She watched Forest Gunner, trained by her husband Richard and ridden by Peter Buchanan, call on all his fighting qualities to outgallop his rivals in the Red Square Vodka Gold Cup and immediately declared: “If he runs in the National I will ride him.
“Money can’t buy a horse like him that operates round Aintree and of course it is the ultimate for any lady rider to have the chance of taking part in the National. Those Aintree fences light up Forest Gunner and the place certainly does the same for me.”
Ford booted Forest Gunner home over the fearsome fences in the Fox Hunters at the National meeting last year, just weeks after giving birth to Hannah, who was in her pushchair yesterday to greet the family hero in the winners’ enclosure.
“The whole thing is nerve-wracking and I’ve never been good at watching him,” Ford added. “My heart is still pounding. Forest Gunner showed all his courage to rally on the run-in and he must go to Aintree with a big shout.”
Forest Gunner had led most of the way and looked beaten as Double Honour edged past him on the flat, but, drawing on his last reserves of strength, he fought back for a well-deserved victory.
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Only if the ground came up very soft at Aintree would Forest Gunner be switched to the Topham Trophy. He is a 20-1 chance for the big one and the fact that his rider has not renewed her licence so far this season should not be a worry. She rides out five or six lots and then swims 50 lengths a day.
The power-packed County Durham stable of Howard Johnson marched on towards next month’s Cheltenham Festival with three successes yesterday.
Inglis Drever could yet try to crack the apparent Irish stranglehold on the Champion Hurdle following his defeat of Perouse in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton.
At Haydock, meanwhile, Mephisto put in a strong claim to be included in the SunAlliance Hurdle line-up with an emphatic victory in the Brit Insurance Novices’ Hurdle, and Akilak confirmed his position at the head of the betting for the Triumph Hurdle with a hard-fought win over the highly rated Karelian in the Victor Ludorum Hurdle.
But news of their more illustrious stable companion Grey Abbey was not so encouraging. The front-running grey is causing his trainer a lot of head scratching with a serious swelling on his off fore. While the Festival looms large for Inglis Drever, Mephisto and Akilak, there must be considerable doubt about Grey Abbey being “110%”, as Johnson puts it, for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
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Grey Abbey, as short as 9-1 for the Gold Cup, has two sessions a day in Johnson’s new hydro-spa and the trainer has sent for some special ointment from Ireland to be applied to the swelling. “The horse is healthy, well and buzzing. He canters up the hills every other day, but the filling in his leg is a mystery and at the moment he must be doubtful for Cheltenham,” he said.
Owner power ruled yesterday with Akilak’s owners, the ADA Partnership, wanting to run their horse despite a recent bout of coughing and being 15 kilos too heavy. “I wasn’t keen to run him,” said Johnson. “But the owners wanted to see him run and he must be some horse to win after coughing just a week ago. I just hope he’s not coughing again in the morning.”
Another owner having the final word was Cheshire publican Bob Lester who had insisted on running Iris’s Gift in his first steeplechase, the Grade 1 Totesport Chase at Lingfield, as a preliminary to the Gold Cup. Iris’s Gift has had all sorts of problems since beating Baracouda in last year’s Stayers’ Hurdle, including the virus that closed down Jonjo O’Neill’s stable at the turn of the year.
Iris’s Gift jumped well before fading into last place behind It Takes Time and Lester would be well advised to forget the Gold Cup and run Iris’s Gift over hurdles at Aintree and Punchestown this spring before bringing him back as a novice chaser next season.