THE main headline at Cheltenham’s final meeting of the season (the hunter chase meeting is strictly next term, of course) was the retirement of veteran jockey Paddy Brennan.

Like many successful riders before him, Paddy started out with the great Jim Bolger, riding his first winner on the flat on a horse of Bolger’s called Ivory Isle in the summer of 1998 at Gowran Park.

When Paddy transferred to Paul Nicholls in 2000, he was hardly a household name.

Jockeys Martin, Mickey and Barry ensured he wasn’t even in the top three Brennans in British racing, and that’s betting without the great Bishop Len, who casts a shadow over us all.

It took a while to get established and opportunities were few enough with Nicholls, who had Timmy Murphy and Joe Tizzard taking the bulk of rides.

A move to Philip Hobbs for the 2003/’04 season helped Brennan establish himself, and the following term he became champion conditional with 67 winners and a first Grade 1 win aboard Kevin Bishop’s smashing novice chaser Ashley Brook in the Maghull at Aintree.

Big-race success

In 2006/’07 he got the role of retained jockey for owner Graham Wylie, for whom he enjoyed big-race success with Tidal Bay and Inglis Drever, but success in the World Hurdle wasn’t enough to save the fraught relationship between him and the ebullient Howard Johnson, with Paddy heading to Gloucestershire to team up with Nigel Twiston-Davies.

That association brought the greatest moment of the jockey’s career when Imperial Commander won an epic Cheltenham Gold Cup, beating Denman by seven lengths.

It was also the Gold Cup that brought Brennan’s biggest heartbreak, with Cue Card strongly fancied for the 2016 renewal (with the small matter of a £1m bonus on top) when falling at the third last as he was about to launch a challenge. Brennan has spent the last dozen years of his riding career with Fergal O’Brien, former assistant to Twiston-Davies and sometime tenant at the latter’s Naunton base before relocating to Ravenswell Farm in Withington. All in all, he rode the winners of 18 Grade 1 races, with Cue Card supplying five of those and Imperial Commander three. He rode 1,517 winners over jumps in Britain and Ireland and a further nine on the flat. Paddy Brennan rode his final winner aboard the O’Brien-trained Manothepeople in the Weatherite Air Conditioning Handicap Chase at his beloved Cheltenham on Wednesday and immediately announced the decision – long in the making – that the ride would be his last, a guard of honour formed by his weighing-room colleagues a tribute to the mutual esteem in which he and they are held.

In-form Fry strikes with Deo

IN Excelsis Deo (Harry Fry/Jonathan Burke) pounced late to grab the glory in the Grade 2 Silver Trophy Limited Handicap Chase on the opening day of Cheltenham’s April fixture, the gelding providing yet another bright spot in a fine spring for owner J.P. McManus.

Hang In There (Emma Lavelle/Joe Anderson) looked the likeliest winner when sweeping through from the back of the field to lead at the penultimate fence, but he finished rather weakly up the hill, and the 3/1 market leader, ridden with even more patience, proved stronger from the final fence to win by four and a quarter lengths.

The winner had run well after meeting some trouble in running when fifth in the Festival Plate here in March and was suited by being able to find his rhythm in a smaller field here. His jumping can be sticky, but he was good when it mattered here. His win was one of three for Harry Fry at this meeting, and he ends the season in much better form than he started. The 6/5 favourite Malaita (Mel Rowley/Charlie Deutsch) was winning at this meeting for the second successive year, and in gaining a Grade 2 success, she was giving her trainer a first pattern win in her short career to date.

A comfortable win over Game On For Glory (Lucy Wadham/Bryony Frost) also helped Rowley to complete her most successful season so far, with 17 winners and almost £230,000 in prize money, with another week to bolster those totals.

Malaita led from the third fence and had the race in safekeeping at the last, just needing to be kept up to her work as she was inclined to idle when clear.

THE star of the show on Thursday was Dawn Run heroine Golden Ace (Jeremy Scott/Lorcan Williams) who looked to have a simple task on paper and won the listed Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle with great ease at odds of 4/9, cruising clear from the last flight to beat Ooh Betty (Ben Clarke/Tom Bellamy) by eight and a half lengths. She had her Festival win franked with Grade 1 wins for both Brighterdaysahead and Jade De Grugy and is not one to underestimate when stepping into open company next season.