Cheltenham’s end of January meeting is supposed to be an amuse-gueule to give us a few form lines for the four-day Festival in March. Instead, this one gave us everything including emotional victories for an 18-year-old jockey and a 92-year-old owner, a demonstration round by a new female hurdling superstar and defeat by inches for the most popular horse in training. It also underlined the many qualities needed to be a successful racehorse trainer.

To keep a 12-year-old like Paisley Park relishing his racing the way he clearly still does takes a special talent

First things first. The Clarence House Chase, run at Cheltenham after being frosted off at Ascot the weekend before, was supposed to be a formality for Nicky Henderson’s chaser Jonbon who went off at 1-4. Jonbon hit the fourth-last fence and sprawled. Jockey James Bowen seemed certain to hit the ground but in a miraculous feat of acrobatics managed to remain in contact with his mount. He allowed Jonbon time to recover and clawed back a lead from Elixir de Nutz two fences out but the recovery had cost him and the grey, partnered by 18-year-old Freddie Gingell, was able to hold him  off by a neck up the hill. It was a first Grade One winner in his own right for trainer Joe Tizzard and a first Grade One winner on his first ride in one for Freddie, whose mother, Kim, a mainstay of the Tizzard yard, died of cancer in 2020 at only 43. Said Uncle Joe of his nephew: ‘He could have panicked but he saved a little bit. He gets a real tune out of that horse. He’s got it all in front of him. He’s the right size and very good over a fence. Kim would have been so proud of what she put into him.’

Elixir de Nutz runs in the yellow and black colours of owner Terry Warner who has won around 380 races with horses like Rooster Booster, many of them greys. As Terry mounted the rostrum to collect his prize, still gentleman enough at 92 to tip his trilby to the female announcer, I was talking to former champion jockey Graham Thorner  who recalled riding winners for him. Graham retired in 1979 and said of Elixir de Nutz’s owner: ‘Time is the real test and he’s not one of those who’s been in and out of the sport. We need those like him who keep putting their money where their mouth is.’

After Jonbon’s defeat Nicky Henderson was sanguine, reckoning that a week’s delay after getting him fully tuned up for Ascot hadn’t helped. ‘He is quite a busy person and he lives on his wits a little bit. He is a clock you wind up and the extra week was not what he wanted. Now we can unwind it and start again.’ It reminded me of Jimmy Fitzgerald after his Forgive ’n’ Forget was beaten in the snow-delayed 1987 Gold Cup: ‘I had him tuned to the minute but in the extra 80 minutes he went off the boil.’

Sometimes training is about bringing back horses who have lost their way. Ga Law took the handicap chase in the hands of Gavin Sheehan and it was a special feeling for trainer Jamie Snowden and his team. Ga Law won a Paddy Power Gold Cup but then had a nasty fall. ‘He was like a scalded cat after falling on his side and galloping off for a mile. It has played on his mind for the best part of a year. Now they’ve got a good horse back.’ 

But what do you say about the efforts of Emma Lavelle with the evergreen Paisley Park, the former Stayers’ Hurdle winner  who was running for the fourth time in the three-mile Grade Two Cleeve Hurdle, a race he had won three times. At 12 years old he is in his seventh season. OK he didn’t win, losing out to 2022 Grand National winner Noble Yeats, but after a furious late rally he was beaten by only a nose, his third photo-finish defeat in three outings. To keep a 12-year-old like Paisley relishing his racing the way he clearly still does takes a special talent. No wonder there are people who go racing just to see Paisley. ‘He tries his heart out,’ said Emma. ‘Maybe he is saving it for the big one.’ 

The demonstration round came from the Willie Mullins-trained Lossiemouth in the Unibet Hurdle. Love Envoi is a talented hurdler but Rich Ricci’s five-year-old mare ran nine lengths clear of her after the last without jockey Paul Townend moving a muscle. Afterwards she wouldn’t have blown a tissue paper off an egg cup. If there is an animal around who could give Constitution Hill a run in the Champion Hurdle she is the one. 

The Festival bet for me though is the massive Ginny’s Destiny in the Turners, not just because of the way he won but because trainer Paul Nicholls afterwards said he hadn’t had a horse since Master Minded improving at the rate he has done. Master Minded I remember won 16 races.