CHELTENHAM NAME RACE AFTER RELKEEL

Relkeel, winner of the Bonusprint Bula Hurdle at Cheltenham for the last three seasons, is having a race named after him at this year`s meeting.

The first race on the second day of the fixture (Saturday, December 9) has been re-named the Concord Brights Filing Products Relkeel Hurdle.

Last year Relkeel, then ten, stormed up the Cheltenham hill to win an emotionally-charged Bula by a neck from Far Cry to become the first horse to win the race three times in a row.

He was ridden by Richard Johnson and trained by Alan King, who had taken over from David Nicholson as the trainer at Jackdaws Castle.

Nicholson said today: 'I am chuffed that Cheltenham are naming a race after Relkeel. For a horse as fragile as he was, he did brilliantly and was one of the very best I trained.'

Relkeel is in retirement at Jackdaws Castle whose present incumbent Richard Phillips said: 'He is ridden by the head lad Mark White who rode Relkeel a lot when he was in training.

'He is the hack, although I haven`t the bottle to ride him so Mark does.

'Relkeel is enjoying himself enormously and having a happy retirement.'

The 11-year-old will parade on the day of the race when the #40,000 Bula Hurdle and the #80,000 Tripleprint Gold Cup are also run.