Johnny’s Jury powers up the hill for Albert Bartlett victory

Johnny’s Jury demonstrated plenty of tenacity to take the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

A 20-1 shot under Gavin Sheehan for trainer Jamie Snowden, the grey was left with plenty of work to do as he rounded the final bend with the majority of the field ahead of him.

Both horse and rider refused to accept defeat, however, and in the driving rain the pair picked off each rival one by one to rally up the hill and score by a length and a half from Fruit De Mer and The Passing Wife.

Race favourite Doctor Steinberg appear to do too much in front from an early stage, before dropping away.

Snowden said: “It’s fabulous, just wonderful. We never planned to be at the back, but it was a bit of a mess at the start once again. He’s travelled through the race and jumped great and there’s no better man than Gavin.

“We’ve gone through a lot of things over the last few years and it’s wonderful to have another Grade One winner and certainly at Cheltenham it’s amazing.

“He’s a very nice horse, he came from Nicky (Henderson) who highly recommended him and he’s done nothing but improve over the course of the last year.

“It was a massive step up from two miles one (furlong) to three miles, but he’s a half-brother to Appreciate It so we thought his stamina was not in question and thankfully it worked out.

“We’ve had some wonderful times, winning the Hennessy (Coral Gold Cup) with Datsalrightgino and Grade One winners at Aintree and other big races, but it’s tough.

“At this place it’s tough to win and it’s tough to run well. We came here with five bullets to fire and five really nice horses and haven’t got a look in, which makes results like this so special.”

Henry De Bromhead said of the runner-up Fruit De Mer: “I’m really happy, he travelled really well and did everything right, just sadly didn’t win.

“He’s a horse with a real bright future and I’m delighted. He’s a staying chaser and he’s already schooling over a fence in the indoor school and has been electric over that. Touch wood we’ll be dreaming.”

The Passing Wife’s trainer, Gavin Cromwell, said: “You can’t say he didn’t stay, he did stay, but probably one has just outstayed him on this track on the day.

“I’m sure he’ll be a horse for over fences in time.”