Tindall’s instinct pays off on Dude

Now the World Cup-winning rugby player is celebrating one of the biggest – and unexpected – successes of his illustrious sporting career after this £12,000 spur-of-the-moment purchase galloped to a famous win in the Coral Welsh National.

The Otley-born player could not be at Chepstow to watch Monbeg Dude come from last to first under a vintage Paul Carberry ride – he was skippering his club side Gloucester as they lost 18-12 at home to London Irish in the Aviva Premiership.

It was also a landmark day for trainer Michael Scudamore. The biggest win of his fledgling career, he was following in the hoofprints of his grandfather Michael who rode the 1957 winner Creeola II and his father Peter, a former champion jockey, who was a four-time winner of this prestigious marathon.

Scudamore junior has discussed plans for Monbeg Dude every day since mid-November when the horse – who is also owned by Tindall’s team-mate James Simpson-Daniel and Wasps player Nicky Robinson – came to prominence at Cheltenham in the Henrietta Knight Chase.

Former Sedbergh School pupil Simpson-Daniel was present at Chepstow; he said that he was only given permission by his coach to attend after promising to keep a low profile. There was no chance. “It is an amazing feeling,” he said. “Going down the back, I thought we were beat and then popping round the corner he was on the bridle. It was incredible.”

Scudamore booked Carberry, part of an Irish racing dynasty, because he knew that the former Grand National winner’s legendary hold-up tactics would suit the horse as he chased the £51,000-plus first prize.

The plan worked to perfection, Monbeg Dude always travelling well despite showing his jumping inexperience on occasion in the desperately heavy Ypres-like ground. He was not even in the picture when well-backed favourite Teaforthree, Triggerman and Giles Cross broke clear and turned for home.

Yet Carberry made up ground gingerly at each of the final five obstacles as first Giles Cross was pulled up and Triggerman’s challenge faltered under Richard Johnson.

Monbeg Dude appeared a certain winner at the last – but he then faced a sustained challenge on the run-in from Teaforthree who was being ridden by the 17-times champion AP McCoy. Just half a length separated the protagonists at the end.

“Unbelievable. At no stage of the race did I think that we would win it,” said Scudamore, 28, as he greeted his 10-1 victor. “The jumping wasn’t great early on but somehow we kept the partnership in tact.”

Poignantly Scudamore’s elder brother Tom was one of the first to embrace Carberry – his mount Master Overseer was pulled up after choosing not to respond to the hurly-burly of the race.

Scudamore had caught a helicopter across the Severn Estuary to Chepstow after partnering Gevrey Chambertin, a full brother to King George third Grands Crus, to an eyecatching win at Wincanton just over an hour later.

The Cheltenham Festival now beckons for Gevrey Chambertin, though Monbeg Dude’s trainer does not believe that the Gold Cup or Grand National are realistic propositions at this stage for a horse who was only running his 11th race under National Hunt rules.

As for Tom Scudamore who is in the form of his life this season, he is now the only member of his family not to have won this famous race. His response? “ Yes, I’m the odd one out! But I really don’t care! Amazing!”

A special day for the Scudamore family, this was also a landmark day for two Northern Racing College graduates – Rotherham rider Joseph Palmowski and groom Steven Croft.

Palmowski rode his first ever winner as a jockey when Madam Lilibet won the Mares Novices Hurdle at Newcastle for Richmond trainer Sharon Watt and her husband Bill.

The even money favourite had to work hard – the race was still in the balance when Mick Easterby’s Tinkwood crashed out at the second last.

Palmowski, a conditional rider with George Moore’s Middleham yard, paid tribute to the support that he has received from the Watt family as well as former NH rider Phil Kinsella and one-time Scottish National winner Keith Mercer. Only his 22nd ride as a professional, he told the Yorkshire Post: “The best day of my life – unbelievable. It was even more special that my dad, Mick, was there.”

As for Croft, he is the groom and work rider responsible for rising star Melodic Rendezvous whose convincing win in Sandown’s Tolworth Hurdle provided trainer Jeremy Scott and in-form jockey Nick Scholfield with the first Grade One wins of their burgeoning careers.

The William Hill Supreme Novices’ and Neptune Investment Hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival are targets for Melodic Rendezvous who was winning a race won 12 months ago by Nicky Henderson’s Captain Conan, now a top novice chaser.

On a day of firsts, it was Scholfield’s first triumph at Sandown from 24 starts. “Hopefully he’s a bit special and can take us to Cheltenham,” said the jockey. This is a landmark season for Scholfield – this triumph was his 51st in a season that has already seen him eclipse last year’s personal best of 48.

Winning trainer Scott added: “We have ticked away with him. Two years ago, you would not have thought he would be much of a superstar.”

It is a sentiment that Michael Scudamore and Monbeg Dude’s connections will concur with after a rare day in which the all-conquering stables of Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson were upstaged by the sport’s lesser lights.