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GG Jumps Journal – My Share in Wendigo

I am now the proud owner of a Grade 1 runner-up. No, really I am.

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Joe BloGGs

Admittedly, I’m one of about 800 “owners” of the great Wendigo, and that number only accounts for those on WhatsApp. Overall, 4,000 shares are available in the great horse, of which I am privileged to have just one. Though if I’m feeling greedy, I could buy more.

Yet, despite the miniscule percentage I truly own, that feeling of ownership is one of the joys I have discovered regarding being a shareholder. Despite a longstanding interest in racing, my two previous dalliances with holding shares in racehorses amounted to one being retired before he even got to race, and the other being afflicted by a bout of seconditis so severe, I feared a Devon Loch every time he approached a winning post with even a semblance of a chance.

A few years had passed since my name was registered among a syndicate. However, on November 1st, the Racing Club began pinging emails into my inbox.

This was not unsolicited, nor was it expected. Minutes later, my rather sheepish looking partner confessed that what was meant to be a surprise birthday present had accidentally been unwrapped two months early. Wendigo was now 0.03% mine (or thereabouts), picked from my girlfriend’s ever-burgeoning racing insight (“he looked the most handsome”).

These accidents sometimes have a way of working out for the best. Had I only found out about Wendigo in January, I would have missed the opening two months of what is already proving an adventure unmatched as a horse racing fan.

Just six days after it was made official, Wendigo got off the mark at Ludlow. Low stakes they may have been, but my strapping boy made light work of a couple of fellow promising novices to score with plenty to spare. He had previously been beaten narrowly on his hurdling bow, but as my share was as yet unclaimed, I think we can safely say that my backing made a difference.

Given the numerous different classes of horse race, the strength in depth being confined largely to only the bigger stables, the chances of picking up a share in a top class horse for £60 are slim. Shareholdership is meant to be a bit of fun, something to look out for during your work days and, if you’re lucky, get to experience live. It is not meant to be something profitable, and yet Wendigo is proving to be so in so many ways, not least financially.

Expecting him to swan around the novice hurdling division before potentially taking aim at a big handicap later in the season, I soon saw the news begin to swirl around the Racing Club channels that trainer Jamie Snowden, some boy that he is, was dreaming bigger. The Grade 1 Challow Novices’ Hurdle would be next.

A Grade 1. For my horse.

Newbury is a marvellous racecourse for viewers. Flat as a pancake, the action is watchable even as the runners make their way past the new-build flats at the top of the straight. In that straight lies a lifetime of viewing, the thrilling conclusion imprinted on my mind where others would only have witnessed a procession.

Wendigo did not win the Challow Novices’ Hurdle. That honour went to the deeply impressive The New Lion, who is now favourite for the Turners Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. However, as that winner coasted home in a class of his own, the battle for second enraged.

Wendigo had looked outpaced. As they became specks to the distance, I thought he would naturally tail off; this was a worthy and gallant attempt against top class horses, and a pleasure to witness for us Racing Club owners even if our Wendigo came up wanting.

It turned out he was taking us all for fools. Instead of wilting, Wendigo blossomed, picking off rivals one by one, outstaying one of the most expensively assembled novice hurdle fields and falling short only of a seriously smart winner.

Jamie Snowden gave a terrific interview afterwards, a manager in front of his rockstar and besotted fan club. The tantalising proposition looms greater than ever now, with a tilt at the Cheltenham Festival on the horizon. The 3-mile Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle should be right up his street.

There is to be a watch party should he turn up at Cheltenham, with 150 of us lucky faithfuls holding onto our ambitious each-way slips and willing him home safely. Should Wendigo take his chance, some of us will be there, higher even than the Cheltenham Hill, higher still maybe than Cleeve Hill atop it all, just for the experience of seeing our horse compete at the ultimate natural sporting pantheon.

And if he doesn’t? Well, there’s Sandown, there’s Newbury, there’s Aintree and Kempton. If Wendigo does not meet his potential, Ludlow could be calling again, or Plumpton, or Fontwell, or Sedgefield. The Racing Club knows that, I know that, but we will be there, in person or in front of our TV screens, cheering him to whatever gallop he can muster.

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Fascinations & Irritations

Wendigo is always a fascination, but there have been some noteworthy stories and events in recent days.

Fascination – The Champion Hurdle Entries

In 1966, Fujino-O broke new ground for Japan by running in the Grand National. He refused at the Chair, and since then global competition in horse racing has been the primary purpose of the flat.

However, on Tuesday, All The World was given the unlikeliest of entries among 16 for the 2025 Champion Hurdle. Such is the difference in worlds between Japanese and British jumps racing that All The World remains an entire and is about as diminutive a jumps horse as you could get.

Still, his appearance among the list elicits a potentially new strand of DNA to the Cheltenham Festival. His declaration should be thoroughly encouraged regardless of the end result.

The Champion Hurdle is already being billed as the highlight of the entire week should the principles keep their place. A contender from the other side of the world would only add a further dash of intrigue.

Irritation – The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle Favourite

Being the opening race of the Cheltenham Festival always has an adverse effect on the commentary surrounding it. With punters keen to make a quickfire start, the obsession with the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle favourite begins as early as any other discourse about the meeting.

The issue with the topic is that it is entirely wallet based. So little nuance has been allowed to intervene regarding Salvator Mundi’s victory in the Moscow Flyer Novices’ Hurdle, which cemented his position at the head of the Supreme betting.

The majority who have not backed him gave him very short shrift for his missteps: he was keen, jumped poorly, and failed to put a relatively average field to bed by more than a few lengths. Those with double-figure prices secured already have decided none of that matters and that he can only improve beyond recognition come Cheltenham.

No other race experiences this level of saturation, to the point where the Festival only properly gets underway when it finishes. A more tantric build-up could benefit the entire week in future.

Tip for the Weekend

I may as well stick my neck out for Jipcot again, who was denied his chance to represent this column when Kempton’s Lanzarote Hurdle card was abandoned at the weekend. We’ll even give him two chances this week due to his dual entries at Ascot and Haydock.

The Holloway’s Hurdle at the former may prove the better fit, for if the O’Neills send him up to 3m at Haydock, the potential is very much there for him to improve for the distance too. Either way, I believe he remains on the right side of the handicapper.