Premier Magic realises Festival dream for Bradley Gibbs

Prolific point-to-point winner Premier Magic, trained and ridden by Bradley Gibbs, sprang a 66-1 shock to run out the biggest-priced Festival winner of the week in the St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase.

Rocky’s Howya had made much of the running and was still upsides jumping the second last as Gibbs made his move.

Though looking booked for minor honours, he was hampered by a loose horse and as Premier Magic started to empty, Its On The Line (28-1) stayed on late under Derek O’Connor.

Yet the winner just had enough in reserve to fend off the challenge and win by a length and three-quarters, with Shantou Flyer (50-1) finishing third.

For Gibbs, who equipped the gelding with cheekpieces, it was a career-high moment, yet it was also slightly bittersweet.

He said: “The worst part about it is my partner and my son aren’t here today. We couldn’t get a babysitter and my dad’s in hospital having a heart operation today. It’s really special but I just wish they could have been here.

“It was unbelievable, my fiancee’s father owns him and we came here last year thinking we had a chance.

“This just doesn’t happen to people like me, you know? I’m from a small village in Wales [Ynysybwl] and probably used to train just four, five horses, and built it up and built it up, and thank God we landed on one like this. A good friend of mine from Ireland, Jimmy Kelly, buys all my horses for me and he bought this one four or five years ago and paid £5,000 for him. ‘This is a right one’, he said, and thank God he was right. He’s a very good judge and I’ve had plenty of nice horses off him.

"I couldn’t see him being out of the first four last year. I tried riding him down the inside and it just got tight and he got stagefright, really, and just backed out of it. He only did a circuit and I pulled him up. I was going to run another mare here - she didn’t make it, and entries were shutting, so I said to my fiancée Claire Sherriff - her and her father own him - that we were going to come once more, give it one more try, and if it didn’t work, we wouldn’t come back.

“He jumped and travelled everywhere today, and coming down the hill I was hoping to God I wouldn’t get caught, but I knew he would keep galloping to the line.

“This is huge for British point-to-pointing. You’ve got all the top boys here, like Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins, running today, and for a Welshman to win it - that doesn’t happen very often. The bigger trainers normally rule races like these, and we are genuine point-to-point people. It’s good for us to come and be able to win one of these races.

Winning owner, Julian Sherriff, was one of the few who made the most of the 10-year-old’s generous odds.

He said: “I'm lost for words. We bought him four or five years ago in Ireland and he’s done us proud in points and hunter chases but this is absolutely fantastic.

“Bradley said he had a real chance and so increased my bet, and I got 100-1.

“He’s got an engine on him, what a horse, it makes everything you put into the game worth it.

“They used to train down in Wales with David Brace and always said they wanted to come up and live with me in the end. I said, ‘well I’ll build the stables, you get up here’ and that’s what happened. They have done it today. You can say it’s point-to-pointing, but in this place, it’s a little bit more!”

Olive Nicholls, daughter of 13-times champion Jump trainer Paul Nicholls, was over the moon when finishing third aboard Shantou Flyer. She said with a big smile: "That was absolutely brilliant as it was my first time around Cheltenham and the horse has done me proud. He jumped from fence to fence and we were always more or less where I needed to be and then we have stayed on really well.

"It will be brilliant to come back here next year in the hope of going two better as the way I feel is hard to beat. It's a day I will always remember."