Did You Ever Dream Of Owning A Cheltenham Winner?

New Years Day 2020 - the day when several members of the Neil Mulholland Racing Club were lucky enough to be involved with their first Cheltenham winner!  Membership of a syndicate or race club is a great way of getting involved in ownership at a greatly reduced cost compared to owning a whole horse and this week, club members were living the dream as owners of a Cheltenham winner.

The Neil Mulholland Racing Club keep numbers controlled with Neil adding a horse to the club for every 12 members participating.  This is done with the intention of ensuring that each club member gets the opportunity to receive as close to the full ownership experience as possible and if this report leaves you wanting to find out more, then please see the race club webpage here or email Neil Mulholland (neil@neilmulhollandracing.com) who will arrange for details to be provided. 

There were three members of the Race Club at Cheltenham on New Year's Day and they enjoyed a brilliant day out with access to the saddling area, the paddock, the winners' enclosure and a post-race celebratory drink with members of the racecourse team.  On top of that, they enjoyed a delicious three-course lunch in the owners and trainers pavilion, so I am sure that they consider their £150 per month membership fee pretty good value right now!

After Doing Fine was saddled, the group were joined in the paddock by jockey Phil Donovan who had partnered Doing Fine for his Fontwell win and had ridden him in the void race at Sandown. 

With several keen to go forward, Phil settled Doing Fine towards the back of the main pack in around 7th or 8th place.  Doing Fine jumped very cleanly and he set out onto the last circuit in 7th place.  As they turned down the hill Phil rousted him to get after those in front and this started to deliver results.  He jumped three out (the downhill fence) in 5th and made the home turn in 3rd. He came between the leaders and jumped the second last in second, where his stamina kicked in and he surged to the front.  He had a couple of lengths going into the last where Phil tried to steady him and the horse decided to stick in an extra stride.  He got over safely but slowly - but fortunately, he was still running on strongly and he pulled clear up the run in to win impressively.

It was not long before Doing Fine and Phil arrived in and the owners got to make the walk into the Cheltenham winners enclosure.

Whilst there was a short delay before the weigh-in was announced, this allowed time for the club members to congratulate both jockey and horse!

And it was not long before they were joining the sponsors for post-race presentations!

What a day - and you could be part of the next one!  There is space available for new club members and if you join now, you could be part of the experience next time Doing Fine goes racing.  See the race club webpage here or email Neil Mulholland (neil@neilmulhollandracing.com) who will arrange for details to be provided.