In it for the Long Run

By Stephen Dwyer

Now that the dust has settled on Cheltenham, it is a fitting time to reflect on what Long Run achieved when winning the Gold Cup. Apart from the record haul of 13 Irish winners, Long Run’s performance in racing’s blue riband was an outstanding accomplishment. For many it was the highlight of the four days as it answered unequivocally all questions about the marmite horse – either you love him or you hate him.

Long Run’s Gold Cup performance was simply world-class. He became the youngest horse since Mill House 48 years ago to win the race. His jockey; Sam Waley-Cohen became the first amateur in 30 years to win the Gold Cup. As an amateur, Waley-Cohen is not eligible to collect his share of the first prize (about €32,000) but he didn’t win this race for the money. To add to the glory, Long Run also broke the track record, and could have destroyed it, had he not struck three fences and lost precious momentum early in the race. Not many horses can hit so many fences and still go on to win a Gold Cup. Long Run though is not your average steeplechaser and these mistakes seemed to settle the six-year-old, a claim substantiated by his jumping coach, Yogi Bresner who believed they helped steady the horses’ rhythm.

Apart from Long Run, no six-year-olds ran in this year’s Gold Cup. No seven-year-olds ran either. In fact, the average age of runners in this year’s renewal was 8.8, a detail lost on Long Run’s connections. The old chestnut “if you are good enough, you are old enough” has never rung as true. Ever since he was bought as a three-year-old following a win at Auteuil, Long Run has become a pretender to the crown. Dethroning King George specialist Kauto Star at Kempton over Christmas was impressive but his talents really shone as he powered past three former Gold Cup winners in what was a vintage renewal of the Gold Cup.

The Waley-Cohens have never publically admitted how much they parted with for Long Run. Figures of €500,000 have been touted, but even for a man worth in excess of £30 million on the Sunday Time’s rich list, it is a staggering amount of money for a National Hunt horse.

Even after winning a King George and Gold Cup, Long Run is very much the new kid on the block. Whether he falls into the vein of precocious French types who peak early in their careers remains to be seen. Master Minded’s star was very much on the wane these past two seasons since his performance in the Champion Chase as a five-year-old. Long Run is still very lightly raced and his connections hope he will mature and progress as Kauto Star did when winning his first Gold Cup.

It was the first time that Nicky Henderson trained the winner of the Gold Cup and if he stays injury free, there is little in the way of opposition to stop Long Run from winning again in 2012. With the greatest of respect to Jessica Harrington, Boston’s Angel won a weak renewal of the RSA chase and is already a year older than Long Run. The danger may come from Time For Rupert but Long Run had the measure of Denman and Kauto Star this season and even if those two warhorses stay in training, youth is not on their side.

Whether or not Long Run will run in the Totesport Bowl at Aintree is still undecided, he was to travel to the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris (the French Gold Cup) in May but will likely be put away for the season before then.

With a new rating of 182, Long Run’s mark is lower than Kauto Star (186) and Imperial Commander (185) when they won the Gold Cup. It is on a par with Denman when he ground the field into submission in 2008.

Robert Waley-Cohen, the gelding’s owner believes he can become the highest rated horse ever seen. He is no Arkle yet but if the best is yet to come then he may indeed be in for the long run.

By Stephen Dwyer