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An update to the National Velvet story, Irish-bred Cool Dawn started the 1998 Gold Cup at 25 - 1 odds, then went on to lead for most of the race, winning by a length and three-quarters in good time. Purchased unseen in 1993 by amateur rider Dido Harding to race in ladies' point-to points, he was also hunted regularly by her; trained by another former amateur point-to-pointer, Robert Aldner, and ridden in the Cup by Andrew Thornton. The win was not a fluke--Cool Dawn had won 4 of his 5 previous races, but was pulled up lame in his most recent outing prior to the Cup, which lengthened his odds. By Over the River, one of the less successful racing sons of the top French sire Luthier, who won one flat race and three jump races, placing second in the Prix Gerald de Rochefort Hurdle, in France. Sent to stud in Ireland, he became a successful sire of jumpers, including another Gold Cup winner, Cool Ground, and some top hurdlers. |
