#MasterAtWork: Festival exploits hands award to Warren Greatrex
Published:
Bagging his first Cheltenham Festival win may have already made last month as one to remember for Warren Greatrex. But it just got a little bit better, as Ladbrokes awarded the Lambourn trainer with March’s #MasterAtWork award.
Presented to a team or individual who excels in their sporting field each month, Greatrex follows footballer Jon Stead and rugby league supremo Rangi Chase in getting his hands on the award.
Despite Cole Harden going off as a 14/1 outsider for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, the handler was keen to talk up his charge before the race stating that he was “a great each-way play”.
And he certainly wasn’t wrong.
Speaking exclusively to Ladbrokes, Greatrex talked us through the closing stages of the 3m contest:
“They were coming down the hill, and I was thinking ‘we need a good jump here’.
“And we got a good jump and I thought ‘they’ve got to make a move now, as we had a few of them beat.
“Then the angle [of the camera] changed as they turned in, and I thought ‘well, they are coming to get him now.
“And then the angle changed again and he was two or three clear, and then it all went out the window”.
It appears the sheer achievement of saddling a winner in one of the Cheltenham Festival’s Championship races affected the usual cool, calm demeanour of Greatrex, and for good reason.
But it doesn’t end there for his equine hero Cole Harden, with a trip to the Grand National meeting on the agenda, and his trainer is keen on his chances.
“Last year he improved going from Cheltenham into Aintree. And there is something to say he is better on a flat track.”
“All his best form up until Cheltenham was on a flatter track. Hopefully we can frank the [World Hurdle] form.”
His six-year-old isn’t the only potential star in the yard though as the trainer gave us one to follow for the season in Boite:
“He’s been given a mark of 133, so they obviously think he’s very smart. Hes only had two runs over hurdles, and he’ll go to Ayr now at the end of the season, and then possibly on the flat over the summer.”
Who knows? If Cole Harden triumphs at Aintree and Boite pops up at Ayr, maybe the #MasterAtWork trophy could be making its way back to Uplands for the month of April.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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