Image © Healy Racing
Barry Stone’s dream season shows no sign of slowing down as he recorded his first win at the Cheltenham Festival when his mount Daily Present battled bravely to land the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Chase.
Barry Stone’s dream season shows no sign of slowing down as he recorded his first win at the Cheltenham Festival when his mount Daily Present battled bravely to land the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Chase.
The 25-year-old arrived in the Cotswolds for his first ride in Britain fresh from registering his latest double at Lingstown last Sunday, a brace of victories that brought his tally for the current campaign to a career-best 19.
Teaming up with Paul Nolan’s Daily Present, the pair were sent off as a 12/1 shot having finished fifth in the corresponding race 12 months ago.
Jack Hendrick had been aboard on that occasion, as was the case when the eight-year-old finished third in the QR National at Punchestown on his latest outing in mid-January, but with the Stone aboard they raced in the second half of the field for much of the journey, saving ground all the while taking the inside route.
From the fifth-last fence, the 25-year-old Cleariestown native stalked the Derek O’Connor-ridden Johnnywho into the race, and that would be his chief rival, as having been outjumped at the penultimate fence, crucially he got away from the last the quicker to lead on the run-in and win the three and a quarter mile contest by a neck.
%uD83D%uDC40 Daily Present captures the Kim Muir for @nolan_racing under Barry Stone! pic.twitter.com/eQwWEwNZjG
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) March 13, 2025
“It is magical stuff and I’ve been dreaming of it for years growing up. Nothing will top this now I will say,” Stone said.
“It was all smooth sailing. It just got a little rough on the turn in, but he had plenty left and I was able to get him back going again.
“My uncle [Benny Walsh] was a jockey and he now trains point-to-pointers. My brother, Conor Stone-Walsh, is a professional jockey, so I’ve grown up around horses all my life.
“I never thought it would be like this, but when you get a ride on a horse with a chance you have to take it all in.
“He got a clean run down to the inside. I was holding on to plenty coming down to the second last and I hadn’t asked him too much.
“When I came down to the last he winged it and when he came to the front I knew I just had to keep him up to his work.
“It didn’t feel real at all when I crossed the line. It was just like a dream and the crowd coming back was just madness.”
