THE FESTIVAL 2017 MEDIA GUIDE

Klairon Davis with F Woods (far side) jumps the last in front of Viking Flagship
(centre) and Sound Man (nearest camera) and goes on to win.
Barnbrook Again (1989-90) and
Viking Flagship (1995-96) were better
dual winners of the Queen Mother
Champion Chase, with the former
trained by David Elsworth and the
latter by David ‘Duke’ Nicholson.
Barnbrook Again beat the Nicholsontrained
Waterloo Boy, a Cheltenham
favourite who won the 1989 Arkle
Chase, into second in 1980, while
Viking Flagship had the 1993 winner,
Deep Sensation, in third and second
respectively when successful.
Popular grey One Man, trained by
Gordon Richards in Cumbria for owner
John Hales, made it fourth time lucky
at The Festival in the two-mile chasing
championship in 1998 after failures in
the Cheltenham Gold Cup (twice) and
RSA Chase.
The best winner of the race is a
horse who ran in it only once, the
extraordinary Flyingbolt. The powerful
white-faced chestnut lived up to his
name and looks but his lightning flash
blazed all too briefly across the Jump
racing scene. In his one season at the
top as a senior, he earned favourable
comparisons with Arkle and a handicap
rating that placed him second on the
pantheon only to his peerless Tom
Dreaper stablemate.
Flyingbolt’s beginnings were as
unusual as his career. His existence was
unplanned; his sire, the Derby winner
Airborne, was believed to be infertile
and was turned out with some mares
at Robert Way’s farm near Newmarket,
including a 19-year-old barrener,
Eastlock. The following spring, in
1959, Eastlock produced the foal who
became Flyingbolt.
In his first season over hurdles, he
trounced some seasoned seniors,
including the reigning Champion
Hurdler Winning Fair in the Scalp
(now Irish Champion) Hurdle at
Leopardstown and then cruised home
in the Gloucestershire (now Sky Bet
Supreme Novices’) Hurdle at The
Festival.
As a novice chaser, he won the
Cotswold (now the Racing Post Arkle)
Chase at The Festival by five lengths
(he was not that impressive, but it
was later reported that he had been
doped), and then carried 12st 2lb to
victory in a handicap at Fairyhouse,
giving the runner-up 37lb.
In the 1965-66 season, he won all
six of his chases, between two miles
and three and a quarter miles. In
the Massey-Ferguson Gold Cup at
Cheltenham in November, he carried
12st 6lb, giving upwards of 25lb to his
rivals in rain-sodden mud. He led three
out and won by 15 lengths. Rider Pat
Taaffe later recalled: “It was a man
against boys.”
Back in Ireland, he gave two stone to
the top-class mares Height O’Fashion
and Flying Wild, and beat them a
distance. In the 1966 Champion Chase,
he started at 1/5 and came home 15
lengths clear of Flash Bulb, with the
brief formbook description “tk ld 2 out,
canter”. The following day he was set
mission impossible: he turned out
again in the Champion Hurdle and
actually started favourite before
finishing a most honourable third to
Salmon Spray.
Then less than a month later he
won the Irish Grand National under
12st 7lb, giving runner-up Height
O’Fashion 40lb and third-placed
Splash – the previous year’s winner
– 42lb. But by the end of the year, he
had contracted the debilitating blood
disease brucellosis and although he
did eventually run again, he showed
nothing of his former brilliance in an
intermittent subsequent career. He was
moved to Ken Oliver, for whom he won
a handicap at Haydock and finished
second in the 1969 King George
VI Chase.
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