galliardhomes.com Cleeve Hurdle
Grade 2, Cheltenham 15:35
£60,000 added,
5yo plus,
2m 7f 213y, Class 1  
Saturday 27th January 2018

Trainers Quotes

1 Agrapart 9/1
2 Wholestone 9/2
3 Colin's Sister 10/1
9 ran NR: Court Minstrel Distances: 3l, 8l, 5l
Time: 6m 25.60s (slow by 44.60s)

There was no fairytale result to the £60,000 G2 galliardhomes.com Cleeve Hurdles over three miles as Beer Goggles (Kayley Woollacott/Richard Johnson) finished fifth a few days after the sad death of trainer Richard Woollacott at the age of 40.
 
Beer Goggles ran in Richard's honour and his wife Kayley has established a donation page dedicated to his memory, while racegoers were able to contribute at Cheltenham today Donations are split between three charities - Mind, the Injured Jockeys Fund and Devon Air Ambulance.
 
A minute's silence was held at the course before the race.
 
Agrapart and Lizzie Kelly 
 
Agrapart (Nick Williams/Lizzie Kelly) finished three and a quarter lengths behind Wholestone (Nigel Twiston-Davies/Daryl Jacob) when second in the G2 Dornan Engineering Relkeel Hurdle on New Year's Day, a race the horse won in 2017. 
 
But over an extra half-mile Agrapart reversed the placings with Wholestone who has not finished out of the first three in seven starts at Cheltenham and won four.
 
The winning margin today was three lengths as Agrapart relished the step-up to three miles and went away from his rival after they were together at the last.
 
It was a good day for female jockeys at Cheltenham today and Lizzie Kelly commented: "Agrapart has shaped my career, winning the Betfair Hurdle and the Relkeel Hurdle, and he is such a diamond to look after as well, a real yard favourite. 
 
"The fact that he tries his hardest and wears his heart on his sleeve - he is the most amazing horse to be involved with. 
 
"He doesn't really have a turn of foot. He got there and I felt that I would rather be travelling rather than making him come back. It's not like a wind-up car- once you are rolling, you can't stop and then expect him to go again. 
 
"He has bumped and barged today a bit more than he ever has done and I think he quite enjoyed it. I found that he was always on the bridle because I was always having to pull and come round something, which sort of helped. 
 
"Once I am rolling on him, I can't really stop and, to be fair, he finds everything off the bridle. The fact that I was still travelling so strongly jumping the flight at the top of the hill, I was really confident.
 
"It was a bit of déjà vu with me and Daryl going up that hill. I thought: 'I have managed it once, I'll do it again!' 
 
"It has been a good day for the girls. Bryony (Frost) is a great rider and I used to point-to-point with her. It's wonderful to have two girls from the same area doing well. 
 
"We have banged on for ages about whether girls can do it and we have proved that we can."
 
Nick Williams added "Agrapart is very much a ground dependent horse. We hoped to run him in the Reve De Sivola race at Ascot (just before Christmas), but the ground wasn't soft enough. 
 
"It was similar to the Wholestone battle he had in the Relkeel Hurdle on New Year's Day. They keep running against each other and keep having tough battles. Cheltenham suits him but, more importantly, it was the ground today. 
 
"We didn't make an entry for the Stayers' Hurdle because there is a 90 per cent probability that the ground won't be soft enough. Even soft ground isn't soft enough, so he is quite a hard horse to place. 
 
"The ground is quite quick in the spring in France as well and the Grand Prix d'Automne was always a target for him last autumn, but we had quick ground in Paris, so that went all wrong."

