Bradstock hoping legion of Coneygree fans will join his club

Ten years on from Coneygree’s finest hour in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Sara Bradstock is inviting his fans to become a part of his retirement with the creation of the ‘Friends of Coneygree Club’.

Trained by her late husband, Mark, Coneygree made history in 2015 when becoming the first novice since Captain Christy in 1974 to take home the blue riband. Now 18 and happily retired, Coneygree is still a central part of the furniture at Bradstock’s Wantage stables where he has long ruled the roost.

And to mark the 10th anniversary of his thrilling Gold Cup triumph, his supporters can now join a racing club set up in his honour, with benefits including visits to Old Manor Stables to get up close and personal with the old favourite.

“It’s £25 a month and I think it would be great that people could come and see him have their picture taken with him,” explained Bradstock.

“They can come see the gallops and all the other horses here like Mr Vango and genuinely be involved with an old hero.”

Coneygree had dazzled throughout the 2014-15 season, winning the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton by 30 lengths and also downing his elders in style in the Denman Chase at Newbury before connections took what many perceived to be gamble by aiming for the Gold Cup.

However, for Bradstock there was never a doubt about shooting for the stars as she remembered the ultimate “fairytale” victory.

She said: “We have to all remember what a fairytale it was when you think of all the millions of pounds that are spent trying to achieve a Gold Cup winner and we bought the little mare for £2,000. The dream was to breed my dad (Lord Oaksey) something he could enjoy and it was very sad dad was gone, but his spirit was there and it was a wonderful day.

“To us it wasn’t a gamble. He was fragile and didn’t know what the race was called and if he had gone and won the RSA by 30 lengths we’d only have been thinking ‘why didn’t we go and run in the Gold Cup?’.

“It didn’t make any difference to him and there was a lot of nonsense talked in the build up. He was a racehorse through and through and he just loved winning races. Coming from a small yard they live life more and they are not just going out in a big string. He’d seen life and it was just believing he was good enough.

“Everyone said he only won the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Christmas because the others had fallen over, but I was quietly confident they’d all just been put under too much pressure because he goes so fast and jumps so well. He was just ruthlessly professional about his jumping.

“I don’t actually remember much of the actual day as it was too stressful! But it was like all our dreams had come true really.”

Coneygree’s jockey on that memorable day was a young Nico de Boinville, someone Bradstock identified as the perfect man for the task at hand despite his inexperience at the time.

De Boinville is on the cusp of his 50th Grade One winner which could be achieved aboard Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday, but at the time of Coneygree’s victory had just the sole top-level success – incidentally aboard his first star mount at Christmas – to his name.

The Bradstocks had stayed loyal to De Boinville after he missed Coneygree’s Gold Cup prep in the Denman Chase through suspension and they were thoroughly rewarded by an inspired ride from the weighing room’s ice man on the big occasion.

“We got a lot of criticism for using Nico as well because they would say ‘he’s only a conditional’ but he was always an incredibly cool head and an unreal talent,” continued Bradstock.

“He understood the job and you didn’t need a wise-guy jockey on Coneygree who didn’t think he needed to go forward, as he’s a horse who didn’t have gears, he just ruthlessly went fast until the others couldn’t go with him.

“If you put someone who sat and saved on him he would just get beat and he was not one of these expensive horses who changes up through the gears, Coneygree just went a gallop that took the others gears out of them and Nico would do that brilliantly.

“Nico is completely cool, he has a great clock in his head and I don’t think there is anyone better on a front-runner.

“He’s the ultimate pro and very focussed, but he’s an extremely nice guy and he’s been very kind to me since Mark died, he’s a really nice man.”