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The Hennessy Gold Cup 1966, awarded to Stalbridge Colonist, aged 7; Owner Ron Blindell; Trainer,...

Currency:GBP Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 GBP
The Hennessy Gold Cup 1966, awarded to Stalbridge Colonist, aged 7; Owner Ron Blindell; Trainer,...
The Hennessy Gold Cup 1966, awarded to Stalbridge Colonist, aged 7; Owner Ron Blindell; Trainer, Ken Cundell; Jockey, Stan Mellor. A 9ct gold trophy cup, the ogee shaped bowl with borders of quatrefoils in panels, overlapping arcs and a textured band, with two leaf chased and reeded handles on a round foot with a rope border, Birmingham 1966 by Elkington & Co, 18.5 cm diameter, 12.5 cm high (7.25 x 5 in), 684 grams (22 oz), on a green marble-onyx plinth with applied and inscribed panel and with the original green leather case with tooled gilt borders. Also to be sold with this lot are two photographs of the winning horse (one with Stan Mellor up, faded), and a reel of BBC sound film of the race lasting '9min 30sec' (see illustration) Stalbridge Colonist, a grey gelding, was one of the few horses to have beaten the great Arkle in a major race. The seven year old horse, had a relatively quiet summer leading up to his epic win, coming in second at the Prix des Drags at Auteuil in June, falling at Enghein and had tailed off to be last at Ascot only a week before the Hennessy in November. All this despite winning 11 of 15 starts the previous season. At Newbury, Stalbridge Colonist was ridden by Stan Mellor, a small man but an immensely powerful and forceful rider. His reputation for conjuring up race winning leaps at the final fence was legendary and would prove to be the undoing of Arkle. Pat Taafe who rode Arkle that day was to comment years later 'If Stan had been just a bit easy on his horse going in to the last, he'd not have beaten me. But you know how Stan was ! Everything going as he went to the last'. A lead he would not relinquish, despite Arkle's best efforts, on the long run-in to the winning post. Following his triumph at Newbury he went on to be beaten by just 3/4 of a length by Woodland Venture in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March 1967. This cup represents a unique piece of local and international racing history. In six seasons between 1961 and 1967 Arkle was beaten on only eight occasions in 35 races, a phenomenal record by any standards. He is considered by many racing aficionados to be the greatest National Hunt horse of the 20th century, indeed had he not been carrying 35lbs more than Stalbridge Colonist at Newbury the result may well have been different. The Hennessy Gold Cup is one of the major and most prestigious annual events in the National Hunt calendar. Ref; Ivor Herbert, The full story of the Champion Arkle, William Luscombe, 1975. £2,000-3,000