With wins in the Aintree and Cheltenham Foxhunter Chases, and by the manner of victory in those two prestigious races, Cavalero deserves to be regarded as one of the greats of hunter chasing.
Yet he was a headstrong young horse who did not race until he was six and whose first win came in a selling hurdle.
His story is indelibly tied to the man who owned, bred and trained him, yet rarely went racing other than when making the short hop to local point-to-point tracks. To those who followed racing but did not know him John Manners was an eccentric, free of filters whose views on the sport were worth hearing, although they were delivered with liberal expletives and occasionally headed off at tangents baring scant association with the topic under discussion. That was my experience gained from a couple of visits to his Wiltshire farm at Highworth near Swindon and on a number of occasions when we met at a point-to-point. He would weigh me up from under his trademark trilby as if to say 'You're a journalist, can I trust you?' and then launch into a stream of eminently quotable views delivered in staccato fashion.
John Manners, whose genius with horses led to many successes
Brushes with racing's authorities were fair game, but while a £50 fine was a minor slap for excitedly jumping the rails during a race and skipping up the track when Knight Of Love became his first Cheltenham winner, he was also banned from all forms of racing for three years following a weight-cloth incident at a point-to-point.
Exercising horses on neighbouring farmers' land when, in his own words, "they weren't looking", or "driving his brother mad" by riding across his golf course were acts of a man who would not have objected if someone had galloped across his farm. Life was for living.
His widow, Audrey, knew another side to John, who died in 2009 at the age of 83, although he appeared years younger until cancer closed in. Now residing on Exmoor, far from the farm which was John's home for all but six months of his life, Audrey conveys a man of consideration and vision that we with only scant knowledge failed to see. She says: "I still talk to John every day, and often hear his laugh."
Amateur rider Alex Charles-Jones, a canine and equine artist who became Cavalero's regular partner, says of Manners: "There were times when he was frustrating, but I loved the man. He put the fun into horses. Many was the time I would be riding a youngster that was full of corn and it would be bucking and broncing and John would shout at me: "Get hold of 'im Jones," but I would hand it back without being insulting and he was never offended. He would never tell us his plans when riding out, he would just turn his cap round and we'd be off at the flat out gallop, and it didn't matter if we were adjusting stirrups or closing a gate. He loved it and the horses did, too."
Audrey adds: "John was a very, very good breeder who always kept one stallion, and they were always very well chosen. He knew a lot about breeding which was a factor in producing Cavalero. He was also very keen on Friesian cattle, kept bulls and had the first naturally polled [free of horns] herd in the country.
"John loved going hunting with the VWH, and when he took a horse there was no messing about. Cavalero was hunted regularly, and when not hunting all the horses were just ridden around the farm or taken onto neighbouring farms. It kept them happy."
Killeshin another star of the yard
Cavalero was the best horse Manners bred, but there were others of merit, and he was an astute buyer of horses, too, no finer example being Killeshin, an apparently slow maiden hurdler/chaser when under the care of Karl Burke. Laid up for a year before purchase by Manners, Killeshin was pulled up on his hunters' chase debut for his new owner/trainer, then won a maiden hunters' chase at Leicester in March 1994 – at odds of 100/1 – scored again at Fontwell two weeks later and on his next start landed Aintree's Foxhunters' Chase. How many others would have considered such a bold plan with a horse barely out of maiden company, let alone pulled it off?
Audrey says: "John went racing at times, but his interest was training the horses and riding them at home – the race itself wasn't of so much interest to him. He only ever backed one horse, and that was Killeshin on the day he won at Leicester at 100/1. His father backed horses, which was probably the cause of his early death, and John didn't want to follow."
Cavalero was born in 1989, a son of Afzal out of the Manners-bred Jolly Lass (Jolly Me) who was unraced. His debut came in April 1995 when he finished second of 15 runners in a Newton Abbot bumper under now well-known trainer Mick Appleby. Six months later he returned to the Devon track for a first pairing with a 25-year-old artist, Alex Charles-Jones, whose brother Gareth was a professional jockey.
Cavalero at his owner-breeder's Wiltshire farm
They finished down the field and then pulled up in two novices' hurdles before pro jockey John Kavanagh was summoned to partner Cavalero in a ten-runner Chepstow selling hurdle which he won at odds of 20/1. Fending off interest from Martin Pipe at the post-race auction Manners bought his horse in for 8,800gns, but that looked an ill-advised call when Cavalero's next six starts resulted in three pulled-ups, two falls and an unseat under a selection of riders.
