A million reasons for the Go Native syndicate to win Champion Hurdle

John McIntyre

IT was the Galway racing festival of 2008 and the connections of Go Native were more than optimistic that their horse would land the William Hill Novice Hurdle at Ballybrit. Less than two weeks earlier, the five-year-old had won his maiden hurdle at Kilbeggan.

Sent off the 5/4 favourite despite concerns about the yielding ground, Go Native tired after the last and was unable to cope with Desert Abbey, the 7/1 winner trained by Jessica Harrington. In terms of the where the horse is now – the new favourite for the Champion Hurdle – it wasn’t the performance of a future top notch hurdler.

Owned by the six-strong local Docado Syndicate, Go Native progressed significantly over the following winter and spring, landing novice hurdles at both Punchestown and Nass before lining up in the Supreme Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham last March.

Though hardly one of the top contenders, Go Native wasn’t an outsider either. Sent off at 12/1, Paul Carberry tracked the leaders on the inside coming around the home turn and producing a fine leap at the last, they just had enough in reserve in fending off the late thrust of Merdermit, a horse they will renew rivalry with next Tuesday. 

There was only a neck between the pair at the finish and Carberry, the great ‘hold up’ jockey of his era, admitted afterwards that he had got there too soon with Go Native. It didn’t matter as Kitty Carr and Eamon Doyle of the Park House Hotel in Galway, and the rest of the syndicate, celebrated getting the meeting off to the perfect start for the Irish.

Go Native rounded off the season in the following month’s Evening Herald Champion Novice Hurdle at the Punchestown festival, but the rigours of a long campaign had taken the edge off the Cheltenham hero and he trailed in a well beaten fourth behind Hurricane Fly.It had still been a fantastic few months for the Docado Syndicate which had purchased Go Native from the well regarded Athenry based dealer, Martin Cullinane. They had a serious horse on their hands, were living the dream and enjoying a great profile. 

Yet, even the Docado Syndicate, in their wildest sporting fantasies, could hardly have envisaged Go Native’s headline-making exploits the following season which have left connections on the brink of a £1m sterling bonus if Noel Meade’s stable star can fend off all his rivals in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle.

It’s the third leg of the lucrative WBX Hurdling Triple Crown and Go Native is the only contender left after coming up trumps in the two earlier legs, the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle in November, and the Williamhill Christmas Hurdle at Kempton. One win was easy, the other turned into a nerve-wracking finale.

The Newcastle race was something of an unsatisfactory affair despite the presence of some classy hurdlers, including other Irish raiders, Solwhit and Sublimity, and last year’s Champion Hurdle second, the fit-again Binocular. It suited the horse with the best finishing kick and Go Native powered clear off a muddling pace in the home straight for a decisive victory.

His starting price of 25/1 was largely on the back of a disappointing second to Voler La Vedette in the WKD Core Hurdle at the big Down Royal meeting a few weeks earlier, but the ground was soft and Go Native just got bogged down in it. Even against that background, however, his win at Newcastle still raised a lot of racing eyebrows.The bookmakers, however, were talking no chances when the Irish raider lined up for the second leg of the WBX bonus at Kempton on St. Stephen’s Day. Sent off the 5/2 second favourite for the Christmas Hurdle, Go Native appeared poised for another impressive win when scooting three lengths clear at the last.

But Davy Condon’s mount began to idle on the run to the post and Go Native just managed to hold off the strong finishing thrust of Starluck by a rapidly diminishing neck. It represented Meade’s fourth triumph in the race having also saddled Harchibald (twice) and Jazz Messenger to Kempton glory.

Go Native hasn’t been seen on the racetrack since – at least, competitively – as connections opted to freshen him up for the big March festival after a busy pre-Christmas schedule. The noises from Meade’s yard are bullish and with the ground drying up all the time at Cheltenham, together with Solwhit’s dirty scope earlier this week, the seven-year-old now heads the Champion Hurdle betting market.

The prospect of winning the most prestigious prize over the smaller obstacles in the British Isles would be enough to keep Kitty Carr, Eamon Doyle and the other members of the Docado Syndicate, Maura and Tom Dowd, and their son, Sylvie, and daughter, Ann Marie, in a near permanent state of excitement, never mind that million pound bonus.

Should Go Native make a fourth consecutive successful cross-channel raid next week, the Docado Syndicate would stand to win £700,000 of that mind-boggling bonus with trainer Meade collecting £150,000, the horse’s groom, Alan McIlroy, £100,000, with his stable colleagues also in line for a £50,000 windfall.

Unfortunately, there are two considerable statistical negatives against Go Native delivering at Cheltenham for the second year running. For a start, since Bula landed the second of his Champion Hurdle victories in 1972, only two other Supreme Novices winners, Hors La Loi (1999) and Brave Inca (2004) have gone on to land the blue riband of hurdling.

Perhaps, even more pertinent is the reality that Noel Meade has only saddled three winners at the Cheltenham festival despite fielding 124 runners at the meeting since 1900. That’s a sobering reality even if it didn’t stop Go Native from doing the business in 2009.

The bottom line is that the ‘Galway horse’ goes to Cheltenham with every chance on the formbook and if Go Native manages to emulate the feat of For Auction, which sprung a 40/1 Champion Hurdle shock for the local Heaslip brothers in 1982, expect an extended celebration party in the Park House Hotel on Foster Street next week.