Gavin Cromwell

It’s a fair old pull up the hill at Danestown in the back of a Land Rover, so you can only imagine how tough it would be if you were on foot.  And yet, the horses seem to handle it with ease, Inothewayurthinkin under Keith Donoghue on the right, Perceval Legallois and Conor Stone-Walsh on the left.  You can hear the thud-thud-thud and the horses’ breathing as they approach, changing with the Doppler Effect when they flash past you and extend on up the hill.  Three and a half furlongs top to bottom, no bother.

Last season was another best-ever season for Gavin Cromwell.  Seventy-two winners during the Irish National Hunt season took him through the €1 million barrier in a season for the first time.  That was a landmark, and it consolidated his position in the top four in the Irish National Hunt trainers’ list.  And he had 14 winners in Britain for good measure, also a best-ever for him across the water. 

“It was great to break the million euro barrier,” says the trainer.  “That had been the target for a little while.  We went close the previous year, so we were delighted to get there.” 

Two of those winners in Britain were at the Cheltenham Festival.  Of course, Cromwell was no stranger to Cheltenham Festival success before this year.  He won the Champion Hurdle in 2019 with Espoir D’Allen, and he had two winners there in 2021, Covid year, when the hollow cheers echoed around the empty winner’s enclosure.  He won the Albert Bartlett Hurdle that year with Vanillier and he won the Stayers’ Hurdle with Flooring Porter, who went back there in 2022 with the crowds and the full-body cheers and won the Stayers’ Hurdle again.

This year was a little different though, because he went there with two full-siblings who had big chances, both bred by Noreen McManus, both by Walk In The Park and out of the Califet mare Sway.  Inothewayurthinkin won the Kim Muir easily and Limerick Lace stayed on gallantly on the soft ground to land the Mares’ Chase. 

“We were hopeful for the two of them going there,” he says.  “It was a little bit unusual, a full-brother and sister running at the same Festival, and thankfully they duly obliged.  The family are all a little bit quirky, but obviously they are very talented, and I’m delighted to be training them.”

He can train them too.  He can train any racehorse, he has proven that.  His range could hardly be wider.  In 2018, he sent the 13-year-old Raz De Maree to Chepstow to win the Welsh Grand National.  There are not many horses who race into their 14^th year and beyond, and there are not many races in which horses are asked to go further than three miles and five and a half furlongs.  The Welsh National – Chepstow in the depths of winter on heavy ground, over a marathon trip and 22 fences – is a race that tests grit and determination and stamina and resolve, and Raz De Maree showed all of that.

Three and a half years later, Gavin Cromwell prepared the two-year-old filly Quick Suzy to win the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.  The Queen Mary – Royal Ascot at the height of summer, a race for juvenile fillies over the minimum distance on good to firm ground – is a race in which speed and pace and precocity are at a premium, and Quick Suzy was faster than all her rivals.  You could hardly find two races on the racing calendar that are more diametrically opposed than the Welsh Grand National and the Queen Mary Stakes, and yet, Gavin Cromwell has trained the winners of both. 

That’s his versatility.  Even now, as we speak, he is conscious of the fact that he has to leave soon enough to get on a plane for Bahrain.  His Chesham Stakes winner Snellen is running in a 10-furlong handicap there on Friday.

At least it will be warm and sunny there. 

He wouldn’t mind a bit of rain here for Inothewayurthinkin, mind you, who is set to run in the Savills Chase on the third day of Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival on Saturday.  Impressive in winning the Kim Muir at Cheltenham in March, JP McManus’ horse stayed on well to land the Grade 1 Mildmay Chase at Aintree the following month on his final run last season.  He was well beaten in the John Durkan Chase on his debut this season, but that was a red-hot race run over a distance that was well short of his best.  He should appreciate the step back up in trip at Leopardstown.

“We were happy enough with his run in the John Durkan Chase,” says his trainer.  “He jumped very well, and I was delighted with that.  The front ones quickened away from him, but he stayed going all the way to the line, even though he got a little bit tired.  He’s in great form, but he’ll want an ease in the ground.”

Perceval Legallois won’t mind it if the rains don’t come, he just needs to enjoy a little bit of luck now.  A faller at the final fence when challenging in the Leopardstown Chase last February, he just found one too good after looking a likely winner in a listed handicap chase at the Punchestown Festival in April, and he ran well for a long way in the Troytown Chase at Navan last month.  He is on track for the Paddy Power Chase on Friday.

“He has had plenty of hard luck stories along the way, and he has crept up the handicap as a result without winning.  Hopefully he’s still on a mark off which he could win one of those big handicaps, but he needs everything to fall his way.”

The King Of Prs will go for the two-mile handicap chase, If You Let Me will go for the two-mile handicap hurdle.  Al Gasparo will probably go for the two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle, and Bottler’secret could join him there.  The Dragon Pulse gelding was well beaten at Fairyhouse last month but, a Grade 2 winner last season, he worked in blinkers during the week, and he could wear them at Leopardstown.

Hello Neighbour, two for two on the flat, is set to make his debut over hurdles this week.

“He has an entry in the Grade 2 juvenile hurdle on Thursday and in the maiden hurdle on Friday.  We’ll have a look at both races.  The maiden can sometimes be as strong as the Grade 2.  He has schooled well and we’re looking forward to him.”

Busy week ahead, but good busy.  Preparations for the arrival of Santa Claus in the house on Tuesday night are almost complete, and it’s busy in the yard.  It’s good busy though, the trainer tells you.  Pressure for sure, but it’s pressure you want.  

Snellen won that handicap in Bahrain on Friday too, a first victory for an Irish-trained horse in the country.  Another landmark.

© The Sunday Times, 22nd December 2024