Triumph Trial turns into One Horse affair at Cheltenham

Harry Derham’s prolific One Horse Town bagged his fourth win of the season when making all the running in the JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Following wide-margin victories at Hexham, Stratford and Kempton, he was expected to find things tougher in Grade Two company.

Not many jumpers are sired by a Gimcrack winner, but One Horse Town is a son of one in Threat and his price now ranges from 16-1 to 25s for the Triumph Hurdle.

Paul O’Brien was allowed to do his own thing in front in the testing conditions and his superior jumping helped him to maintain his advantage.

One by one his rivals dropped away but Harry Skelton had been stealthily making ground from the rear on 9-4 favourite Precious Man, and he was still on the bridle approaching the final flight.

While it was arguably One Horse Town’s worst leap of the race, it was still significantly better than the one produced by Precious Man who lost all momentum and in the ground could not get going again, eventually being beaten three and three-quarter lengths by the 100-30 winner.

Derham said: “When you start off at Hexham of course you don’t expect to be getting quoted for a Triumph and winning at Cheltenham.

“When he was for sale Kevin Blake said ‘buy him and he will be your first Flat winner and will then win the first juvenile hurdle of the season’. Kevin is a more intelligent man than me so it pays to listen.

“He won three on the bounce but it was absolutely impossible to know what he was achieving and he was beating inferior rivals really well.

“This was a fun place to find out how good he is and even if he wasn’t up to the level, it would be a fun day out but now it’s a particularly fun day out.

“My mum and dad are involved in this horse and Jonathan and Debbie Gregory who head up this syndicate are probably my biggest supporters and have a lot of horses with me and help get others involved. To have my parents involved as well is just a very happy bonus.”

One Horse Town was given a quote of 25-1 by Paddy Power for the Triumph Hurdle, with BetVictor going even shorter at 16s.

However, he is likely to return to Prestbury Park on Trials day as he bids to not only extend his winning run, but keep dreams of the Cheltenham Festival alive.

Derham added: “He’ll come back here on Trials day. I want to give him a bit of time off now having raced in the summer and we don’t want to ruin the dream too quickly!

“We’ll come back here in January and everyone talks about what’s next but right now, he’s a cheap three-year-old who has won an £80,000 Grade Two and it is a massive day for him.

“We always talk about the spring and of course that is important, but this day as well was incredibly important and we’ll enjoy this.”

Meanwhile, Dan Skelton was pleased with Precious Man’s first UK outing and will now search for better ground as he plots his own route back to the Cotswolds in March.

Skelton said: “I thought our horse ran really well, he was giving 5lb away and just landed in a hole at the back of the last.

“He’s pulled both front shoes off and given himself an overreach which wasn’t ideal, but on the whole I’m very very happy with our horse.

“He was a bit too keen throughout the race and I think there will be a good deal more to come from him.

“I would have loved to have won, but I didn’t shy away from asking him the big question when I could have popped off to Kempton and not asked him such a question. I think he needs to be subjected to better fields in order for a better gallop and there’s a big future in him.

“We’ll aim high and he’s a good horse, I have no doubt. I would like to wait for better ground before I return here and I imagine you won’t see him back here until March in whichever race is most appropriate (Fred Winter or Triumph).

“I’ll look for better ground first and after asking him a question like that once, I don’t want to subject him to that forever more as he’s a speedy horse who can travel.”