Cheltenham Gold Cup 1990

After famously justifying favouritism, under unfavourable conditions, in the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup – and winning his four of his five completed starts since, including the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day – Desert Orchid was, once again, sent off favourite for the 1990 renewal, this time at a shade of odds-on. However, while the reigning champion made an admirably dogged defence of his title, still holding every chance at the second-last fence, he was upstaged by the unlikeliest of unlikely winners, whose trainer, by his own admission, “never had any ambitions”.

That winner was, of course, Norton’s Coin, owned and trained by Sirrell Griffiths in Nantgaredig, Carmarthenshire, who belied odds of 100/1 to become the longest-priced winner in 63 runnings of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Ridden by Graham McCourt, the nine-year-old was always going well, and tackled the leader, Toby Tobias, on the run-in to win, all out, by three-quarters of a length. Desert Orchid, who was, at the time, officially rated nearly two stone superior to the winner, finished third, a further 4 lengths away. On good to firm going, the winning time, 6:30.9, was 8.10 seconds faster than the standard time for the Gold Cup distance and 4.10 seconds faster than the previous best, set by Dawn Run in the historic renewal in 1986.

Forced to enter Norton’s Coin in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, at a cost of £1,000, having missed the deadline for an alternative handicap engagement, Griffiths said later, “”I couldn’t believe he’d won. And I didn’t believe it until sometime afterwards. I did so many interviews that day, but I can’t remember what I said. It was a daze!”