A celebration of Porlock Bay’s victory at this year’s Cheltenham Festival took place in the Somerset village of Ditcheat yesterday.
Trainer Will Biddick was joined by Porlock Bay’s owner/breeder John Studd and his wife Gill, plus jockey Lorcan Williams and others who had played a role in creating a famous Cheltenham win in the St James’s Place Festival Open Hunters’ Chase, also known as ‘The Foxhunter Chase’. Others in attendance included six riders who had won the race on horses trained in the Wessex Area, plus multiple champion trainer Paul Nicholls who has saddled the winner four times.
Biddick had pulled together the event to thank the Studds and unite them with the legendary and very large Foxhunter Trophy, which they were unable to receive at the Festival because Covid regulations prevented the public, including racehorse owners, from attending. Amateur riders were not allowed to ride in races at that time, and so Biddick looked on as conditional jockey Williams took the reins for a narrow win.
Porlock Bay with the magnificent trophy he won and (l to r) Will Biddick, Gill and John Studd and groom Ella Orttewell
John Studd said: “We would have loved to have been there when he won, but we had to accept the position and watched the race at home in Sussex. Will couldn’t ride and we couldn’t be there, and going into the race I thought we might finish fifth at best, but just getting there and having a runner in a race it has long been my ambition to win was marvellous. He was 16/1 and that represented his chance.”
Porlock Bay, a son of champion sire Kayf Tara and the Muhtathir mare Exolthir, was a successful hurdler/chaser when trained in France by Francois Nicolle, but Studd decided to bring him back to Britain as a nine-year-old to see if he could become a contender for the Festival Hunters’ Chase. Studd had hunted in Dorset and Somerset, loved the area and was keen for his horse to be trained in it, so made a chance call to Kirsty Boutflower, secretary of the Wessex Point-to-Point Association, and she recommended Biddick.
“I would have been happy going around the point-to-point circuit,” said Studd, “but after the horse won at Kimble under Will he said to me ‘you have a dream and I think this horse might be good enough to do it’.”
The death of Studd’s first wife, Barbara, a farmer’s daughter who had also ridden to hounds and who loved holidays in Porlock Bay, prompted the horse’s name and the plan to win one of hunt racing’s most prestigious prizes. “Barbara and I always said we wanted to win the Foxhunter, and this horse was the first I bred after she died,” said Studd. “To be part of his life has been a wonderful journey and the culmination of a dream.”
After winning under Biddick at Kimble in November Porlock Bay finished second at Wincanton when ridden by Williams, and then the new pairing went to the Festival. There they beat 17 rivals, prevailing by a short head from Ireland’s top hunter Billaway, and there was a further 13 lengths back to another Irish contender, Staker Wallace.
(l to r) John Studd with Lorcan Williams and Will Biddick
Studd said: “As they headed for the line the commentator said, ‘Billaway or Porlock Bay – it could go either way’ which is something I will never forget. The photo finish was very traumatic, because I thought he’d lost it and I had accepted he’d lost it, and then the result was announced. I think my heart did stop – Gill had to hold onto me.
“Whatever happens now doesn’t matter. We will try to replicate the win, but I’ve achieved my lifetime’s dream, and I’m so grateful to all the team here who made it happen. There is so much talent in point-to-pointing, and it’s a wonderful sport.”
Wessex winners of famous race
Six riders who have won Cheltenham’s Foxhunter Chase joined the Porlock Bay celebration yesterday at the Manor Inn in Ditcheat.
The sextet had all ridden horses trained in the Wessex area, with three having won on Richard Barber runners, two on horses with Paul Nicholls and one for Will Biddick.
Foxhunter winning riders - (l to r) Bryony Frost (Pacha Du Polder (2017), Tim Mitchell (Fantus 1997), Harriet Tucker (Pacha Du Polder, 2018), Justin Farthing (Rushing Wild, 1992), Polly Curling (Fantus, 1995), Lorcan Williams (Porlock Bay 2021)
Remarkably Justin Farthing, Polly Curling and Tim Mitchell all wore the colours of John Keighley, with Farthing winning the 1992 race on Rushing Wild, Curling scoring on Fantus in 1995 and Mitchell also winning on that horse in 1997 – both horses were trained by Barber.
They were joined by Bryony Frost, who was still an amateur when taking the 2017 running of the race on the Nicholls-trained Pacha Du Polder, and Harriet Tucker, who followed up on the same horse 12 months later in the colours of The Stewart Family. Tucker revealed she is about to relinquish her amateur status and take out a conditional jockeys’ licence.
Winning trainers Paul Nicholls and Will Biddick flank successful riders and owners who have won the big cup
Williams won this year’s race on Porlock Bay, becoming the first and probably the last professional jockey to do so, assuming the race returns to its former conditions and is restricted to amateur riders.