Sandown Saturday

Bet365 Gold Cup

NO jumps race of similar prestige has served up more thrilling or indeed more controversial finishes than the bet365 (formerly the Whitbread) Gold Cup.

Something about Sandown lends itself to drama, and the spring sunshine often ensures that the course is a better open-air theatre for such drama than the Minack.

Ever since Much Obliged held off the challenge of the legendary battler Mandarin in the inaugural running has the mould been set for grandstand finishes in this race, and the 1984 running which saw Special Cargo, Lettoch and Diamond Edge flash across the line as one is still the greatest horse race ever run, and I’m not going to equivocate on that.

There is no room for “in my opinion” when it comes to perfection, and the 1984 Whitbread was as close to perfection as any Hollywood scriptwriter would allow.

It’s become extremely rare for big races to end in disqualifications, and even an enquiry is deemed a sensation when it comes to the Gold Cup or Grand National.

Somehow the Whitbread has bucked the trend, with four winners of the race disqualified for causing interference since Lord Oaksey was robbed of an emotional victory on Proud Tarquin in 1974, just a week after he’d run into the immovable object of Red Rum in the Scottish Grand National.

In 1991, the stewards disqualified Cahervillahow for intimidating Docklands Express after the last in a decision which still causes grown men to weep and grind their teeth (it was only a tenner and I should be over it by now, I suppose).

In 1993, that pair finished third and fourth behind Givus A Buck, only for that horse to be demoted for swerving into 1992 winner Topsham Bay, thereby giving owner Michael Marsh back-to-back winners of the race for the second time after Larbawn in 1969 and ‘70.

Once again, the most colourful race in the steeplechasing calendar produced a stewards’ enquiry. Once again, the horse who was first past the post was thrown out, although this time the victim did not become the victor, as Kitty’s Light (Christian Williams/Jack Tudor), broadsided by the idling leader Enrilo (Paul Nicholls/Harry Skelton), could finish only third.

It meant that Potterman (Alan King/Tom Cannon), who ended up closer than he looked likely to because of the shenanigans ahead, was promoted to victory, a result which left no-one entirely happy.

Momentum

There is no doubt that 7/2 favourite Enrilo ought to have won, but that doesn’t mean he deserved to. He dropped his back legs in the water on the final circuit, and lost momentum when propping badly on landing over the penultimate fence, and the fact he was back on top after the last shows how well treated he is.

Unfortunately, he is not an easy ride when getting to the front, and he lost on his chase debut at Chepstow after idling badly in front.

He did so again despite winning at Newbury on his handicap debut in February, and he lost this race because his waywardness on the run to the line cost Kitty’s Light victory, and the fact that he would have won if not losing concentration is irrelevant.

The eventual runner-up looked unlikely to get involved for much of the way, but kept on doggedly in the straight and would almost certainly have won if challenging on the other side of Enrilo.

The irony is that if Enrilo didn’t deserve to win, then Kitty’s Light did, but it was the 12/1 shot Potterman, who suffered no interference, but grabbed second on the line, and gave Alan King a second successive win in a contest which was cancelled in 2020.