Aintree Chase/Hurdle 1976 - 1989 &  Aintree Bowl 1984 - 89

Role of Honour

1984  ROYAL BOND (A.Moore - Ire)               Tom Taaffe    4

1985  WAYWARD LAD (M.Dickinson)      John Francome    6

1986  BEAU RANGER (J.Thorne)                Hywel Davies    4 

1987  WAYWARD LAD (M.Dickinson)   Graham McCourt     6

1988  DESERT ORCHID (D.Elsworth)     Simon Sherwood    

1989  YAHOO (J. Edwards)                          Tom Morgan     8

Run in 1984          as Perrier Jouet Champagne Cup

Run in 1985 - 87  as Whitbread Gold Label Cup Chase

Run in 1988          as Chivas Regal Cup Chase

Run in 1989          as Martell Cup

The first six years

Introduced in 1984 and run as the Perrier Jouet Champagne Cup Chase this new weight-for-age chase on the Mildmay course was designed as a consolation event for Cheltenham Gold Cup runners. To that end its inaugural running was a success as three of the four runners having lined up in the Gold Cup including 1983 hero Bregawn. The race itself, however, was a muddling affair - Bregawn who was by now showing the temprement that was to blight his post Gold Cup career down tools and virtually stopped to a walk at the second last and finished tailed off. The odds on favourite Drumlargan was looking all over the winner until he blundered badly at the last handing the initiative to the veteran Royal Bond who prevailed by three quarters of a length. In 1985 the race was switched to the Thursday and, run as the second event of the meeting, it has remained in that spot to this day. The 1985 renewal saw an emotional victory for one of the most popular chasers of the decade, Wayward Lad who sealed victory with a magnificent leap at the last fence beating the useful Half Free and Earls Brig. Wayward Lad (who raced in five consecutive Gold Cups) returned in 1986 where he was joined by the reigning Gold Cup heroine Dawn Run who had (so cruelly in my eyes) snatched the Gold Cup from him in the dying strides. The 1986 race proved to be the most sensational in the races history with Dawn Run falling at the very first fence and Wayward Lad was left toiling in the wake of the outsider of the party Beau Ranger who returned at the most ridiculous odds of 40-1 (in a four horse race !!!!)  Beau Rangers victory was by no means a fluke as he had won the Gold Cup at Cheltenhams December meeting and a Badger Beer Chase and he would go on to win a Mackeson as well. In 1987 (a race that I stupidly forgot to record) Wayward Lad won for a second time in what was to be his final race before retirement. Desert Orchids victory in 1988 finally gave him a win on a left-handed course and was the first in a run of nine straight victories for the popular grey and his rider Simon Sherwood. This remarkable run culminated with victory number nine in the 1989 Gold Cup (the second and final time that Dessie won going left handed). The 1989 renewal featured no just one but two Cheltenham Gold Cup  winners with Desert Orchid and Simon Sherwood going for win number ten and the 1988 Gold Cup winner Charter Party was also in the line-up. Ironically both fell at the same fence, the first fence in the back straight. The John Edwards trained Yahoo who had chased home Desert Orchid at Cheltenham gained some compensation with victory over the fragile Delius who could have reached the very top if his career hadn`t been blighted with injury.

Runners

As the table below shows the race did achieve what it set out to and became not so much a Gold Cup consolation but a race of Gold Cup quality in it`s own right. During the first six years we saw four Gold Cup winners compete.

Of the 32 runners 16 ran in that years Gold Cup - exactly half.

Figures in bold show indicate that the horse ran in both the Gold Cup and the Aintree race in the same year (* denotes winner)

Beau Ranger (1978) - 86*, 89

Bishops Yarn (1979) - 89

Bolands Cross (1979) - 87

Bregawn (1974) - 84

Charter Party (1978) - 89

Combs Ditch (1976) - 85

Contradeal (1977) - 88

Cybrandian (1978) - 87

Desert Orchid (1978) - 88*, 89

Dawn Run (1978) - 86

Delius (1978) - 89   

Drumlargan (1974) - 84

Earls Brig (1975) - 85

Fred Pilliner (1977) - 84

Galway Blaze (1976) - 87

Half Free (1976) - 85

Hungry Hur (1979) - 89

Kildimo (1979) - 88

Royal Bond (1973) - 84*, 85

Simon Legree (1977) - 87

Stearsby (1979) - 87

Toms Little Al (1976) - 85

Very Promising (1978) - 86

Wayward Lad (1975) - 85*, 86, 87*

Weather The Storm (1980) - 88, 89

Yahoo (1981) - 89*

Interestingly the two Gold Cup winners who tried to do the double in the same year (Dawn Run in 1986 & Desert Orchid in 1989) both fell.