A media colleague used to say to me that the best story to find in the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival would be one about a horse ridden out by a nun on a beach in Ireland.
This was no sort of stereotyping, but a yearning to have a few alternatives to the exploits of the usual suspects who in those days were, believe it or not, mainly British.
Great-story horses like – starting in the (reasonably) modern era – Norton’s Coin (Gold Cup), Flakey Dove (Champion Hurdle), Danoli (Sun Alliance, now Turners, Hurdle), Paisley Park (Stayers) and Golden Ace (Champion Hurdle) – add in your favourite here – do not grow on trees, and the recent dominance of the Irish powerhouses have generally made them even less likely.
However, it strikes me that Cheltenham 2026 is offering more potential fairytales than usual – prices, with Fitzdares, NRNB and correct at the time of writing.
- I’ll Sort That (Turners Novices’ Hurdle, 12/1 or Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, 11/1) is, unusually, both trained and ridden for owner David Needham by the same person – Declan Queally, brother of Frankel’s jockey Tom. County Waterford-based Queally prioritises training, riding sparingly and only as an amateur, comparing himself competing on level terms against the leading names at home in Ireland as feeling like a junior hurler participating in an All-Ireland Final. Taking the “dream” mount on I’ll Sort That will far from his first at Cheltenham, but he will be making his debut in a Grade One prize there, though the six-year-old’s rise to prominence with four wins from four starts this season has included a top-level success in January.
- Oscars Brother (Brown Advisory, 10/1), a horse that has absolutely thrived over fences, is one of just two which have the shine put on them at Golden, County Tipperary by former jockey Connor King, in between his ‘day job’ working at the burgeoning operation of trainer Paddy Twomey close-by. Ridden by King’s younger brother Daniel, the eight-year-old, recently acquired by owner JP McManus, reached new heights when leading all the way to win the usually informative Ten Up Novice Chase at Navan by six length – what a galloper. As number 22 in the Grand National weights, with 10 stone 13, he’s also guaranteed a run at Aintree, but it’s Cheltenham first.
- When Emmet Mullins paid £3,500 for Minella Emperor (Pertemps Final, 9/1) from online auction house ThoroughBid’s December Sale in 2024 he jokingly signed for the point-to-pointer as Mr S Claus: what a gift he’s proved to be for owner/amateur jockey Michael O’Neill who runs a haulage company just down the road from Mullins’ County Carlow HQ. Former showjumper O’Neill got into race-riding via Ireland’s Corinthian Challenge charity initiative and has lined up twenty times under Rules, winning three, two of them bumpers on Minella Emperor, which heads to Cheltenham as a maiden over hurdles, but with recent form making him a leading player. And, of course, having on your side a sky-high reputation when it comes to targeting stellar handicaps only adds to the mix.
- Were Triumph Hurdle prospect Minella Study under the care of someone higher profile than Adam Nicol who has twenty horses in his stables at Seahouses, Northumberland, he would be an even shorter than the 7/1 on offer. Nicol, who is able to use the beaches on the NE England coast in his horses’ training routine, was a stalwart-jockey on the northern jumps circuit, riding prolific mare Lady Buttons to a majority of her wins, before injury forced him to retire. Wise Eagle has already given him some memorable days, but saddling a well-touted, unbeaten hurdler – with course and distance form under his belt – against principal opponents trained by Willie Mullins, Dan Skelton and Gordon Elliott is something else.
