Remembering.... The Fellow

Didn't he hand over to his son?

They added a great deal of colour to our racing at the time as did Macaire who I think is still going.

doumen and son both still training. Yes the Fellow was a proper star. But for 2 short head decisions going against him he'd have won 3 gold cups and 2 king georges. Very under rated horse, unjustifiably so, when people talk about the modern greats he rarely gets a mention

One of the few 6yos to run in the Gold Cup when he finished 2nd for the first time. In the National Hunt Review of 1993/94 video Peter Scuadmore is adamant in his praise of Adam Kondrat and attacking his detractors. He doesn't mention John McCririck by name but I have to feel that's where his comments were aimed.

I remember there was talk at the time that he wasn't even the best horse in his yard although it's difficult to compare on form because they all had different seasonal objectives and unfortunately we never saw Ucello and Ubu run over here.  Also I think he went off quite a big price in the Gold Cup he won because his owner took a dim view of the whip being used on her horses

Interesting GB.....Didn't you once win the rescheduled Gold Cup in Foot and Mouth year?

I think Peter O Sullivan had a big bet on him in his first Gold Cup. Ran in 4 Gold Cups, a Hennessy a Whitbread and the Grand National

I watched all those races and Kondrat was criticized. I've read today that the owner didn't want The Fellow hit. Makes me think of two things
1) Joe Tizzard not going for everything when Cue Card was beaten in the Supreme and saying afterwards that this was a horse for the future. Brave words at the time and subsequently shown to be wise words
2) Cool Ground was not the same horse after Adrian Maguire "threw the  kitchen sink" at him to beat The Fellow in the GC. Worse, I saw the horse flinch and back away from Maguire in the parade ring on a subsequent occasion that he rode it.

massive gamble on the fellow to win the gold cup on his third attempt against jodami,i remember almost bottling having a good bet on jodami because of it but i was in the best mate enclosure and watched the horses parade and to this day i have never seen a horse look as good as jodami did that day,although the fellow got revenge the following year

Peoplesay elephants never forgetbut horses have strange memories too.

The Fellow was second to two ordinary GC winners in Garrison Savannah and Cool Ground. He was well beaten when Rushing Wild beat off everything apart from Jodami in one of the fastest GCs ever run and then The Fellow beat Jodami for speed when Mark Dwyer went to sleep the next year. He was a very good staying chaser with a finish but could not cope with a fast gallop all the way round. I still rate Jodami up with Best Mate and Kauto Star as the best I have seen apart from Arkle but he had to be allowed to gallop from the off and for some reason Mark Dwyer never let him. In his bumper and novice hurdle runs he set off in front and just kept going farther clear. That was why Dwyer got him beat in the Hennessy by a horse that was 2 stone inferior.