No catching Katchit as he sizes up and sees off rival
By COLIN MACKENZIE
Last updated at 08:52 12 March 2008
Katchit, the smallest
horse in the
Champion Hurdle
field, possessed the
biggest heart and
battled his way to an
unlikely victory unmatched
for 40 years.
Persian War was the last Triumph
Hurdle winner to go on to Champion
Hurdle success in 1968 as a
five-year-old and went on to win it
for three consecutive years.
Catch me if you can: Robert Thornton and Katchit power to victory in the Champion Hurdle
Osana, under Tom Scudamore,
set out fast on ground made very
dead by showers and watering but
looked beaten as the field closed.
Although Katchit led over the final
hurdle, Osana rallied to close the
winning margin to a length, with
Punjabi running on late to be third
and deliver an English clean sweep
in a race the Irish have dominated
for seven of the last nine runnings.
Hot favourite Sizing Europe finished
only 14th of the 15 runners.
Jockey Andrew McNamara virtually
walked him over the line after
feeling he had lost his action after
the penultimate hurdle, although
he appeared fine later.
The statistics for Katchit had
looked grim — the last 73 five-yearolds
to run in the Champion
Hurdle since See You Then's success
in 1985 had been beaten. But
this ex-Flat horse, bought for
£30,000 out of Mick Channon's yard
over a drink at Salisbury racecourse,
doesn't read as well as he
jumps and even trainer Alan King
was shocked.
'It's obviously tremendous but I
just got it into my head he couldn't win,' he said. 'He'd be only 15.2
hands high, I suppose, but he has
heart. He was bought to be a fun
horse — the ideal sort for Market
Rasen. When he won there in
September 2006, I thought, “Good,
job done”. He loves his jumping
and he's never stopped improving
but I'm very happy to pack him up
for the season. We'll enjoy today
and my gut feeling is that he's done
enough.'
It was a second opening-day victory
for jockey Robert Thornton,
who earlier scored on JP McManus's
Captain Cee Bee. It puts him in
prime position to repeat last year's
leading jockey title.
Like King, Thornton is a graduate
of the late David Nicholson's training
regime at nearby Jackdaws
Castle, where Jonjo O'Neill now
trains. Thornton explained: 'I'll celebrate
tonight with a bottle of lager
as there is a long week ahead. All
winners are very, very special. He is
a superb little horse. Once I had
jumped the last properly I thought
that nothing would come quick on
that ground.'
Katchit is owned by a syndicate
of four friends — David Bellamy,
Stephen Williams, Peter Harding
and June Collins — and Bellamy
said: 'This is dream time. He's the
underdog and he keeps doing it.'
David Pipe, who later scored with
An Accordion in the William Hill
chase to give Tom Scudamore his
first-ever Festival win, was thrilled
with Osana's second placing. 'He's
run a really great race,' he said,
'and Tom gave him a brilliant ride.
I thought he was going to get
swallowed up turning for home, but
he just battled and battled.'
Nicky Henderson was delighted for
his five-year-old Punjabi, who was
fourth in last year's Triumph Hurdle.
'It's interesting, as the two fiveyear-
olds have come out and virtually
run to the Triumph hurdle form from
last year, which is great,' he said.
As Noel Meade predicted in
Racemail, Harchibald could not
handle the rain-softened going and
finished only 10th, while last year's
winner Sublimity was fourth. Tidal
Bay lifted the gloom from Howard
Johnson's face as he annihilated
the Arkle field to win by 13
lengths from Kruguyrova, with the
favourite Noland one-and-a-half
lengths away in third.
Johnson's Co Durham yard has
been battling an illness brought on
by bad hay and he has struggled to
find the winner's enclosure over the
past month, but stable jockey
Denis O'Regan landed his first
Festival win by bringing the sevenyear-
old home.
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