WITH the Cheltenham Festival now 34 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 34: Viking Flagship
There have been some superb two-mile chasers to grace Cheltenham over the years, and Viking Flagship is right up there with the best of them.
After a mixed start to his jumping career, he moved to leading trainer David Nicholson in the summer of 1991. It was there that be became a household name.
His first visit to the Cheltenham Festival resulted in an excellent third in the County Hurdle under Richard Dunwoody.
But he would go right to the top over fences, arriving for the 1994 Champion Chase on the back of a wide-margin win in the Game Spirit.
He jumped like a buck and stayed on gamely to collar Travado by a neck in a thriller at 4-1.
The following season, the ’94 Arkle winner Nakir was the pretender to his throne and looked a serious threat having bolted up by 30 lengths on his previous start at Newbury.
But he was firmly put in his place by Viking Flagship, who was at his imperious best and stormed up to hill to win by five lengths from the strong-travellingDeep Sensation, with Nakir back in third.
He went down fighting 12 months later when second to Klairon Davis, ran an admirable third the following season and bowed out as an 11-year-old when fifth to One Man in 1998.
He was part of the furniture at Cheltenham, he loved the place and came alive in the spring. And that was why people adored him.
