Anyone wondering whether Musselburgh’s Scottish Cheltenham Trials day can live up its billing need only look as far as the carpark.
The lorries carrying runners from the big southern yards of Nicky Henderson, Paul Nicholls, David Pipe as well as the two sent over from Ireland by Gordon Elliott are testimony to the fixture’s pulling power.
The pulling power of the Cheltenham Festival is so strong now that most of the jumps season orbits around its four days as trainers, jockeys and owners nurture their dreams. But now comes the time when the dream meets reality and possibly a less than happy ending.
Stuart and Lesley Coltherd have their own potential dream horse with Damiens Dilemma who will take his next step to a possible crack at the Festival when he runs in the Northern Area point to point Scottish Foxhunter.
They run their training yards alongside their sheep farm near the village of Midlem in the Borders with Stuart holding a full licence while his wife Lesley looks after the point-to-pointers.
Damiens Dilemma arrived from Ireland in January last year and quickly rose through the ranks to end the season as the Northern Area champion novice pointer with four wins from seven starts in what was a double celebration for the Coltherds with their son, Sam, taking the novice rider’s title.
The 17-year-old passed his driving test last week but his riding career is temporarily parked by a suspension. That means the ride on Damiens Dilemma passes to Tom Hamilton whose elder brother, Jamie, rode Tartan Snow to win the Fox Hunters’ Chase at Aintree for the Coltherds three years ago.
Damiens Dilemma is some way from that level yet but Stuart Coltherd said: “He wasn’t a dear horse to buy and we just started with him and he kept on improving. He won four from seven starts and he was beaten in a photo-finish as well. This is the next step up and we’ll just see how far he can go. We don’t know quite how good he is and this will tell us more.
“He’s happy just bowling along in front and jumps away. That’s how he’s gone in the past but he would be happy enough to drop in as well. I think he’ll enjoy the course at Musselburgh, it should suit him, and we know he’s up against better opposition but some of them are getting a bit older now and it depends on how much ability these horse retain. We’re just looking forward to seeing how he goes.”
How Damiens Dilemma goes will have a major bearing upon where he may go later in the season but Cheltenham, and a run in the St James's Place Foxhunter Chase, is a point on the horizon.
“If he was to prove himself it would be on the agenda. That’s a long way off yet but you never know. We did it with Tartan Snow and you shouldn’t be frightened to have aims. ”
Or dreams.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here