CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL NEWS: 22 YEARS ON, FIONA NEEDHAM AND HER FATHER ROBIN TATE ENJOY FURTHER FESTIVAL SUCCESS COURTESY OF SINE NOMINE
Friday 15th March
Fiona Needham, who in her day job is Clerk of the Course at Catterick Racecourse, trained Sine Nomine to victory in today’s St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase at Cheltenham.
It was 22 years ago that Needham won the same race as a jockey aboard Last Option, who was trained by her father Robin Tate. Both horses triumphed in Tate’s silks.
The eight-year-old grey mare was short of room going to the last but was switch to deliver her chance and got up to overhaul market leader It On The Line by three-quarters of a length.
Fiona Needham said: “That’s a dream come true, and what a ride he gave her. My only instruction was to save a bit for up the hill but I couldn’t have been that calm. I thought we were beaten going to the last, but boy did she pick up. She’s a star.
I was screaming and being very embarrassing I’m afraid. I thought if she was third she’d have run a very good race, and that was where I thought she was going to finish, but then she picked up.
“I said two years ago that this what I wanted to do and he said ‘you are absolutely mad, we should be going for mares’ races’, but I said ‘no, no, this is the dream and then we can go back to reality when we come back with our tails between our legs’ and it’s paid off.
“You don’t get highs like this at Catterick!
“Last Option won and the following year and was third, and since then I’ve just had three or four runners at the hunter chase meeting. None at the Festival.”
Winning jockey John Dawson said: John Dawson: “We’ve always tended to ride her that way and she seems to enjoy that. I was sort of hoping the race would pan out in her favour and that we could get a lovely toe into it, and it just worked out. She’s always finished off quite well,and I thought, if she’s travelling coming down the hill, I think she’ll still be galloping at the top of it.
“To be honest, I thought she wasn’t even going to see the last fence if we stayed where we were, and it was one of those - I was never going to see anything down the inside, so I thought, pull out and hope for the best. I thought I was beat at that point, but, credit to her, she stuck her neck out and galloped up the hill.
“She was almost a bit [too] brave down the back at one or two [fences]; she kept grabbing and I hoped the next one would just get her into the boards a bit, but she kept coming and kept coming, and I thought she was getting a bit too brave, but she was travelling nicely at the top of the hill and popped her way up the hill. It’s just a dream.
“I just never thought for a moment we’d be mixing it here with these top jockeys - watching Derek O’Connor yesterday; top, top riders, and to have our name on that trophy is something.
“I’m getting on a bit now, riding, I’ve been round the block a bit, and I’ve been down here a few times on long, long shots, and you sort of know your fate before you come here, but with her, I genuinely didn’t know how good she was, and today she’s proved that. But it’s a nice way of doing it with her, she’s come through point-to-points - I think I have ridden her in every race she’s run in, from her very first start, and she’s always given me that little bit of something else.
“For Yorkshire and the northern point-to-point circuit to have someone like that flying that flag, and to prove that British point-to-points can produce top-level horses.
“Fiona is fantastic to ride for and there’s no pressure,, do whatever you think is right, and I feel that’s how I ride to my best, and to read any situation, and to have that behind you… She has the knowledge and experience, she understands what will go wrong and right, and they are fantastic supporters of point-to-pointing - year in, year out they will have five or six pointers, and have stuck at it. I’m just pleased to be on a really, really nice one.”
4.10pm St. James's Place Festival Hunters' Chase 3m 2f
1 Sine Nomine 8-1
2 Its On The Line 11-8 Fav
3 Time Leader 50-1
12 ran
Distances: ¾, 5½
Time: 7m 17.70s
1st winner at The Festival for jockey Mr John Dawson
1st winner at The Festival for trainer Fiona Needham
LATEST PRESTBURY CUP STANDINGS
Ireland 16
Great Britain 9
