Sparky May has Pat Rodford dreaming of Cheltenham

Sparky May (right)

There are plenty of dreams that come true at Ascot, but they are normally those of rich men and they come at a hefty price.

Names like those of Keiran Burke and Pat Rodford do not make the roll of honour there that often but they do now after Sparky May took the dream of a crack the Cheltenham Festival one step nearer when she won the Grade Two 1942 Was A Vintage Year Mares' Hurdle.

Rodford could have been forgiven for thinking that 2009 was something of a vintage year for his small yard at Ash, in Somerset, when this mare won hurdles at Worcester, Lingfield and Newbury. But now he is going into the uncharted territory of the Festival and a run in the David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle.

Burke had not ridden a winner since that Newbury victory but he had the confidence to take up the running five from home when he gave up the unequal struggle of trying to restrain Sparky May any longer. That was plenty far enough in this sort of ground and, jumping the second-last, there were the first signs that the pace might be starting to tell as Carole’s Legacy closed. But Burke got Sparky May over to the rail and she did not let him down to win by four lengths, with the jockey punching the air with as much vigour as if he had won the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National all rolled into one.

“Plan A went right out of the window when I couldn’t hold her with a circuit to go,” he said. “So we had to switch to plan B and it worked. I always knew, when we got a few lengths clear, she’s a tough mare to come back to – she’ll keep on galloping. It’s good for a little yard like ours – hopefully we’ll have a horse good enough to go to Cheltenham.”

Rodford was savouring the biggest moment in a long career but more than happy to push the credit to Burke who does much of the training in the yard now. “I think she was just coming to the end of her tether, but she did it well didn’t she? She’s very good – she must be a freak. And we have a full-sister at home so I hope she’s as good,” he said.

“He’s a very, very good jockey – and he’s a good trainer too. He does most of the work – I just feed them at night – and the girl who leads her up [Gemma Sharp] and everybody else does so much; it’s wonderful. I’ve never done anything quite like this so we’ll treasure this for a long time.”

Andrew Thornton has ridden enough big winners – a Gold Cup and a King George VI Chase prove he has not been wasting his time – but even he could not remember his last Ascot winner. And Tatenen, once considered a top-notch novice chaser with Paul Nicholls, had taken something of a slide down the ratings.

A switch to the Richard Rowe yard seems to have tapped into the dormant talent and horse and jockey proved that neither are back numbers with a 16-length win in the victorchandler.com Handicap Chase.

The jokers in the weighing room may point out that Thornton rides longer than John Wayne but he has been one of the game’s survivors and his summary of both himself and Tatenen was typically down to earth. “He was a very good novice and some of them find it hard the following season to step up into handicap company. But the handicapper’s given him a bit of a chance and it’s nice to be given the chance on a horse like him.

“I’ve just sat on him, pointed him in the right direction and he kept going. You just need the horses to be able to do the job and, luckily, I’ve got the right horse, right day.”

Paul Maloney was on the right horse of the two Evan Williams runners in the Bet With Your Mobile At Victorchandler.com Holloway's Hurdle. Lucaindubai took a heavy fall two out but Maloney was rewarded for a cool ride as Tiger O’Toole came through the field to win by a half-length and could head next to Newbury for the Totesport Trophy on February 12th.

Paul Wheeler

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