Road To The Weatherbys Champion Bumper

Thu, Jan 26, 2012

Cheltenian – the 2011 winner of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper

Wednesday the 14th March 2012 marks the 16th anniversary of Weatherbys sponsorship of the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival. In that first renewal, back in 1997, the great Florida Pearl stormed to victory, with Ferdy Murphy’s top class hurdler French Holly some ten lengths behind in sixth place.

Since those early days, there have been some fantastic winners of the race, the majority of them trained in Ireland. In the last two years though, British trained horses have filled the first two places with Cue Card and Al Ferof first and second in 2010 and Cheltenian and Destroyer Deployed in 2011! Other great winners of the race have included Monsignor, Alexander Banquet and Dunguib, but whose name will be engraved on the prestigious trophy this year?

For the 2012 renewal, Weatherbys will be going behind the scenes with a likely challenger in the days and weeks leading up to the big race, including interviews with their connections and hopefully, all being well, watching them rise to the challenge of that famous Cheltenham hill come March time.

The horse we will be following is ASHES HOUSE, who is trained by Tim Vaughan in South Wales. Tim also trained Destroyer Deployed to be second last year, so he knows the type of horse required for the job! The horse has won his last two starts by a combined distance of 31 lengths and he is owned by Diamond Racing, who organise a number of syndicates and have 13 horses in training. Their motto is ‘Bringing the Sport of Kings to the People’ and that’s exactly what we are looking to do!

On Ashes House, their Racing Manager, Christian Morgan says “He is a very exciting prospect; our next stop is a listed bumper at Newbury in February then the Champion Bumper. Ground is the key for him, the softer the better but he looks a horse with a decent future. It is fantastic for our owners to have a horse with such potential”

The next time on the Road To The Bumper, we will be meeting Tim and the team from Diamond Racing and finding out how he is progressing in his preparation. Do come back soon!

Ashes House, along with all the other main contenders in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, will feature in the 2012 Weatherbys Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide, which is published on the 24th February and is available to pre-order now from Weatherbys Shop!