Wonderwall leads home Irish cleansweep at Cheltenham

Image © Healy Racing

Wonderwall gave Sam Curling and Rob James their second Cheltenham Festival victories when they just held on to land the St. James’s Place Festival Hunter Chase.

Having just his fourth start over racecourse fences, and third for Curling’s Skehanagh Stables, the nine-year-old had not been seen in competitive action since the second of his two victories in open company at Dromahane on November 3rd.

Sent off as a 28/1 shot, the 31-year-old James was content to bide his time, as he settled John O’Leary’s Yeats gelding in mid-division for much of the race, as Lisleigh Lad and then Shearer filled the pace-setting role.

Derek O’Connor was never too far away from the pace aboard the twice placed Its On The Line, and was the race headed towards the business stages, Wonderwall cruised into contention on the downhill run to the third-last fence.

It was at the next obstacle that Wonderwall jumped his way to the front, and he held a one-length advantage coming to the last over Its On The Line, with Willitgoahead moving into third.

That lead was whittled down inside the final 100 yards, but Wonderwall clung on to supply the Tipperary handler with his second Festival victory, two years after Angels Dawn had won the Kim Muir.

“A great bunch of lads own him, so they are going to enjoy themselves,” Curling said. “It’s brilliant. He’s a very good horse, Wonderwall, he won his point-to-points well. We kept him fresh for the race.

“We fancied him well, Rob gave him a lovely ride. He jumped brilliantly for him. His jumping used to be the issue, but it’s come very good there. We gave him a big chance if he got into a rhythm, which he did, so it’s great.
 
“He was always very well thought of and ran well in the Festival bumper before. He had a lot of good form. Derek [O’Connor] won a couple of point-to-points on him and has done a great job getting him jumping. We’ve just done plenty of jumping. Philip Enright schools him at home a lot. We’ve just done a lot of jumping with him and it seems to have come together. Rob gave him a great ride. They’ve all done their bit to help with the horse, so it’s great.
 
“Rob got him into a great rhythm. He kept it simple. He’s the type of horse who likes to have lots of confidence, and Rob kept giving him confidence. He said he wasn’t doing much when he got to the front. It all worked out great.
 
“We didn't really think much about after today, but probably Punchestown I would say. I haven’t really thought past today.
 
“We are big into point-to-pointing and this is the race you want to win for that. It’s brilliant. It’s our championship race, so it’s great to win it.”

Curling also suggested that the ninth-place finish for Angels Dawn could be the final start of her career, with retirement now likely beckoning.

“The ground probably dried too much for Angels Dawn,” he said. “She likes soft ground, but she’s actually going to be covered now, so that was her last run, I would say.
 
Winning jockey Rob James said: “Unbelievable. I was probably going too well and I just got there probably a bit too soon, but we held on. The line came in time, thank God!
 
“It’s the biggest race, it’s the one as an amateur you always want to win. It’s great. I can’t thank Sam and the owners enough, and Sam’s team at home who have done a wonderful job with this lad. It’s just top-class. Absolutely brilliant.”

It was a clean sweep of the placings for Irish challengers. Outside of the first three, Carnfunnock finished in sixth, one place ahead of Plan Of Attack in seventh, Ontheropes was eighth, Angels Dawn nineth, Ryehill in tenth, whilst Rocky’s Howya was last of the Irish finishers in fifteenth.