Audrey says: "He was a very, very difficult young horse and we had a hell of a job to settle him. He was slow to grow up, but he was a homebred and our horses were left in a field until they were three or four or more. They had grown up bodily, but didn't learn the job until later. One day at Worcester Alex rode him in race, pulled him up and yet came back with a wide smile, saying, 'That's the first time he's listened'. From there on he started improving, and he and Alex really hit it off."
Charles-Jones remembers: "I rode him at Chepstow and thought 'wow, this is a machine' but he hit the ditch and fell. Next time at Worcester I rode him in a pros race and was sitting in the changing room thinking, 'somebody else should be doing this'. The ground was firm and he got a touch of a leg, but he had learned to get in tight to a fence."
One of the PUs came as an eight-year-old on his point-to-point debut which took place under Manners' son Lester in a men's open race at Didmarton. It was a testing assignment for such an apparently lowly gelding, for the field included the Richard Barber-trained Fantus who had won the previous year's Cheltenham Foxhunter Chase and would do so again a few weeks later, and The Bounder, a superb talent bought as a schoolmaster for teenager Joe Tizzard and who became a key component in his father Colin's rise to the upper reaches of Jump-race trainers. Fantus fell, The Bounder won easily, and Cavalero went home with another letter in his form line.
Then the transformation gathered pace, initially with two second places in point-to-points under Lester, and a fair fourth in a hunters' chase at Cheltenham's evening meeting under Charles-Jones. Roughed off for the summer, Cavalero returned the following season aged nine and at Barbury provided Scott Sellars with a first race ride – it was common for Manners to give opportunities to young riders, as jockey David Bass will testify. For most of the race Sellars gave no clue to his inexperience, but when asked to quicken Cavalero sprinted into the final fence at such pace he attempted to hurdle it, hit the top and fell when victory was certain.
The start of a victory procession
Charles-Jones was reunited with the horse and they began a victory procession, starting with easily-gained open race wins at Kingston Blount and Larkhill followed by a hunters' chase success at Taunton. Lawney Hill was then given the ride in a ladies' open race that ended in victory at Siddington, with Audrey recalling: "Lawney didn't want to take the ride, saying you're thinking of running him at Aintree so save him for that, but John said 'What the hell'. John liked Lawney, she rode the horse and won."
So to Aintree where Charles-Jones was recalled for an attempt on the 1998 Foxhunters' Chase.
Thirty horses lined up and the outstanding Irish hunter Elegant Lord, trained and ridden by Enda Bolger for J P McManus, was sent off the 3/1 favourite with Cavalero a 33/1 chance. Charles-Jones settled his mount near the rear until heading down towards Becher's Brook where he took a prominent position just behind the leaders. From four out, and showing utmost faith in his horse, Charles-Jones kicked on in company with Elegant Lord and The Major General, a useful hunter trained by Richard Barber and ridden by Tizzard Jr. Turning for home the three were tightly-grouped, with Elegant Lord apparently cantering over his rivals, but as The Major General weakened Cavalero pressed on, dragging the favourite towards the final fence.
Bolger, who two years earlier had ridden Elegant Lord when they beat future Gold Cup winner Cool Dawn in Cheltenham's Foxhunter Chase, was still motionless as the two rivals set off up the long run-in towards the elbow, but when asked for more there was no response, and with Cavalero maintaining a punishing tempo, and pulling his rival further clear of the remaining runners, Manners was about to train his second Aintree Foxhunters Chase winner.
Charles-Jones recalls: "Luckily I dropped my reins as we got to the elbow, ran a bit wide and the other horse came alongside, which was just what we needed. What's the point in running blind if you have nothing to beat? Suddenly we had something to attack."
Cavalero (Alex Charles-Jones) leads Elegant Lord (Enda Bolger) at the final fence in the 1998 Aintree Foxhunters' Chase
You can watch that victory by clicking here. For much of the race Audrey had no idea of Cavalero's position, saying: "John didn't go and I took the horse to Aintree. I am the most awful coward and hated watching our horses run, which is stupid. I wandered off on my own and couldn't hear his name on the commentary because it wasn't very clear and the [racecourse] commentator was calling him something like Cava-laro. It was quite weird, and then I did catch that he was making ground, and eventually he won well.
