State Man beats Constitution Hill at Punchestown
State Man won the Champion Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival as Constitution Hill came home in fifth place. Despite falls in consecutive races at Cheltenham and Aintree, Constitution Hill was an 8-13 favourite to get back to winning ways at Punchestown. However it was State Man, who also fell at Cheltenham, who stormed to victory with Paul Townend on home soil, while eight-time Grade One winner Constitution Hill drifted away to a fifth place finish. It was a third Champion Hurdle victory at the festival for the Willie Mullins trained horse, who came home ahead of Cheltenham winner Golden Ace. "It's the performance we always thought he had in him," Mullins said about State Man on RTE."In fairness to Constitution Hill, I don't think he turned up on the day. It's very hard to travel from England after having two falls and things just didn't go right for him."Our fella has run his true race and that's been a constant thing in his racing life, he always turns up and runs his race. It was a huge performance."Townend and Mullins combined to win the Grade One Novice Hurdle on Final Demand, ahead of Lovely Hurling and Tripoli Flyer.Fountain House won the opening race of the day in the Hunters' Chase, while Its On The Line came home in the Champion Hunters' Chase.Sea Music won the Novice Handicap Chase, Gordon Elliott's Casheldale Lad claimed the Novice Hurdle and Soldier In Milan won the Flat Race in the final outing of the day.The final day of the festival takes place on Saturday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
Meet the owner aiming to take down down racing's Goliaths in the Derby
If the Ralph Beckett trained Pride of Arras becomes the 246th winner of the Derby on Saturday, bloodstock experts will pore over the nuances of his ancestry to work out how the colt attained the perfect mix of speed and stamina to win the world's greatest flat race. However, the colt's pedigree is nothing compared with that of his 80-year-old owner-breeder, Lavina 'Vimy' Ackroyd, who, should he win, would realise the eternal dream upon which racing sells itself; David beats Goliath and how a small-time owner-breeder with four mares and just six horses in training can occasionally conquer the sport's behemoths in its biggest race. Ironically, though, it is the Grand National for which Ackroyd's paternal grandfather, Harry Beasley, was famous. He trained and rode the 1891 National winner Come Away. With his three brothers (Tommy, Willie and Johnny), between 1877 and 1892, they won the race four times, had six seconds and two thirds from 34 rides. Skip forward a generation and her cousin, Bobby Beasley, won the 1961 National on Nicolaus Silver. Though Tommy won the National three times, Harry was considered the better rider, winning the Grand Steeplechase de Paris twice. At the age of 72, he won over obstacles at Punchestown on the original Pride of Arras after whom this colt is named. Despite being born with Aintree coursing through his veins, her father, Rufus, was a successful flat jockey winning the St Leger on Boswell in 1936 and, a year later, the Ascot Gold Cup on Precipitation. He was Irish but, having been educated at Ampleforth, developed a love for Yorkshire and when he turned to training, he did so in Malton. When preparing Bounteous for the 1961 Derby he hired a local brass band to line his gallop and play as the colt galloped to ensure he was not unsettled by the din at Epsom – (come on Aidan, that's one stone you seem to leave unturned). Bounteous was unplaced but went on to finish second in the St Leger. Vimy's mother was Lady Alexandra Egerton, daughter of the sixth Earl of Wilton who had come within a week of owning the 1920 St Leger winner, Caligula, and he was partial to a bet. 'I don't think much money actually changed hands in those days, they bet farms,' says Vimy of an era when many of the great estates were partly dismantled at the card table. In the summer of 1920 Lord Wilton's financial problems had 'worsened' and his creditors said 'enough'. Caligula was sold for 8,000 guineas a week before the Classic. 'My parents came for lunch on the odd Sunday' Aged three, Vimy was fostered out to the Grimthorpes, the Yorkshire racing family, until she was eight and she was effectively brought up as a 'sister' to William Beckett. 'My mother didn't get on with nannies and the Grimthorpes were able to share a nanny so I lived with them,' she recalls. 