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Galliardhomes.com Cleeve Hurdle
£60,000 added, 5yo plus, 2m 7f 213y, Class 1
9 ran
Going: Heavy

Pos D Horse SP Jockey Weight Trainer Age
1st Agrapart (FR) 9/1 Lizzie Kelly
11-6		 Nick Williams 7
2nd 3 Wholestone (IRE) 9/2 D A Jacob
11-6		 N A Twiston-Davies 7
3rd 8 Colin's Sister 10/1 P J Brennan
10-13		 F O'Brien 7
4th 5 The Worlds End (IRE) 5/1 A P Heskin
11-3		 T R George 7
5th 6 Beer Goggles (IRE) 11/2 R Johnson
11-6		 Kayley Woollacott 7
6th 4 Thomas Campbell 7/1 James Bowen
11-4		 N J Henderson 6
7th 7 Ex Patriot (IRE) 20/1 Rachael Blackmore
11-0		 Ellmarie Holden 5
PU Finian's Oscar (IRE) 11/4f B J Cooper
11-3		 C L Tizzard 6
PU Saint Are (FR) 100/1 Mr N George
11-0		 T R George 12
NR Court Minstrel (IRE) T Scudamore
11-4		 Evan Williams 11

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Year Horse Owner Trainer Weight Jockey SP

1990 Beech Road Tony Geake Toby Balding 8-12-00 Richard Guest 1/3 f
1991 Crystal Spirit Paul Mellon Ian Balding 4-10-09 Jimmy Frost 4/1
1992 Abandoned
1993 Muse White Horse Racing Ltd David Elsworth 6-11-08 Paul Holley 11/4
1994 Flakey Dove John Price Richard Price 8-11-03 Richard Dunwoody 4/1 cf
1995 Mudahim K W Bell Chris Broad 9-11-08 Norman Williamson 13/2
1996 Abandoned
1997 Large Action Brian Stewart-Brown Oliver Sherwood 9-11-08 Jamie Osborne 8/15 f
1998 Mistinguett John Duggan Nigel Twiston-Davies 6-11-03 Carl Llewellyn 100/30
1999 Lady Rebecca Kinnersley Optimists Venetia Williams 7-11-03 Norman Williamson 6/4 f
2000 Lady Rebecca Kinnersley Optimists Venetia Williams 8-11-03 Norman Williamson Evens f
2001 Lady Rebecca Kinnersley Optimists Venetia Williams 9-11-03 Norman Williamson 7/1
2002 Kates Charm Norma Kelly Robert Alner 9-11-03 Mick Fitzgerald 3/1
2003 Classified David Johnson Martin Pipe 7-11-08 Tony McCoy 8/11 f
2004 Crystal D’Ainay Tony & Jeni Fisher Alan King 5-11-04 Jimmy McCarthy Evens f
2005 Patriarch Express A W Muir Sue Smith 8-11-00 Jim Culloty 8/1
2006 Fire Dragon Gay Smith Jonjo O’Neill 5-11-00 Tony McCoy 16/1
2007 Blazing Bailey Three Line Whip Alan King 5-11-00 Robert Thornton 14/1
2008 Inglis Drever Andrea & Graham Wylie Howard Johnson 9-11-08 Richard Johnson 11/8 f
2009 Big Buck’s The Stewart Family Paul Nicholls 6-11-00 Ruby Walsh 7/2
2010 Tidal Bay Andrea & Graham Wylie Howard Johnson 6-11-00 Brian Hughes 14/1
2011 Grands Crus Roger Stanley & Yvonne Reynolds III David Pipe 6-11-04 Tom Scudamore 2/1 f
2012 Big Buck’s The Stewart Family Paul Nicholls 9-11-08 Ruby Walsh 1/4 f
2013 Reve De Sivola Paul Duffy Diamond Partnership Nick Williams 8-11-08 Richard Johnson 15/8 f
2014 Knockara Beau Alistair Charlton George Charlton 11-11-00 Jan Faltejsek 66/1
2015 Saphir Du Rheu The Stewart Family Paul Nicholls 6-11-04 Sam Twiston-Davies 3/1
2016 Thistlecrack John & Heather Snook Colin Tizzard 8-11-08 Tom Scudamore 4/5f
2017 Unowhatimeanharry J P McManus Harry Fry 9-11-08 Barry Geraghty 10/11 f