Results Cheltenham Tue, 15th Mar, 2022

Constitution cruises to Supreme victory

That was awesome. I know what the second horse is and I would have been very surprised if anything could have done that to Jonbon, so he must be an extraordinary animal. The hype horse earlier on in the year was Jonbon, then this fella woke up from his slumbers at home and we suddenly realised that actually he was very good. He’s been very good but the big question was how much he actually knew, he’s run in two hurdle races with four runners in each. To suddenly go out there and go at that gallop, that’s the extraordinary thing. He can travel so easily at that pace and then pick it up, to find gears at the end of a headlong gallop like that was extraordinary.

Edwardstone claims Arkle in style

He wears his heart on his sleeve, he jumps well, goes out and does his thing. I was only half-watching when we could easily have been brought down and I wasn’t sure if we had at one stage, but the gods were shining on us. Thereafter he looked to travel really well and never missed a beat. Full marks to Tom as well — that’s his first Cheltenham winner and he’s given him a cracking ride. Tom is riding out of his skin at the moment. I’ve been training 22 years and he’s only my third stable jockey. He reminds me of Choc (Robert Thornton) as he has the most laid-back attitude. If he’s nervous, he doesn’t show it. We’ve always trained the good horses this way. I don’t think Voy Por Ustedes or My Way De Solzen came here under-raced and his races have been reasonably spaced out. As I said the other week, he’s just been two or three years in the making. He used to over-race a little bit, but running him in those big handicap hurdles last year was the making of him. People have doubted his jumping, but I’ve never had any worries about it. He’s always had the potential, but these good horses don’t happen overnight. It’s a relief more than anything. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. Thank God it was the second race on the first day!

Rambler lunges late in Ultima

It means so much. Driving here I said to Scu (partner Peter Scudamore) ‘if we had loads of horses running at the Festival, it wouldn’t matter so much’, but we’re so invested in the two that are here. Scu does everything with this horse and it’s not just having a winner at Cheltenham, which means a lot, but it’s about the horse and the owners, a lot of whom haven’t had a horse before. It’s amazing. He worked quite well with Ahoy Senor the other day. Most horses couldn’t lay a finger on him, but this horse got quite close to him. I didn’t want him to go to Ascot last time, Scu did. He said afterwards he would have been first or second and would have gone up 5lb, so maybe it was a good thing that he unseated. He could be an Aintree horse next year, definitely. Because of the false starts we were at the back and I was stood with the owners and said to one of them ‘we’ll need a vintage Derek Fox ride’ and we got one. It’s funny, it suits the horse as he loves coming through horses. He’s a bit quirky but that was lovely, we knew he’d come up the hill as he’d won here before. I’ve said before, Scu rides him all the time and they suit each other as they are both quirky. I want them to do two canters and he’ll head off and canter on the grass. It’s great, well done Derek.

Honeysuckle wins back to back Champion Hurdles

Rock doubles up for Henderson & de Boinville

She was in the wilderness for 12 months. She was favourite for the mares’ novice, got injured and then we lost her, but he’s a genius. She spent some time off in a field and came in a different horse and then it’s been onwards and upwards. We’ve had a winner here before with Junior in the Kim Muir but this is our first Grade One over jumps, never mind here, and she only cost £35,000. This is fantastic because we lost her last year, a bit like Epatante, she went walkabout — it’s lovely when they come back. I was very impressed with her when she won at Warwick last time out so I was hopeful, but I knew it would be very competitive. Winning the first race takes the pressure off, we can enjoy it all now.

Brazil gives Roche first festival winner

It’s fantastic, we’re lucky to have a horse like him. It’s great,. He’s a full-brother to Capri so we knew he’d definitely stay, Mark was brilliant on him so I’m just delighted. JP and Noreen (McManus) have been very good to me. It’s unbelievable, I’ve been coming here since I was young, when dad was training. It’s just unbelievable that it’s worked out. We just thought he was improving, it’s taken him a while with his jumping but he was improving.

Mullins off the mark with impressive Stattler

This English dominance has been going on all day! I thought Patrick was very cool on him, certainly my nerves were in bits going round the whole time. Patrick got him into a rhythm, got him settled, got him jumping and produced him at the right time. I thought coming round the last bend, when he couldn’t put it to bed, I thought he might just be in trouble, but he got him round the last bend and just pinged him at the second-last. He knew he had his measure then. I think he only made one mistake, or put in one short one during the race — Patrick just sat there and got the horse to do the work. I think he’s a good jumper and that’s why Patrick nominated him early in the season for this race. He was thinking of himself the whole time, which is the right thing to do, it worked out! He probably has enough class win over two and a half miles or three miles.