'It was strange. I can't say I took it all in my stride but you can't let it affect you when you reach my age. My parents came for lunch on the odd Sunday when they weren't too busy.' Back then it was probably not a unique arrangement but it is crucial in the Pride of Arras story – when William Beckett's son, Ralph, started training in 1999, Vimy was one of the first owners to send him a horse. From eight onwards she attended a variety of convent schools which she either did not like or was expelled from, was sent back from a finishing school in Paris after three weeks with jaundice and did a Deb season which did not agree with her rebellious nature. 'It was ghastly,' she recalls. But she wound up at a secretarial college before going to work for the Anglo-Indian big band jazz leader Confrey Phillips, eventually marrying him. Four years later, the marriage over, she returned to Yorkshire to ride out for her father. In 1972 the Jockey Club let females ride on the Flat for the first time by setting up a series of 12 ladies only amateur races. Riding a horse called Old Cock, she won the race at Doncaster in 1972 and another at Haydock in 1973. 'Hardly Hollie Doyle,' she says modestly and yet it was the first baby step on the road subsequently travelled by Gay Kelleway, Hayley Turner and Doyle. 'But I suppose it did set the ball rolling.' She then married Richard Ackroyd and they lived a bucolic life looking after a few animals and chickens in Spain for 20 years. 'When Richard died in 1997 from cancer it took me two years to sell the place but I came back to London in 1999 which is when I had my first horse with Ralph.' She then returned to Yorkshire and 20 years ago married her late husband's brother David who was much more into racing. 'He was very entrepreneurial,' she explains. 'He made money, he lost money.' Pre-Vimy, he had been a partner with Robert Sangster in Ballydoyle's first incarnation. Tragically David, who lived for racing, is now in a care home with dementia unaware that his wife's horse is going to Epsom on Saturday. Her first good horse with Beckett was Puff who won the Fred Darling in 2010 and was the catalyst for her to have a crack at breeding. 'She was an utter failure as a broodmare,' she remembers. 'We sent her to very good stallions but Patrick Cooper [David's nephew and her bloodstock adviser] said we couldn't keep bad mares and she had to go. It's a good job I didn't live at Copgrove Stud where we keep them – if I'd seen her out in the paddock every day I'd have been too attached to sell.' About 15 years ago to up the breeding ante, Cooper added Pride of Arras's granddam Kitty O'Shea, bought privately from Coolmore, to her broodmares. The colt's dam, Parnell's Dream, was sent to New Bay, who cost just £20,000 at the time – he is now 10 times that. By any owner's standards Vimy had a good May. Old Cock, the horse she has in training with Ed Bethell which was named after the horse she won the ladies' races on, won at York on the same day as Pride of Arras. A week later Amiloc, a gelding, won the Cocked Hat Stakes at Goodwood and if Pride of Arras does not win the Derby then compensation could await at Royal Ascot, where she has never had a winner but her father had many, with Amiloc. This week, though, it is all about Pride of Arras. 'Initially we were very enthused when he won his maiden at Sandown,' recalls his owner-breeder. 'But subsequently the horses he beat did nothing and he had a small issue. The plan was to run again in the autumn but the ground got very heavy so we decided to leave it. 'Ralph began saying we'd start this season off in a novice. He wasn't ready for that so he said: 'We'll have to go straight to Dante.' Then he said that he was only going there because the owner lives in Yorkshire!! Thanks, Ralph! He keeps his cards close to his chest and, actually, that suits me, I don't want him telling me in January I'm going to win the Derby. 'But I was amazed with the way he won the Dante. When Old Cock won earlier in the afternoon I thought:'That's my luck for the day.' Two furlongs out he was boxed in and when Rossa [Ryan] went for a very small gap I thought: 'That's a bit brave.' But he didn't hesitate. You hear others were unlucky, something stumbled out of stalls, another pulled too hard. But you would hope his trajectory, after just two runs, is steeper. Ralph says he's tightened up. Obviously we're very hopeful. 'The National may be in the background but now we want a Derby! Flat is my thing, father was flat. Ernie Halifax came up to me at York and said: 'Shirley Heights [the last Yorkshire owned and bred Derby winner] won the Dante – you've got it Vimy.'' Of course people with blank cheques have made approaches for Pride of Arras. 'Patrick says you're not selling,' she explains. 'It's taken all this time to get a horse this good and what do you do if you sell it? You buy a lot of bad horses instead. He's got a point.'
