Anybody remember Lee James Cheltenham winner?

Was that New Halen?

yes! cheers. Who trained it?

Just checked...AP James - won from 18lb out of the handicap!

There's a name from the past.  Backed it a few times over the years but not that day.  What year?

1990...pissed up 8 lengths as well!

Thanks NG.  The 1990 Festival is the only one I've missed in the last 40 years as I was in America at the time.  That's why I can't remember it.

They had videos in those days Pauli

The 14/03/1990 beat Lacidar/King of the Lot/Auntie Dot, former Triumph winner First Bout (1985) started the 10/3 fav, Observer Corps, Four Trix and Oregon Trail were all among the pulled up runners.
Was ridden to victory by Eamon Tierney.

Should have added it was the Mildmay of Flete that it won

Could it have been the same day Nortons Coin won the GC?

No it was last race on the Wednesday, other winners that day were

2.15 Sun Alliance Novices - Regal Ambition 3/1 Peter Scudamore
2.50 Queen Mother Champion - Barnbrook Again 11/10 Hywel Davies
3.30 Coral Golden Hurdle - Henry Mann 20/1 Tony Mulholland
4.05 Sun Alliance Chase - Garrison Savannah 12/1 Ben De Haan
4.40 National Hunt Chase - Topsham Bay 40/1 Peter Hacking
5.15 Mildmay of Flete - New Halen 66/1 Eamon Tierney

To give you a flavour of the rest of the meeting, results were

The Champion Hurdle day (Tues) winners were

2.15 Supreme Novices - Forest Sun 7/4 Jimmy Frost also rans Shu Fly, Bitter Buck, Man of the West
2.50 Arkle Trophy - Comandante 9/2 Peter Hobbs also rans Blitzkreig, Celtic Shot, Sire Nantais
3.30 Champion Hurdle - Kribensis 95/40 Richard Dunwoody also rans Beech Road, Morley Street, Jinxy Jack, Vagador, See You Then
4.05 Stayers Hurdle - Trapper John 15/2 Charlie Swan also rans Ryde Again, Slalom, Cloughtaney, Galmoy, Floyd, Vicario di Bray
4.40 Kim Muir Chase - Master Bob 20/1 Mr J Berry also rans Mr Frisk, Charter Hardware, Jelupe, Bajan Sunshine
5.15 Grand Annual - Katabatic 11/4 Hywel Davies also rans Wink Gulliver, Nohalmdun, The A Train, Vodkatini


The Gold Cup day (Thurs, only 3 day meeting of course...) winners were

2.15 Daily Express Triumph - Rare Holiday 25/1 Brendan Sheridan also rans Stone Flake, Cyphrate, Badrakhani, Iveagh House
2.50 Christies Foxhunter - Call Collect 7/4 Mr R Martin also rans West Tip, Three Counties
3.30 Tote Gold Cup - Nortons Coin 100/1 Graham McCourt also rans Desert Orchid, Yahoo, Cavvies Clown, Pegwell Bay, Bonanza Boy, Kildimo
4.05 Ritz Club National Chase - Bigsun 15/2 Richard Dunwoody also rans Seagram, Willsford, City Entertainer, Paddyboro, Bob Tisdall
4.40 Cathcart Chase - Brown Windsor 13/8 John White also rans Ghofar, Highfrith, Blueberry King
5.15 County Hurdle - Moody Man 9/1 Peter Hobbs also rans Wonder Man, On Tap, Yorkshire Holly, Liadett

Had £10 EW at 100/1 New Halen on my Ladbrokes credit a/c. Had to be a credit bet, as I certainly didn't have a score to spare in cash after the results that year. Watched it in Brian Dite's old shop in Wincanton High St. Remember cycling home praying I didn't have a fatal accident before I got the cheque.

I believe Victor Chandler did even better and had a hundred monkeys each way twice on the rails at Cheltenham.

Trust you invested your winnings wisely, on four wheels perhaps...?

Aug 13, 2013 -- 12:30AM, screaming from beneaththewaves wrote:

Had £10 EW at 100/1 New Halen on my Ladbrokes credit a/c. Had to be a credit bet, as I certainly didn't have a score to spare in cash after the results that year. Watched it in Brian Dite's old shop in Wincanton High St. Remember cycling home praying I didn't have a fatal accident before I got the cheque.I believe Victor Chandler did even better and had a hundred monkeys each way twice on the rails at Cheltenham.

Reading that "A LETTER FOR MR VICTOR CHANDLER, please dont delete it betfair" thread,it's a good job no-one tried to have a hundred monkeys each way on with VC !!!

Cork Langer: I've never learnt to drive, so I invested the money in avoiding work until it ran out.

StevieB: VC has never accommodated punters looking for big-priced value. He wanted those horses running for him, not against him. Chandler at that time was a rails bookie with a London credit operation who essentially was trying to lay short-priced ones which he and his advisors thought would get beaten. Sometimes indeed, it was alleged in court, horses he knew would get beaten. Happily those allegations proved to be without foundation.

A JURY at the Old Bailey heard yesterday that leading bookmaker Victor Chandler was linked with jockey Dean Gallagher and Brian Wright, "a well-known criminal" based in Spain, over allegations of race-fixing.

The claim that Chandler "was supposed to have run a false book" on a fixed race emerged at the start of a case in which a retired police officer is accused of dishonestly obtaining money from former top jumps jockey Jamie Osborne, now embarking on a career as a trainer.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Chandler+linked+to+race-fixing+plot%3B+Leading+bookmaker+named+in+court...-a060963547

The story of Chandler's punt on New Halen in his own words:

WE ALL love backing big-priced winners for fairly obvious reasons and I do not think I will ever emulate what I achieved with the help of New Halen at the Cheltenham Festival back in 1990.

Two favourites and two second bests including Kribensis in the Champion Hurdle had obliged on the first day and we were some way behind the eight-ball after Regal Ambition, the 3-1 market leader, had trotted up in Wednesday's opener and Barnbrook Again had justified odds of 11-10 in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

The tide then started to turn the layers' way with winners at 20-1, 12-1 and 40-1.

The bookie chaps were calling their staff on first-named terms - always a sign that they are winning - and my speed-figure boys had highlighted the chance of the outsider of the field in the concluding Mildmay of Flete Challenge Cup. I instructed one of my outside men, Tommy Lawrence, to put pounds 1,000 each-way on the selection and saw him scurry off to the lower end of the members' rails to get the wager on - I believed he might secure some 100-1 about New Halen.

Neal Wilkins, now UK PR manager for Victor Chandler, recalled: "In those days I was the senior starting price reporter for the Press Association and I remember asking Tommy what he was backing. He showed me his twist card with two bets of pounds 5,000 to pounds 500 each-way on New Halen.

"I informed him that he had taken seriously under the odds before suggesting that he put an extra nought on the win figure!"

New Halen was running for the 14th time that season and had not had the ideal preparation for a festival winner, having raced four times the previous August, but he certainly was game and after leading to the sixth fence he regained the lead at the tenth and was clear jumping the last. He ran on like a lion up the hill to win by eight lengths with the whole of our staff going wild with delight.

There was a look of incredulity on the faces of the principals of the two firms who had taken the hit but it was probably the happiest exit for me from a racecourse. We had seriously over-stood the favourite, the one-time Triumph Hurdle winner First Bout, and had performed the doublewhammy in backing the winner for pounds 125,000. I will never forget New Halen, who raced 90 times over jumps and won 12 chases.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Horse+Racing%3A+New+Halen+lands+a+pounds+125,0...