Costello comes in from the cold on 33/1 shot at big Cheltenham festival

Date Published: {J}

John McIntyre

WHAT a way to come off the cold list! Galway jockey Dougie Costello had gone 65 rides without a winner until springing a 33/1 shock on Countrywide Flame in the JCB Triumph Hurdle on the closing day of the Cheltenham festival last Friday.

Costello’s poor run had been underlined just 24 hours earlier in the far more modest surroundings of Hexham when losing out in a photo finish, but the 29-year-old stopped the rot in spectacular style in the Grade One juvenile hurdle for his retaining yard of Malton-based John Quinn.

A native of Athenry, Costello was breaking his Cheltenham festival duck on Countrywide Flame which stayed on powerfully up the hill after the last and was drawing clear towards the finish from nearest challengers, the Dermot Weld trained Hisaabaat, and 5/1 favourite, Grumeti.

It had looked an unlikely scenario approaching the second last flight as Costello was pushing along the briefly outpaced but durable four-year old which still had ten horses in front of him approaching the home turn, including the flattering Baby Mix, ridden by another Galway jockey, Paddy Brennan.

The partnership, however, made significant headway between the final two flights and Costello’s mount jumped into the lead at the last before going away for a three lengths success. Countrywide Flame was also turning the tables on Hisaabaat and Shadow Catcher which had relegated him into third in the Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown the previous month.

Naturally, Costello was full of praise for his diminutive mount. “He’s a tough little lad, hardy as nails. All the way he was getting squeezed by bigger horses, but every time I gave him a shove to hold his position, he came back on the steel. It was as if having to battle made him more determined.

“He jumped really well having to come between horses off that fast pace. On the turn in, I thought I had some chance as he was sure to stay up the hill. He got under the last a bit, but got organised quickly and was never stopping.”

It was Costello’s 36th winner of the campaign and it left him in good heart for a crack at the Cheltenham Gold Cup itself later on the card. He was partnering course specialist Midnight Chase, but the front-running ten-year-old didn’t jump with his customary fluency and clouted the fourth last in trailing home a well beaten seventh.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.