaster in a race marred by Darlan’s death.

Tomorrow’s small field is a slight concern to Quinn, but the County Tipperary-born former rider has never known a Champion Hurdle that has been run at a crawl.

“They’re exciting times. It’s nice to have a runner with a chance and when was the last time you saw a slowly-run Champion Hurdle?” he told the Yorkshire Post. “Growing up back home, the epic battles between Monksfield and Sea Pigeon were among the races that really whetted my appetite.

“Flame is in fine fettle and he did his last major piece of work on Wednesday morning. We’ve been ticking him over since then.

“His run at Doncaster, it will always be remembered tragically for Darlan, but he was running on at the end. If he’s somewhere on the premises at the second last flight, he will get home – look how he galloped up the hill last year in the Triumph.”

Countrywide Flame is only running over hurdles because of the shrewd judgement of a trainer who has 50 horses – around 35 Flat runners and 15 jumpers.

“I bought him privately out of Kevin Ryan’s yard,” explained Quinn, who intends to run Kashmir Peak and Hidden Justice in this year’s Triumph.

“I’d been watching him for a while on the Flat.

“It was his strong, never-say-die attitude. He won a race at Hamilton in June 2011. He made the running, looked like he’d be swallowed up and then battled on up the hill – that’s what convinced me to do the deal.

“He’s not very big, that’s why I don’t think he’ll run over fences, but he’s done us proud. While the phone wasn’t ringing with new orders after the Triumph, I have picked up new owners because of his success.

“It’s just nice to have a horse genuinely good enough for Cheltenham. As long as they run to the best of their ability and come back in one piece, that will do all the time.”

It’s a view shared by Quinn’s near neighbour Jefferson whose yard, also on the Norton side of Malton, is a very short trot away.

His one previous Gold Cup runner, Tullymurry Toff, unseated Graham Lee in 2000 – the year Richard Johnson prevailed on Looks Like Trouble.

And while Cape Tribulation does not have the Grade One form of Jodami, who prevailed 20 years ago for Brandsby trainer Peter Beaumont and jockey Mark Dwyer, connections remain undeterred ahead of Friday’s three-and-a-quarter mile test.

“Cape Tribulation is only running because I think he will run well,” explained the modest Jefferson.

“He deserves to be there. I saw the race last year when Synchronised got up under AP McCoy. They went one hell of a gallop. Synchronised wasn’t a strongly fancied horse but they all stopped in front of him and he looked an impressive winner at the end.

“I think Denis (O’Regan) says the last two furlongs of the Gold Cup will play to our horse’s strengths. He’s very patient, isn’t he? He seems to be suited to this fella.”

Like Countrywide Flame, there was an element of fortune about Cape Tribulation’s early career.

Jefferson says owner David Abell, and Richmond trainer Alan Swinback still dispute who discovered the horse.

To cut a long story short, Cape Tribulation – now nine – spent his early days with Lincolnshire point-to-point rider Jill Dawson. “She looks after all David’s horses,” said Jefferson. “When he was a back end three-year-old, she sent him to us.”

The trainer, ably assisted by his wife Sue and their daughter Ruth, has always held the bay gelding in the highest of regards.

Rated 150 over hurdles after winning Doncaster’s illustrious River Don Hurdle by 17 lengths in January 2009 – David Pipe’s top staying chaser Junior was second – Cape Tribulation did not shine initially over fences.

It was why Jefferson made the switch back to hurdles last season, a decision that led to victories at both the Cheltenham and Aintree festivals.

Ironically, it was only after the horse’s defeat in the John Smith’s Hurdle at Wetherby last November that Jefferson decided to revert to fences. He didn’t fancy the horse’s chances against the likes of the now injured Big Buck’s in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle.

Again, the trainer was vindicated.

Victory in Wetherby’s Rowland Meyrick Chase on Boxing Day – Jack Doyle replaced O’Regan who was aboard Countrywide Flame at Kempton – was followed by the Argento Chase when this battling horse overhauled Imperial Commander, the 2010 Gold Cup victor, in the shadow of the winning post.

“Getting there is the easy bit. It’s the doing it that’s the not so easy bit, but as long as he runs a great race, that’s the main thing,” added Jefferson. “I would like to be in the prize money. The further up we are, the more delighted we will be.”

It’s a view shared by O’Regan who was a leading Northern-based rider before losing his retainer with Howard Johnson in 2010 and switching to Berkshire to ply his trade as a freelance.

He’s steeped in Cheltenham folklore after iconic wins in 2008 on Arkle hero Tidal Bay and Inglis Drever who was winning a third World Hurdle and, incredibly, under a third different jockey.

“If Cape Tribulation was to be placed, we’d be delighted,” said O’Regan. “The extra two furlongs will suit and he likes the track.

“Much the same with Countrywide Flame. He wants a fast run race but he handles Cheltenham well.”

They are the words of a jockey full of confidence ahead of a potential momentous week for Yorkshire racing.