NO Hollywood script writer could ever capture the romantic magic of Irish-trained Danoli’s win in the 1994 Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle.
The huge equine armies of Irish trainers Vincent O’Brien, Tom Dreaper, Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry De Bromhead have dominated the annual punter’s pilgrimage to the mecca of jumps racing.
Duval with his famous breakthrough ‘horse dope’ front page story
Legendary Arkle, Dawn Run and Istabraq were greeted by wildly delirious fans. But Danoli was the greatest fairytale of them all — the day David beat Goliath and the crowd went mad.
Even when dashing Danoli sprinted clear of his rivals coming to the second last flight Peter O’Sullevan had to raise his voice to say: “There’s never been a reception like this at Cheltenham.”
Unique trainer Tom Foley first hit the spotlight in January 1994, when his then unknown novice Danoli finished second in the Irish Champion Hurdle at 12-1 behind Dermot Weld’s much-fancied Fortune And Fame.
Shortly before the Festival that year I journeyed to Foley’s 20-horse stables in the remote hamlet of Aughabeg in County Carlow, eight miles from Bagenalstown in the shadow of the Blackstairs Mountains and the peak of the snow-splattered Mount Leinster.
It was basically a farmyard at the side of a winding road. When I asked for directions, a local said: “Are you from across? It’s down there on the right. If you get to the crossroads, you’ve gone too far.”
Foley emerged from his whitepainted farmyard and the Danoli story unfolded.
He told me: “I wasn’t making any money farming my 62 acres so I decided to train a few horses.
“I saw Danoli at the sales and had to have him. He had the head of a champion.
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“I paid 7,000 guineas. In those days if any horse of mine was any good, they were always sold on. But not even JP McManus had enough money to buy this one.”
Danoli, who was named after owner Danny O’Neill and his daughter Olive, had made his debut in a Naas bumper.
Foley said: “I knew he was pretty good and decided to have a good bet. But I chickened out and didn’t have a shilling on him … and he won at 16-1!”
In February 1994 he won a novice hurdle at Leopardstown as 4-5 favourite.
Foley added: “After that, nearly all flights from Dublin to England were booked out.
“He was the people’s champion and a whole nation seemed to have backed him. He was seen as the Irish banker at the festival.”
Foley was quite remarkable.
He had only worn a tie once in his life — and that was his wedding to wife Goretti. He had never before left Ireland and certainly never flown.
Looking back, he recalled: “I was terribly nervous on my maiden flight. I went and held Danoli’s head. We tried to give each other confidence but I was sick when we landed.
“I was booked into a hotel but decided to sleep in the stable block to be near Danoli.
“Every time I visited him he was fast asleep, just as he was when I first saw him at Goffs sales.”
The scene was now set for Danoli’s date with destiny. Remarkably, Ireland did not have a single winner on the first day of the Festival.
But Danoli was backed down to 7-4 favourite in a massive gamble. “JP” was thought to be behind one bet of £130,000 to £80,000. There were numerous recoded bets of £90,000 to £45,000.”
When Charlie Swan moved into the lead at the third last flight suddenly there was an earsplitting roar — although Danoli had been cheered from the moment he walked into the parade ring.
Afterwards, racegoers swarmed to get near their hero and tears flowed in equal measure to the champagne.
Remarkably, Foley ended up in the Royal Box having tea with the Queen Mother.
A grinning, ruddy-faced Foley said: “She was magnificent and seemed as pleased as everybody else.”
Danoli, with a small white star on his face and a white sock on his rear left foot, had captured the hearts of millions and thrashed 22 rivals.
He was truly loved and his win came on the eve of St Patrick’s
Day. The following month Danoli won the Martell Hurdle at Aintree by eight lengths — the first of his two victories in the race.
And in 1997 he won the Hennessy Gold Cup in Ireland, beating two Cheltenham Gold Cup winners Jodami and Imperial Call.
Danoli’s final visit to Cheltenham was for the 1997 Gold Cup. As usual Foley’s local priest blessed the horse beforehand but he fell at the second last fence behind Mr Mulligan.
Danoli retired having won 17 races, earning £320,759.
In April 2006 Danoli was put down after a severe attack of colic.
Willie Mullins said: “Nobody will ever forget the day Danoli won at Cheltenham.
“I can still hear the roar of the crowd now.”
Foley passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer in February 2021. He was 74.
Whenever discussing Danoli the softly-spoken trainer smiled and said: “That’s just the way with the ‘oss”.
A sweet man with a magic horse. Two heroes even now, 28 years from that special day.Read Claude in the Favourite every day of the meeting