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
Cheltenham Cricket Festival 'may not survive' rising costs
The chair of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club has warned the future of the Cheltenham Cricket Festival will be in doubt if it doesn't stop losing fortnight-long event at the College Ground, which sees Gloucestershire move from their usual ground in Bristol up to Cheltenham, is the world's longest-running cricket festival, having started more than 150 years county said it has been losing "tens of thousands of pounds" because of rising costs and falling ticket Peter Matthews said the club "can't run the event long term at a loss". The first Cheltenham Cricket Festival was held in 1872 and at one time Gloucestershire played matches across the county. In more recent years, the club's annual trip to play at Moreton-In-Marsh ended in 1996 and financial pressures led to the Gloucester Cricket Festival coming to an end in is now the only place in Gloucestershire where the county plays matches, with the regular home games taking place in Bristol. Mr Matthews said the event in Cheltenham has faced increased financial challenges since the Covid-19 pandemic."For many years, particularly pre-Covid, when corporate hospitality was in its prime, it was making very good money for the county, but it has been a struggle in recent years."Last year's festival was particularly difficult. The weather wasn't very good and we didn't get as many spectators as we had expected. The cost of putting the festival on has also gone up in recent years," he added. 'We must be realistic' A new committee has been set up to try and boost the number of people attending this year's event, which takes place in mid July. "We've put together an action plan, we've put together a new team and we've got some great events lined up. We're very hopeful this year we will see a change in finances for the county," said Mr Matthews."But we have to be realistic, we can't run the event long term at a loss".The club, which announced last year it would be exploring options for a new stadium on the edge of Bristol, is planning to set up a 'boundary hub', with Mr Matthews saying it "recognises that for some people it's a social occasion as well as a cricket occasion".The hub will host events with the presenters of TV show Bargain Hunt, jockeys and Cheltenham Town FC players, as well as a cricket memorabilia event. The festival also provides opportunities for local organisations and charities to raise awareness and Cheltenham Town FC Community Trust will be part of this year's event, and community fundraiser Tess Warby said it's a great way for them to promote what they do."Not a lot of people know about us at the moment, but we do lots in the community. We provide programmes to help with mental health, education and inclusion."Sport brings people together at the football club. The Cheltenham cricket festival brings another community together. It's nice to work with a local organisation to help build awareness," she added."It's one of the oldest-running cricket festivals and it's fantastic to be part of such a rich heritage."Bringing two big sporting local organisations together - we should be supporting each other as businesses and charities."
BBC News
5 days ago
- BBC News
Midfielder Kinsella signs new Cheltenham deal
Cheltenham Town midfielder Liam Kinsella has signed a new one-year contract with an option to extend it by a further 29-year-old defensive midfielder made 41 appearances in all competitions for the League Two Robins during the 2024-25 month it was announced that five players were to be released by the club but that Cheltenham had offered Kinsella a new deal along with Joe Day, Ryan Haynes, Tom Bradbury and Freddy Willcox."I'm absolutely buzzing to get it all sorted," Kinsella told the club website., external"I've enjoyed it here from minute one and as soon as I knew a deal was there, there was no other place I wanted to be."Kinsella, the son of former Charlton and Republic of Ireland midfielder Mark, began his career at Walsall where he made over 200 appearances and won the club's player of the year award twice in a row before joining Swindon in 2023.
