Blast From The Past: 1998 Imperial Cup

Martin Pipe trained the winner of the Imperial Cup six times, while his son David has added another three victories in the Sandown handicap since taking over the reins at Pond House. It was Peter Scudamore who rode the first two Pipe winners, but the next four Imperial Cup winners for the yard were all ridden by Tony McCoy, the first of those Blowing Wind in 1998, a season in which both members of that formidable partnership broke records. Pipe won his ninth trainer’s championship, in so doing providing much of the firepower for McCoy’s record total of 253 winners in what was his third season as champion.

Not surprisingly, therefore, Blowing Wind found plenty of favour with punters when he lined up in a field of fifteen for the 1998 Imperial Cup and was sent off the 5/1 favourite. He’d been available at twice those odds in the ante-post market before one bookmaker reported they’d been ‘inundated by requests from a number of well-connected sources’.

Like many Pipe trainees, Blowing Wind had come from France and in those days a horse had to have had three runs in Britain to qualify for a handicap mark. Blowing Wind’s third run in this country had come in the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock in which he’d finished third behind one of the best hurdlers around in Dato Star and the former Champion Hurdle (and Imperial Cup) winner Collier Bay. Although no match for the top-class winner, 40/1 shot Blowing Wind pushed Collier Bay close for second, on the face of it showing very smart form.

However, Blowing Wind was allotted an official mark of just 130 for his handicap debut at Sandown, so that, even though he ended up carrying top weight of 11-10 (only two winners since have carried more than 11 stone), he was potentially very leniently treated. One backed against him though was Rubhahunish, the subject of an even bigger gamble which saw his odds tumble from 66/1 ante post to a starting price of 9/1.

‘It was Blowing Wind who landed the gamble though,’ reported Chasers & Hurdlers, ‘quickening away in impressive fashion after moving onto the heels of the leaders at the last and beating one of the bottom weights Sadler’s Realm by four lengths.’

The ease of Blowing Wind’s success suggested he’d take all the beating under a penalty in the County Hurdle five days later and he duly landed the £50,000 bonus offered by the Imperial Cup sponsors for any horse winning their race and following up at the Cheltenham Festival. Olympian had won the bonus for the same stable five years earlier by winning the Coral Cup at Cheltenham, while David Pipe landed it with Gaspara who followed up in the Fred Winter at the Festival in 2007.

Blowing Wind, only a five-year-old then, completed a hat-trick in the following month’s Scottish Champion Hurdle and went on to have another five seasons of racing in which he made a name for himself as a chaser and, surprisingly for one who had such success over two miles as a hurdler early in his career, became a Grand National regular.

Four years after his first Cheltenham success, Blowing Wind won his second race at the Festival when winning the Mildmay of Flete at 25/1 under Ruby Walsh (beating McCoy into second on stablemate and favourite Lady Cricket), but McCoy had been on the right one (he had ten to pick from!) among his stable’s runners in the mudbath that was the 2001 National. McCoy had failed to complete in five previous rides in the National, but got round – eventually - in third on Blowing Wind, though only after being taken out by a loose horse and then remounting. Blowing Wind ran in three more Grand Nationals, finishing third under McCoy again twelve months later behind Bindaree when sent off favourite, avoiding mishaps this time but not seeing out the trip.