The 2021 Cheltenham Festival is looming ever larger, and as preparations for the event begin to ramp up a gear, horse racing trainers around the country begin to dream of winning at jump racing’s biggest stage.
Whilst there are powerful stables dotted all around the country – and across the Irish sea – strongly fancied to get on the board at this year’s meeting, there is also a small handful of trainers based in Yorkshire hoping their charges can get in front when it matters at the upcoming Cheltenham Festival.
Here, we identify said trainers, their stable locations, and nominate the horse expected to provide them with the biggest chance of Festival success.
Ruth Jefferson – Waiting Patiently
Arguably the strongest Yorkshire hopeful at this year’s Cheltenham Festival comes in the shape of the ten-year-old Waiting Patiently. This gelding has finished in the money in both of his starts so far this season – with those efforts coming at the highest level. Waiting Patiently has a couple of race options at this year’s Festival, with bookmakers suggesting that the Ryanair Chase is his most likely destination. In the odds for 2021 Cheltenham, Waiting Patiently is 8/1 to win the Ryanair Chase and 20/1 to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Should Waiting Patiently win at the Festival, it would provide trainer Ruth Jefferson with her first Festival winner – but it would not be the first to come from her Newstead Cottage Stables in Norton, North Yorkshire. Ruth’s father Malcolm Jefferson previously trained four Cheltenham Festival winners from the base, with the most recent of those being Attaglance in the 2012 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle.
Brian Ellison – Mrs Hyde
Another Yorkshire based trainer no stranger to big-race success is Brian Ellison. Based at Spring Cottage Stables in Malton, North Yorkshire, he has sent out a steady stream of winners over both jumps and on the flat since taking up a training license back in 1989 – including over forty winners at Beverley racecourse. He has the potential for a few runners at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, with the most likely of these being Mrs Hyde in the Daylesford Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle – which is a race registered in the name of the legendary former Festival winner Dawn Run.
Michael Easterby – Albert’s Back
The Easterby family has a long association with horse racing, and since taking out a license back in 1961, Mick Easterby has sent out a raft of winners. Based at New House Farm near Sheriff Hutton, he is no stranger to Cheltenham Festival success having sent out Peterhof to win the 1976 Triumph Hurdle. The likeliest of Easterby’s Cheltenham Festival runners this year appears to be the seven-year-old Albert’s Back. A winner of four of his five hurdles starts to date – including both runs this 2020/21 jumps racing season – he is likely to be one for a handicap hurdle at this year’s Festival.
Yorkshire has proved a good training location for a number of horse racing stables down the years, and this association is likely to continue for at least the immediate future. Should the area manage to send out a winner at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, expect even greater interest in runners based in Yorkshire in the years to come.
