Aberdeenshire-owned Ahoy Senor is bidding to make history this week by becoming the first Scottish-trained horse to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The gelding, who is owned by Ellon residents Bruce and Carron Wymer and trained by Lucinda Russell near Kinross, runs in Friday’s festival showpiece.
In the last two years, Ahoy Senor has won a Grade One novice hurdle and Grade One novice chase at Aintree and the Wymers believe his best is still to come.
Bruce said: “He would be the first Scottish-trained Gold Cup winner, which would be quite something, and he goes with a realistic chance.
“It’s incredible that we’re in a position to have a horse that’s good enough to go.
“We never expected to be in this situation, but we are.
“He’s not run his best race yet and he’s already won some good graded races.
“If he gets his jumping spot on then he’s probably got more power and scope than any of the others.
“We’re not there yet, but we went to see him the other day and he’s looking fitter and better than I’ve ever seen, so we think he’s ready.”
Carron added: “Two years ago before the Sefton Hurdle at Aintree, Lucinda asked us: ‘would you rather a Gold Cup runner or a Grand National runner?’
“And at that point he’d only won a hurdle at Ayr… and then we were running in a grade one at Aintree.
“Our dream was to have a Gold Cup runner, but we never expected to come this close to it, so now we’re here, it’s quite surreal.”
Back to form for Ahoy Senor – right on time
Ahoy Senor is priced around 14/1 for the Gold Cup, but his odds have fluctuated throughout this season.
Disappointing runs in Grade Twos at Wetherby and Aintree and in the Grade One King George VI chase at Kempton on Boxing Day meant he drifted to 66/1.
But he bounced back to form in January winning the Grade Two Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham, beating fellow Gold Cup contenders Sounds Russian, Noble Yeats and Protektorat in the process.
Bruce added: “The season didn’t start as we’d hoped and planned, but the Cotswold Chase put us back on track and he proved he’s definitely worth his place in the Gold Cup.
“We were always keen that he should go back to Cheltenham prior to the festival to get more experience.
“There are a lot of good horses in the race as you would expect, but he’s going with a chance of winning – he isn’t going to make up the numbers.”
HE'S BACK!! 💥
Ahoy Senor gets up to take the Paddy Power Cotswold Chase 🥇
Nice tip from @olibellracing on #TheOpeningShow 😉#ITVRacing | @CheltenhamRaces | @DerekFoxJockey | @lucindavrussell pic.twitter.com/oEdnX3HzHV
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) January 28, 2023
‘Dad would be having kittens’ at thought of Wymers’ Gold Cup runner
The Wymers took the plunge into racehorse ownership just over three years ago after Carron’s racing-loving father, Barnett, left her some money following his death.
When asked how she thought her father would feel about having a Gold Cup runner, Carron said: “If my dad won £10 on a bet he’d be over the moon, so if he knew we had a horse running in the Gold Cup he’d having kittens. He’d be very excited.
“It’s quite a hard question to answer, but I think he’d be extremely excited to know there’s a horse running in his memory in the race that’s the pinnacle of the sport.”
Ahoy Senor isn’t the only Scottish hope at the Cheltenham Festival, which gets under way today.
Russell saddles last year’s winner – and Grand National hopeful – Corach Rambler in the Ultima Handicap Chase at 2.50 today.
Recent Kelso Morebattle Hurdle winner Benson is set to take his chance in tomorrow’s Coral Cup for Borders trainer Sandy Thomson.
If he were to win, connections would be in line for £100,000 bonus for winning the Morebattle and a festival race.
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