shout to bypass the fence. Paul Townend, who since Ruby’s retirement has stepped out of his shadow to become Willie Mullin’s number one jockey said: “The owners said just after Punchestown to move on from it and to repay them with a Gold Cup is the best feeling in the world. I grew up with racing all my life and I remember rushing off the school bus to try to make it home to see the Cheltenham Gold Cup.” A relieved and emotional Willie Mullins said after the race: “Not winning the Gold Cup used to bug me. The first, second, third one and then the fourth – then I was thinking maybe it is not to be, I have fantastic owners, staff, a wonderful wife in Jackie who runs the yard, so racing has been good to me. I had probably resigned myself to the fact I would not win the Cheltenham Gold Cup”. Willie Mullins had been inducted into the Hall of Fame at the beginning of the season, and has cemented himself as one of racing’s greatest trainers when completing the Irish and Cheltenham Gold Cup double, and winning the Irish Grand National all in one season. The Festival is an event like no other: a theatre of dreams, where regular racegoers swap tips with first-time attendees and film stars step out alongside Cheltenham members at Britain’s biggest week in Jump racing. To win here any day is extraordinary, to be here any day is extraordinary. Extraordinary awaits.
64 Kalendar
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