‘Every winner at Cheltenham is special’ – Saratoga storms to success to get birthday boy JP McManus off the mark at this year’s festival
JP McManus celebrated his 75th birthday in style when getting off the mark at this year’s Cheltenham Festival with Saratoga in the McCoy Contractors Juvenile Handicap Hurdle under a polished Mark Walsh ride.
The easy-to-back 10-1 chance was positioned just off a ferocious pace set by trailblazer Paddockwood, before moving into a narrow lead two out and had enough up his sleeve from the home turn to account for Winston Junior in a race better known as the Fred Winter.
A slow start cost runner-up Winston Junior, who was doing all his best work at the finish but was still two and a quarter lengths adrift at the line. One of the other prominent runners, Klycot, finished a remarkable third at odds of 40-1.
It was a second success in the first handicap of the meeting for trainer Padraig Roche after the winner’s half-brother Brazil did the business in the same colours in 2022.
The win was the fourth success in the last seven years in the contest for McManus, who swiftly completed a big-race handicap double with Johnnywho in the Ultima. The haul took the owner to 86 winners at the festival.
Mark Walsh celebrates his win on SaratogaCredit: Grossick Racing (racingpost.com/photos)
Walsh said: “I got a great run and a great start. I was upsides Sam Twiston-Davies [on Bibe Mus] the whole way around and we went a good gallop. I didn’t think the two in front were going to lead us the whole way so I moved up and winged the second last. He did it very easy.”
He added: “It’s brilliant to give JP McManus a birthday winner and also for Padraig Roche, who is a very good friend of mine. We won this before with Brazil, who is Saratoga’s half-brother, so it’s great for the family.”
In the pre-race exchanges, the money had been for Mustang Du Breuil, one of three runners in McManus’s famous green and gold colours. He was sent off 7-2 favourite, having been backed from 8-1, but he was never better than his finishing position of eighth.
The winning owner said: “Michael O’Leary wished me a happy birthday this morning and said that ‘only the good die young’, which was nice of him.
“Every winner at Cheltenham is special and we thought that the ground would be too soft for Saratoga a couple of weeks ago, but every day it dried out has helped as he bounces off the ground.”
Read more on the 2026 Cheltenham Festival:
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