The turf | 16 March 2017

If the championship for training jumpers went to a set of gallops rather than to a trainer it would not be Paul Nicholls’s Ditcheat precipice nor Nicky Henderson’s historic Seven Barrows facilities outside Lambourn or even Colin Tizzard’s Venn Farm on the Dorset border in the lead: the prize would go to the two stiff gallops, against the collar all the way, at Grange Hill Farm, Naunton, in the heart of the Cotswolds and just 12 miles from the Cheltenham course that has been the focus of the jumping world these past four days.

The gallops are used by both Nigel Twiston-Davies, the proprietor of Grange Hill Farm, and by this season’s fastest-advancing handler Fergal O’Brien, who turns out his horses from the Upper Yard, which is the other side of the road. The famously duffel-coated Twiston-Davies, who is jump racing personified, has sent out 89 winners so far this season. Fergal O’Brien, who spent 16 years as Nigel’s head man before setting up on his own, sent out his 53rd when Cap Soleil delighted her 26 owners by winning the Listed bumper at Sandown Park last Saturday. As I write, that makes a total of 142 between them compared with Paul Nicholls’s 130, Nicky Henderson’s 119 and Colin Tizzard’s 50.

A morning spent at the Upper Yard last week, despite the soaking endured by the first two lots out at exercise, offered plenty of clues as to why Fergal’s tally of winners this season has soared past the 27 and 35 totals achieved over the previous two seasons. The horses were buzzing and clearly relishing their work. Back in the crowded office, in the corner of the main yard, there was much badinage among several sets of owners who had dropped in to see the morning’s work at a yard that clearly keeps open house — an open house seemingly fuelled by regular deliveries of cake, not to mention the excellent bacon sandwiches provided by Caroline Beresford-Wylie, owner of the talented Colin’s Sister, whom I hope will have run well in the Festival mares’ race by the time you read this column.