"J P came up to me afterwards and said, 'Well done – we thought we would win. You must have a very good horse,' which was nice."
Less than two weeks later Cavalero scored again at Towcester and completed his season at Cheltenham's evening hunters' chase meeting with victory over the great Double Silk, who at the age of 14 could not compete with his younger rivals faster legs.
The following season Manners opted to run Cavalero in handicap chases and he finished runner-up in races at Cheltenham's October and November meetings before falling in Aintree's Becher Chase. Audrey recalls: "Because I didn't like watching I went off through the stables and suddenly met Cavalero coming [riderless] round the corner. It was really funny."
Four more runs followed, including a third over Cheltenham's cross-country course, before Cavalero took his place in the 1999 Grand National under Sean Curran, but was pulled up when his saddle slipped before The Chair. Victory went to the Paul Carberry-ridden Bobbyjo.
Return to the point-to-point and hunters' chase circuit
At the age of 11 Cavalero returned to the point-to-point circuit for a season's debut second at Barbury, another runner-up spot in Haydock's Walrus Hunters' Chase and a win at Warwick before he and Charles-Jones joined 24 runners in Cheltenham's Foxhunters' Chase.
Click here to watch the race and judge for yourself whether Charles-Jones accomplished one of the great hold-up rides seen at the Festival. Settled in rear over the first half dozen fences, Cavalero remained near the back as the runners went out on the final circuit, led at a take-no-prisoners pace by the Polly Gundry-ridden Lakefield Rambler.
As they headed down the hill towards the final turn Cavalero was twelfth with his rider merely nudging to hold his place, and while inching closer to the leaders was still only ninth heading into the bend. At the final fence a cluster of horses were fighting for the lead and commentator Simon Holt announced, "There's six in with chances". Cavalero was seventh, still several lengths behind, but he flew the fence, and passing rivals as if they had landed in a marsh swept through for victory by one and a half lengths from Real Value (Ben Hitchcott) and Trade Dispute (Grant Tuer).
Charles-Jones says: "I just kept pace with them going down the hill, but I've seen professional jockeys ride down there too fast and have nothing left for the run-in. You've got to keep cool, and I could feel the pace, feel the breathing, and I knew what I had left under me."
Alex Charles-Jones and Audrey Manners lift the Foxhunter Chase Trophy
A Foxhunter Chase run within ten seconds of the same afternoon's Gold Cup is generally regarded as notable, and Cavalero's winning time was just six seconds slower than that taken by Looks Like Trouble under Richard Johnson in chasing's blue riband.
At the age of 12 Cavalero was teed up for another shot at the Grand National and an agreement had been reached which would see him leased for that race, but on his third start of the season he fell in a hunters' chase at Warwick and suffered a fatal injury. Audrey recalls: "Alex blamed himself. He asked him to take off, but Cavalero got it wrong and fell. I had the heart-breaking job of holding the horse while he was put down."
Eight years later Manners died and Audrey took on the training of another homebred, the aptly-named Man From Highworth. His win at Cheltenham's evening hunters' chase meeting could be regarded as a tribute to his late breeder and a fitting note on which to conclude Audrey's own brief time as a trainer.
With the farm at Highworth in need of modernisation at considerable cost she sold up and moved to Exmoor where she lives with her daughter Susan and son-in-law Charles Cox. After relocating she "had a couple of pointers with Jeremy Scott," but says: "It's not the same if you are not hands on."
Now a keen bowls player who enjoys gardening and assisting her daughter and son-in-law with the sheep and cattle they keep, Audrey has many happy memories to draw upon. I thank her for sharing a few and with the time-honoured phrase say of her husband, 'He was a character'.
She pauses, and with a hint of weariness says: "Yes, but John didn't think he was a character."
Audrey with Cavalero at home after his Cheltenham Foxhunter Chase triumph
All-time greats - released each and every Friday! Do you have any recollections or fond memories of any of the 'greats' (Double Silk, Baby Run, Teaplanter, Spartan Missile and Cavalero) featured so far? If so, we would love to hear them (email: [email protected]) and the best may feature on this website in the coming weeks!