Reveley bows out with head high

There was to be no victorious ending to Keith Reveley's training career at Southwell yesterday.
Keith Reveley with Rambling Minster who provided him with one of his finest moments. (Picture: Mike Cowling).Keith Reveley with Rambling Minster who provided him with one of his finest moments. (Picture: Mike Cowling).
Keith Reveley with Rambling Minster who provided him with one of his finest moments. (Picture: Mike Cowling).

The Reveley training dynasty, which has been synonymous with northern National Hunt racing for over 30 years, will no longer be a feature on British racecards after Keith revealed earlier this season he was to hand in his licence at the end of January.

He sent out two runners on his final day, with Midnight Moss a creditable third behind the exciting Champ in the second division of the grandnational2017.com Maiden Open NH Flat Race.

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Reveley’s final runner was Redkalani in the concluding grandnational2017.com Handicap Hurdle, but he was well beaten a long way from home.

Reveley said: “It’s been great, but it’s time to finish. I’ll still be following the game and be going racing now and again.

“Gillian Boanas will be holding the licence and hopefully she will start to run them in about a fortnight’s time.

“Nothing will change. I’ll take over looking after the youngsters. We’ve got about 20 young horses we’ve bred.

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“The wife breaks them in and we’ll bring them on and maybe even run them in point-to-points to set them off and see if they are good enough. We’ve got plenty to look forward to.”

The Saltburn trainer wants to spend more time in France where his son, James, is champion jockey. Looking back on his career, Keith added: “The two main highlights for me would be Rambling Minster winning at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day (2009) with James (Reveley, son) riding.

“That was a brilliant day, and probably Night In Milan winning the Grimthorpe Chase at Doncaster (in March 2014).

“We’ve had some great days, but those two stand out.”

Nicky Henderson did his best to dampen the hype after Champ made an impressive start to his career.

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The JP McManus-owned five-year-old is named in honour of 20-times champion jockey Sir AP McCoy, who wore the same green and gold silks to many a big-race success.

The son of King’s Theatre was a prohibitively priced 8-15 favourite and after travelling strongly throughout in the hands of Barry Geraghty, readily pulled three- and-a-half lengths clear of the staying-on Grey Warbler. Bookmakers reacted by trimming Champ to around 20-1 for the Champion Bumper, but an appearance at the Cheltenham Festival is unlikely, according to his trainer.

Henderson said: “I suppose it’s a name they’ve been holding back for a while and he is a very good-looking horse with a very good pedigree.

“He did it well, but he is still a big baby.

“I think he’d want to be doing something like that again before we think about doing anything too grown-up.

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“I wouldn’t be thinking of Cheltenham myself. I spoke to Barry after the race and I think he’d rather keep him low-profile for the time being.

“He should really be over hurdles, but he wasn’t doing what I was expecting him to be doing earlier in the season. I wasn’t all that happy with him at Christmas.

“He’s done masses of schooling and we can go novice hurdling next season and chasing later on. He has his whole life ahead of him. He’s still the undefeated Champ, but he’s not a champ 
yet.”

Henderson has announced that Buveur D’Air is to revert to hurdles for an intended crack at the Champion Hurdle.

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The six-year-old, owned by JP McManus, was third behind stable companion Altior in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Prestbury Park last March.

He went on to claim a Grade One success of his own at Aintree, but had switched to fences this season, winning his first two starts at Haydock and Warwick.

The French-bred gelding has been given an entry in the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown this weekend, but an indication of perhaps how connections were thinking came on Tuesday with an additional engagement in the Contenders Hurdle on the same card. In the end he will run in neither, with Kelso on February 16 the destination for his pre-Cheltenham outing. Henderson said: “It’s something that’s been at the back of my mind.”

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