WITH the Cheltenham Festival now 27 days away, the Sun Racing team will be bringing you their ‘Festival 50’ every day between now and 10 March.
We will salute the Prestbury Park heroes that made us fall in love with the Festival, all the way until the ‘Cheltenham roar’ signals that the wait is finally over.
Number 27: Desert Orchid
‘Dessie’ will always be best known for his King George antics, and is probably why he’s not higher up this list, but the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup was a race to savour.
Known as a two mile chaser, he defied the brutal conditions to win the big one for trainer David Elsworth as only five horses made it home from a field of thirteen.
It was his eighth win on the spin that included a King George and multiple handicap wins giving away 20lbs plus to smart horses.
His Gold Cup triumph epitomised everything great about the horse and the public adored him.
He’d been to the Festival five times previously and never got his head in front. So after those attempts, the Gold Cup made little sense.
How many horses in the modern era would continue to show up at Prestbury Park year in, year out with a record like that?
Despite snow and heavy rain, the course passed a midday inspection. The year previously Elsworth had skipped the Gold Cup for a shot at the Champion Chase again on account of the ground.
But 1989 was oh so different.
Punters had faith and they sent off Dessie the 5-2 favourite. Carvill’s Hill and Ten Plus were the supposed threats with the mud-loving Yahoo.
Jockey Simon Sherwood – who was unbeaten on the horse at this point – did not muck around. The pair went straight to the front in the famous Burridge colours.
Irish hope Carvill’s Hill was an early faller as Dessie set the tempo. As the race progressed they came one-by-one to take him on.
His jumping held him steady even as Ten Plus took the lead and kicked on in the mud five from home.
Entering the famous turn in the crowd began to roar. It looked a three horse race – Dessie, Ten Plus and Yahoo were going best – as the majority had already fallen away.
At the third last, it became a match. Ten Plus had departed. The cheer grew even louder as they came up the hill.
But Yahoo began to pull away and a hush quickly descended in the grandstand. All appeared lost as they jumped the second last. The pair jumped the final fence and still Yahoo looked in charge.
But up shot those grey ears. Sherwood and Dessie were not quite done and the noise was deafening.
Stride by stride they reeled in Yahoo and you couldn’t believe the celebrations as somehow, Dessie had pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat.
“I couldnt believe how well Yahoo was going. On any other horse you would have thought it was all over,” said Sherwood.
“But in the end it was all down to guts. I have certainly never ridden a braver horse and never expect to either.”
Dessie would never win at Cheltenham again. But he didn’t have to. He was immortal.
