Malcolm Jefferson discovered last week that Cheltenham Festival winners can be like buses: you can wait ages for one and then two arrive at the same time. Having endured 17 barren years at the meeting, he was able to savour victories on successive days.
Yesterday, back at his Malton yard, in North Yorkshire, he was still absorbing the fact that the only British trainers to saddle more winners than him were Nicky Henderson and Jonjo O’Neill. He was also looking forward to Aintree next month, when his Cheltenham heroes — Cape Tribulation and Attaglance — will be back in action, along with According To Pete, who is a live outsider for the John Smith’s Grand National.
Henderson has been celebrating his triumphs on the slopes of St Moritz, but Jefferson’s partying has been more low-key. “We had a little bit of champagne before we left the course on Friday, but Cheltenham stirs every emotion in you and, by the time I got home, I was absolutely shattered,” the 65-year-old said. “I was going to watch the racing again, but my eyes would not let me and so I went to bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.”
Jefferson’s previous Festival victory had been with the brilliant Dato Star, who won the Champion Bumper in 1995. He went on to develop into a high-class hurdler but was unable to land a blow on his two attempts in the Champion Hurdle.
“I was beginning to think I might never train another Festival winner, but it’s not every year you go there with two really nice horses,” Jefferson said. “I thought they’d take a bit of beating if everything went well, but doesn’t everybody?”
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Cape Tribulation, winner of the Pertemps Final, will run next in the three-mile Silver Cross Handicap Hurdle on the opening day of the Grand National meeting, with Attaglance pencilled in for a 2½-mile handicap hurdle 24 hours later. However, it is According To Pete’s participation in the National that animates the trainer most.
The 11-year-old has already scooped two big staying prizes this season and, on his latest start, at Kelso, he finished ahead of Ballabriggs, the National winner last season, despite meeting him on unfavourable terms.
“He’s the most genuine of horses and has been a great friend to me,” Jefferson said. “He would not be the biggest, but I’ve been in this game for 40-plus years and seen all sorts of horses and riders win the National.
“You need a lot of luck in the race, but he has a nice galloping rhythm and, touch wood, has always been a good jumper. He could run a real nice race.”
Jefferson knows what it takes to prepare a National winner. Before taking out a licence, he worked 13 years for the late Gordon Richards and was a pivotal player at Greystoke when Lucius galloped to glory at Aintree in 1978.
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“When Lucius first arrived, he was fat and everybody thought he was useless,” Jefferson said. “He could also be a real handful, too. I rode him a bit and if he said ‘you are going off’, you went off. He’d do that to any lad in the yard.”
Jefferson embarked on his training career in the early 1980s and his yard, which thrives on old-fashioned values, is highly regarded within the sport. One day, he is likely to hand over the reins to Ruth, his daughter, but that is unlikely to be any time soon.
“She [Ruth] keeps trying to tell me I’m getting too old, but I still get a lot of enjoyment out of the job and, as long as I’m healthy, I’ll carry on,” he said. “I just hope we don’t have to wait another 17 years for a Cheltenham winner.”