If two brothers dead-heating for the same race was not a first then it was, at least, a very rare occurrence when Sean and James Bowen flashed past the post together on Quantock Hills and Teriferma respectively in the JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday.
It was the first dead-heat at the course for eight years and a result which could only be trumped if the jockeys were twins and could also have claimed to have ‘dead-heated’ on their birthday.
Either way the judge was unable to split the Welsh siblings Sean, 27, from James, 22, though they got there by very different routes; Teriferma four lengths down in fourth at the last but flying up the hill and Quantock Hills, slightly isolated on the far side of the course, hanging on for grim life but without the spur of knowing the joint winner was coming after him.
“It’s probably never happened before and it’s unlikely to ever happen again,” said Sean Bowen who, on 104 winners for the season just shades Harry Skelton (101) in the title race. “It’s good to do it at Cheltenham.”
“I’d have felt hard done by if I’d been beaten,” said James. “Sean challenged on the wrong side of me! About 50 yards out I thought I’d been done but to share it with my brother is better than anyone else.”
The only difference between the horses was their starting price; the Jack Jones trained Teriferma was an 18-1 shot, Warren Greatrex’s Quantock Hills was an 11-2 shot. For once the Irish favourite, Total Look, could only finish third. Both winners will likely be aimed at the Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle at the Festival and, with both having bright futures beyond their juvenile careers, raced sparingly before then. The pair of jockeys were a more regular first and second in the next race.
When Venetia Williams is in form you can pretty much fill in the blanks for the name of the big chase and horse on any given weekend and after wins in the Betfair Chase, the Peterborough and Rehearsal Chases and a couple of decent Ascot handicap chases, Gemirande and Charlie Deutsch landed the Nyetimber December Gold Cup by a length from the 11-4 favourite Madara.
Gemirande led from the fourth and then gamely stuck his neck out up the hill when it appeared the runner-up might have had more in the tank to make the jockey’s effort to ride at 10st 2lb when he was 10st 7lbs stripped on Friday worthwhile.
If Wes Streeting is ever looking for an obesity tsar he might think about an ex-jockey. Deutsch said he had been wasting since Wednesday and, on Friday had survived on an apple and a banana and felt guilty eating a slice of poached salmon. He certainly has more resolve in that department than his father Johnny who, when riding pointers, used to work on the theory that at Sunday lunch one roast potato would make no difference so two wouldn’t and, therefore, three wouldn’t and so on.
Though Deutsch, who is expecting Santa to bring a baby at Christmas, conceded during his post-race interview that his keenness to get back to the weighing room was so he could eat a sandwich, he explained that it was well worth the privation.
“Sometimes you wonder half way through a race when you’ve been starving whether it was worth it but I always look forward to riding this horse,” he said.
“I’ve ridden him in quite a few big handicaps and though it hasn’t quite happened for him I’ve learned a lot about him. He likes to have things his own way. You never know what another horse has left but I knew I had a little bit left after the last and though he wasn’t big and long at the last, he was quick.”
He added he has been in racing long enough not to get too carried away with purple patches but ‘to make hay while the sun shines.’
