Husband and wife team Ann and Ian Hamilton have admitted they still cannot believe they have a live chance in one of the most prestigious races at the Cheltenham Festival, as Tommy’s Oscar prepares to line up against nine rivals in Tuesday’s Unibet Champion Hurdle.
The couple are farmers by trade and only train a handful of their own horses at their base in Northumberland as a hobby. But this week the cattle and sheep will be put on hold as their stable star goes for glory in the Grade One feature race on Day One of The Festival.
Seven year old Tommy’s Oscar who they bought from Colin Bowe after he had won his point-to-point at Loughrea, has been one of the stories of the season for the Hamiltons, winning each of his last four outings and improving 18lbs in the process.
The latest of those victories came in emphatic style in the Grade Two Unibet Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock Park in January under last year’s champion conditional Danny McMenamin, who is in the saddle again at Cheltenham.
And while the horse’s owner Ian Hamilton originally held reservations about heading to the Cotswolds for Jump Racing’s most prestigious meeting, he believes is more than entitled to take his chance against the unbeaten wonder mare and odds on favourite Honeysuckle.
He said: “He worked on Tuesday last week and it did the job. Then Laura schooled him on Wednesday, and he was brilliant. He was so quick she could hardly hold him! I was keen to go to the Morebattle Hurdle myself to be honest as it’s just up the road and it was a £100,000 race.
“Brian Hughes and everyone else has been telling us that it’s not very often that you have a horse good enough to go to Cheltenham, so we’ve got to go for it. He was impressed with him the other night when he worked with him and he said he felt good – so for him to say that he must be alright, because he’s quite modest.
“I don’t think he’s beaten a top-class horse yet, but he’s improving so you just don’t know. He hasn’t beaten a Champion Hurdle horse, but he hasn’t faced one yet, so we’ll see. Hopefully he does it on Tuesday!
“I can’t quite grasp it all yet and to me it’s just another horse race, but it’s just the best when you think about it. I’m not expecting too much because he hasn’t done that much yet, but he deserves to take his chance.
“He’s improving all the time and when he won the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock I saw a comparison with the novices’ race that Jonbon won. He was a good few seconds faster, so it was a good time for the ground.
“He’s just a bit nervy, so it’ll be whether he’s able to handle the Cheltenham crowd on the day. He’s got a hood for the parade ring and then we’ll take it off and then he should be ok in the race itself.
“Our first runner at The Festival was with Runswick Royal in the County Hurdle a few years ago (2014) and he was in front halfway around, until a horse jumped in-front of him and Brian (Hughes) had to pull him up. My trainer wife said to me ‘I am never coming back here again’ – and now she wants to go!”
It is a remarkable rise to the top for the couple, who are sheep and cattle farmers by trade but have enjoyed considerable success over the years despite their modest facilities when compared to some of Jump Racing’s powerhouses.
Hamilton explained that he and his wife source the majority of their horses with some help from the former Grade One and multiple Festival-winning trainer Howard Johnson.
He said: “Most of our horses have been sourced by a pal of mine, Howard Johnson, who used to train himself. We grew up together in County Durham and most of them have come from him.
“Nuts Well and Runswick Royal are out of the same mare (Renada) and they’ve both won the Premier Chase at Kelso.”
This will only be the yard’s second runner at the Cheltenham Festival, though Hamilton revealed that he had ridden at the course himself many years ago as an amateur rider.
He explained: “I was an amateur jockey, but I was never very good! I actually went there myself in a four-mile amateur riders’ handicap chase many years ago and fell at the water jump.
“An event rider called Bill Roycroft from Australia won it and I would have been fourth as there was only five or six of us still standing.”
It will be a near six-hour trip down to Cheltenham for Hamilton from their base in the North East and he explained that he and his wife have had to put provisions in place to keep the farm ticking along in their absence.
He said: “We’re going to set off on Monday lunchtime. We wanted to go on Tuesday morning as he hasn’t stayed overnight anywhere before but it’s too much of a risk with traffic and things.
“Ann has met with a girl who’s going to look after things for us while we’re away.
“She’s going to look after the horses and a neighbour’s son is going to look after the cattle for us while we’re away, so I think we’re covered.”
