Everything is gearing up for the Cheltenham Festival now. We are off to Cheltenham’s Festival Trials Day tomorrow and it looks like there will be a lot of rain which would have been ideal ground conditions for Reve De Sivola if he had been running in the Cleeve Hurdle. Everybody is expecting Colin Tizzard’s talented horse Thistlecrack to win. A couple of years ago the great veteran Knockara Beau gave Big Buck’s supporters a shock and won at long odds. Maybe he will do the same again tomorrow! I am not quite sure who to cheer on. In the juvenile hurdle we will definitely be hoping that Duke of Medina will run a big race as he is owned by a friend of Graham’s.
We went to Haydock last Saturday to support Reve De Sivola in the Peter Marsh chase. Haydock provide a great facility for their owners with a three course lunch which included sticky ribs for Graham and my favourite parsnip soup! We had a nice chat with some other owners on our table as well as partners in Reve De Sivola. Racing opinion was divided due to this being Reve’s first run over fences for four years. Although he was placed in some big races as a novice he just did not take to the larger obstacles. Hard to believe for a horse that stands over 17 hands high. Out trainer, Nick Williams, felt that as Reve is more mature now and has a handicap mark so much lower than his hurdles rating it was worth another try. He was at the bottom of the handicap with 10 stone 4 pounds and our very tall jockey, James Reveley, spent time in the sauna to do the weight. I had to take a photo of his saddle as it was so small the stirrups were the biggest part, the rest of the saddle being just a means to enable those stirrups to be attached!!
Reve looked fantastic with a gleaming coat that you would expect to see on a hot summers day, not a cold winters day in January. I had to laugh when at the start of the race Reve put his ears back and tried to bite the other horses. I think he has become more grumpy in his old age! He lobbed around in the middle of the pack and came home in his own time for 5th place, not really showing the ability that he clearly has. He takes too long to clear his fences and so does not get into the same rhythm that he is able to achieve over the smaller hurdles. Graham and I are just happy that he came home safe and sound and we would very much like to see him being allowed to finish the rest of his distinguished career over hurdles.