Kelly hits Cheltenham jackpot with Presenting Percy
WHAT Pat Kelly achieved in Cheltenham last Thursday stretched the bounds of sporting credulity . . . for a small West of Ireland stable to win the same race with two different horses for the second year running on National Hunt’s biggest stage represents an astonishing achievement.
The fact that the same jockey and the same owner were also sharing in the Galway trainer’s plundering of the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle for the second time only adds to the fairytale nature of Presenting Percy’s convincing triumph in the Cotswolds.
Following in the hoof prints of Mall Dini, an unlucky fifth later on the same card, the progressive six-year-old was guaranteeing Kelly’s place in Cheltenham festival folklore as the Craughwell-based handler underlined his ability to hold his in the sport’s most cherished arena.
Presenting Percy had already made pre-festival headlines having been hit by the handicappers on both sides of the Irish Sea in response to a convincing success in a Fairyhouse handicap hurdle in at the end of the last month. It was a race Kelly’s horse to win to even qualify for Cheltenham.
With a rating of 130 heading to the Co Meath track, Presenting Percy was slapped with a total penalty of 16lbs – comprised of ten from the Irish handicapper together with six extra from his UK handicapper – after winning with his head in his chest under Davy Russell.
Connections might have been content with a new handicap mark of around 140 – the lowest rated horse to run in the Pertemps last Thursday was Clondaw Cian on 137 – but Kelly admits he blew a fuse over what he considered penal treatment by the handicappers,
With Presenting Percy now set to virtually head the weights in Cheltenham in what admittedly has becoming an increasingly limited handicap, it fuelled speculation that Kelly and owner Philip Reynolds would consider pulling the plug on the horse’s festival run. It was never on the agenda.
“Even with his new mark of 146, I knew he was still plenty good enough. It’s the Olympics of racing and things worked out for us. I was reasonably confident or else the horse wouldn’t have gone to Cheltenham,” said Kelly earlier this week.
Extended coverage in this week's Connacht Tribune.