Cheltenham Festival 2012

The 2012 Cheltenham Festival was staged, as is customary, between Tuesday, March 13 to Friday, March 16, 2012 and was notable for the dominance of British-trained horses. The for-once-not-all-conquering Willie Mullins saddled three winners, his brother, Thomas, saddled one, as did Rodger Sweeney, but all the other races, including the five ‘feature’ races, went the way of horses trained on British soil, making the final score 22-5 in favour of the home team. Nicky Henderson was the leading trainer, with seven winners over the four days, and Barry Geraghty was the leading jockey, with five.

Rock On Ruby, trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Noel Fehily, sprang a minor surprise in the Champion Hurdle, beating defending champion, and odds-on favourite, Hurricane Fly into third place. Finian’s Rainbow, trained by Henderson and ridden by Geraghty, won the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Riverside Theatre, for the same trainer/jockey combination, justified favouritism in the Ryanair Chase and Big Buck’s, trained by Nicholls and ridden by Ruby Walsh won the World Hurdle for the fourth year running.

In the ‘Blue Riband’ event, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, previous dual winner Kauto Star – making what turned out to be his last appearance at the Festival, as a 12-year-old – was pulled up before halfway. In his absence, victory went to the ill-fated Synchronised, trained by Jonjo O’Neill and ridden by Tony McCoy, who kept on gamely in the closing stages to beat The Giant Bolster and defending champion, Long Run, by two-and-a-quarter lengths and three-quarters of a length. Tragically, less than a month later, the nine-year-old was fatally injured after falling in the Grand National, as he attempted to become the first horse since the legendary Golden Miller to win both the premier steeplechases in the country in the same season.