Shropshire mum turned trainer savours Cheltenham Festival success
Last week half of Birmingham’s business community decamped to Cheltenham for their annual round of important ‘meetings’. Here Melissa Jones caught up with a local pairing who helped make it such a memorable week.
Any parent has butterflies in their stomach on their child’s first day of school, anticipating and hoping that their offspring might find happiness, fulfilment, fame and maybe fortune.
But this experience is not just limited to parents; anybody who has a passion for what they do will know that excruciating tension when all their hopes and dreams are put to the test.
Last week one Shropshire mother got that feeling in spades as her young prodigy scaled unimaginable heights and laid the foundations for a potentially glittering future.
The mother in question was Sheila Crow, masterful trainer of Cheltenham Festival winner Cappa Bleu who is very much the star performer in her ‘family’ of 16 horses. Given another year to grow fully into his mighty frame under his trainer’s watchful eye, this young phenomenon could well have the racing world at his hooves.
Certainly, on the eve of the Foxhunters Chase, horse racing’s ‘Gold Cup’ for amateurs, there was much cause for optimism. Many a wily old punter under a frayed tweed cap had spotted this gelding running away with his two races on the point-to- point circuits since he joined Ms Crow. The latest was a blitz of the opposition at Chaddesley Corbett in Worcestershire, in which the second circuit was run faster than ever before – not unlike an equine Ferrari.
“He’s always done everything easily and I liked him from the word go. When I got him fit I realised we had a special horse,” she said, generously pouring the praise on her seven-year-old gelding. “We got him from Ireland and out of 20 horses he was the one I really fell in love with. He just flows along the ground.”
Racing is a tough old business and such success stories rarely come without a few hiccups.
Some shrewd gamblers already had their crisp notes piled on the horse in the ‘ante-post’ market, but Cappa Bleu almost failed to make the line up for the prestigious Cheltenham race.
“Because he had run in point-to-points he didn’t have a rating. They have to run in hunter chases for those,” she said. “So his performances had to be assessed by the handicapper, who fortunately decided that his form was good enough and he let him take his chance.”
That news was sweet music to the ears of champion amateur jockey Richard Burton, with whom Ms Crow has developed a formidable partnership on the point-to-point scene.
“We were a bit nervous as the fences were bigger than anything he had even jumped before,” he said. “But his last performance was awesome and he got into a nice rhythm at Cheltenham. We knew he had an engine.”
Burton, who admits he was not very good when he started riding, was equal in his praise for Ms Crow.
“She is very astute at what she does and is brilliant at buying young horses,” he said. “She may seem quiet and unassuming but she is very driven and has the will to win.”
There is no doubting that her nurturing manner is reflected on her horses.
A farmer by trade, she said that the horses benefit from having more of a ‘family life’ to the more routine outlook of a large racing stable.
“They’re like your children, they’re fed at six in the morning and have lunch and tea, just like everyone else”, she said.
And it is not just Cappa Bleu who has benefited from this ‘kid-gloves’ approach. Ms Crow also bought High Chimes, who won the Kim Muir Challenge Cup handicap chase at last year’s Festival and is now in the care of Evan Williams.
One could tell from the tone of the modest trainer’s voice that she derives great pleasure from seeing her horses flourish, just like a young lawyer winning their first case.
But for her horse to progress to a higher level of racing, Cappa Bleu would have to leave Ms Crow’s hands as her licence only permits her to train at a lower level – something that jockey Burton relishes.
“Next season he’ll move on and race professionally, probably off low weights. I’d be too heavy to do the weight, but he is really something to look forward to,” he said.
That is the case for many of Crow’s youngsters, progressing on the course, from what she calls her ‘nursery school’.
Though the road to success has certainly not been smooth; her husband passed away shortly before they were initially going to view the horse.
Although deeply saddened by this, she derived great courage from her husband’s work with their horses and has since invested most of her time to the cause – and it has clearly paid off.
“I did it for Edward,” she said, her voice tinged with a both pleasure and a hint of sadness.
But the last thought goes to Mr Burton in his estimation of Cappa Bleu’s potential.
“He will make progress next season. He really is a horse of a lifetime,” he said. And even the most ardent of punters wouldn’t bet against that.
