Fairytale story still alive for Shark and Hewick

For a brief moment in last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, the possibility of a Hewick victory seemed very much alive until a late fall brought an end to that dream.

Going back to the festival for a second crack at the blue riband of national hunt racing, the Shark Hanlon €850 purchase is in even better form after claiming a shock win in the King George over Christmas.

Hewick was outpaced for a lot of that race before staying on to outgun his rivals inside the final furlong.

A similar use of tactics may be used to best effect next week.

“The horse is in real good form and he came out of the race at Kempton very well,” said Hanlon when speaking to the assembled media at his yard.

“He did a bit of work at Naas a few weeks ago on the back of having two or three weeks off after the King George and he’s not a big horse so it’s easy enough to get him fit.

“He ran well in the Gold Cup last year so there’s no reason why he can’t run well in it again this year.

“We might change our tactics a bit too as we made a lot of use him from the front last year ands there’s no need to as he can do one or the other.

“He hit that flat spot last year and got a bit crowded as a result when the horses came around him so hopefully with a clear round of jumping he won’t be far away.”

The Kilkenny trainer outlined what a unique character the Cheltenham contender is and how they won’t travel until just two days before the race.

“We probably won’t go to Cheltenham until the Wednesday evening when most people would have been gone a week earlier and arrive there on Thursday and then have the race on the Friday,” he said.

“I can’t say much more about him as he’s in great form and he’s as tough as nails.

“Any race we’ve brought him to he hasn’t let us down so to have such a consistent horse like that makes a huge difference to the yard.”

Earlier this week, Hanlon confirmed that Jordan Gainford will win back the ride after returning from injury but even a few weeks ago, the decision was up in the air.

“Rachael (Blackmore), Jordan (Gainford) and Gavin (Sheehan) have all ridden a winner on him and it doesn’t really matter who is on him as he’s that type of horse.

“Gavin is there and he’d love to ride him again while Jordan is only back from injury so we’ll have to see.”

Hewick’s participation in the race does come with something of a health warning however as he’s very ground dependent, and the recent wet weather in England is not helping in that regard.

After winning a Galway Plate and an American Grand National, top ground conditions are needed to see the nine-year-old at his optimum.

“The weather is most important to me and I think last year was the first time in about 10 years that there was soft going in the description. I hope that soft is gone out of it this year.”

If the weather does play ball and Hewick makes it to the starting tape, there’s no doubt that he will be up against it in what looks a top class affair on paper.
Galopin Des Champs will be the one to beat as he looks to claim a repeat success but Shark and the Hewick team are still up for the challenge.

“Galopin Des Champs is a very good horse and he’s won on soft ground a couple of times this year and he looks very good on it but I’d love to meet him on proper good ground,” he said.

“He mightn’t be as good as he’s shown in those conditions but there’s more than just one horse in the race and every horse is there to be looked at.

“Shishkin won a few weeks ago and he looked quite good again but the only thing is that the horse second to hi is only rated 150 and he didn’t run away from him.

“It’s a good race and it was always going to be a good race. There’ll be up to ten runners in it and any of those 10 runners can win.”

A tall order for Hewick perhaps, but he’s upset the odds before!