FEATURE FERGAL O’BRIEN
When trainer Fergal O’Brien walks through the gates on the Thursday of this year’s Cheltenham Festival, will he be wondering about a day that could take his successful career to a new level? CRAMBO AND DYSART ENOS OUT TO BREAK O’BRIEN’S FESTIVAL DUCK
D espite all the big race success O’Brien has enjoyed in recent seasons, one thing missing from the CV of the dad of two, who trains around ten miles away from the course at Ravenswell Farm, is a winner at the Cheltenham Festival. And while acknowledging the tall order it is now becoming to register a winner at the meeting, O’Brien has, in leading Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle challenger Crambo and Dysart Enos in the Ryanair Mares’ Novices Hurdle, two live chances of securing a victory he has long craved. O’Brien said: “It is getting harder to have winners at The Festival, but that is just the way it is. The likes of Willie [Mullins], Gordon [Elliott], Paul [Nicholls] and Nicky [Henderson] have got very good horses for a reason. “They didn’t wake up one morning and find horses like Constitution Hill suddenly appear in their yards. They have got those horses for a reason but, fingers crossed, our time will come and we will catch up at some point. “We are definitely going to the sales and looking at the higher-end budgets now, which is great, and we are in a very fortunate position, so hopefully, a Festival winner is not too far away. “This year is the first year I feel like we are going there with two horses in Crambo and Dysart Enos that are capable of taking the best of them on.” Aside from those finishing second in the championship races at the Cheltenham Festival, seldom are runners-up at the meeting remembered by the masses. However, O’Brien has vivid recollections of those that have come so close to supplying him that elusive success. He said: “Two years ago we had Alaphilippe finish second in the Pertemps
and he went up eight pounds for that and that definitely cost us in the end. I suppose the one that did get away, and really frustrated me, was Barney Dwan in the 2017 Pertemps Final. He got beat by Presenting Percy, who was absolutely chucked in, and that will be the one that will always frustrate me.” Since the era of Big Buck’s, the Stayers’ Hurdle is a race that in recent years has often had an open feel to it. And with that in mind, O’Brien hopes Crambo can add the Grade One prize to his previous top-level success this season in the Howden Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot just before Christmas. He said: “I thought it was a great win at Ascot and he had to do it the hard way. He jumped the last and looked like he was going to go away and win, and it is just typical of those old boys in that they don’t lie down, and Paisley Park really dug in. “I went from elation after jumping the last thinking we are going to win this, to then thinking, ‘Oh no,’ when he got headed, to huge elation again. It was a real rollercoaster of a last furlong, but it was great that he came out on top. “He is such a lovely horse that you would never know he is in the place. He just turns up and does his job. I’d love to say he is tricky to train and that I’ve got all the keys and answers. He is such a professional and saves everything for the track. “He will be one of those horses that turns up at Cheltenham and hopefully feeds off the atmosphere. I think he needs to improve from Ascot, but I’m really looking forward to running him and he will love that hill.” Much was made over the decision by O’Brien to replace Connor Brace with Johnny Burke aboard Crambo at
Ascot, but it is a call that he believes needed to be done, such are the fine margins between defeat and victory at the highest level.
O’Brien said: “There was a lot said about it before the Ascot run, but we have one Crambo, not ten, and I wanted to tick every box. “I felt sorry for Connor, as Crambo didn’t just turn up on the
Final, and on the same day, we had Imperial Alcazar come second in the Plate. “Imperial Alcazar was actually our 100th winner of the season on Festival Trials Day in January
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