I can’t believe it actually happened – Noel Fehily savours a huge day

Simon Milham
January 7, 2023 5:57 pm

Former top jockey is loving life in new venture.

Though he has ridden Queen Mother Champion Chase and Champion Hurdle winners in a stellar career, Noel Fehily has seldom had too many better moments than he had at Sandown on Saturday.

The retired jump jockey’s Midas touch has continued out of the saddle, for his burgeoning ownership venture with Dave Crosse enjoyed a golden afternoon when Tahmuras and Love Envoi gave the Noel Fehily Racing Syndicates major victories in the Grade One Unibet Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle and Listed mares’ hurdle respectively.

Tahmuras was only the syndicate’s second Grade One runner, with Love Envoi having finished a creditable second over hurdles at Fairyhouse last season.

Yet both won in impressive fashion on a rain-sodden afternoon at the Esher track, leaving Fehily, 47, delighted and stunned in equal measure.

Noel Fehily (right) walks in behind Tahmuras (PA)

“That was some day!” he said. “It’s been an unbelievable day for us, really.

“It is bit different being a jockey when you are riding. It is very hard to compare the two, but it is a great feeling when you get one across the line and you have 10 owners there. Their expectations are high and when you get the job done, it is a massive feeling.

“It is unreal. It has obviously been in the pipeline since they won their last starts, they were coming here. The build-up was obviously going to be big.

“I woke up this morning thinking it would be great to get one of them to win. That would be a massive day for us, but to get two of them to win – and in the manner in which they did – was just unbelievable, really.”

Tahmuras gave champion trainer Paul Nicholls his fifth success in the Tolworth Hurdle, the last coming 15 years ago with Breedsbreeze.

The six-year-old is now expected to go straight to the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, providing his jumping improves.

He clattered through the last two flights of hurdles in the two-mile event and while he had travelled supremely well in the soft ground, jockey Harry Cobden did well to regain momentum to score by two and a half lengths.

Fehily said: “He did improve massively over the summer and grew, and he won nicely first time out this season.

“I think that race he won at Chepstow was quite a nice race. Paul said after the race that he would go to the Tolworth, which was a brilliant dream to have, but I thought he might be flying a bit high. But all he’s done is improve.

“He was much better at Haydock (when winning a Listed novices’ hurdle) and I think he was better again today.

“On that ground, to take the last two out of the ground, and stop the way he did, and then pick up again, it is the sign of a very good horse. Only very good horses can do that.

Love Envoi and Jonathan Burke won with plenty to spare (Steven Paston/PA)

“I think he won today despite the ground. I’m not sure he was actually in love with that ground.

“He is a hell of a good horse.”

That completed the double on the card for the syndicate after Love Envoi took her record to seven wins over hurdles from eight starts for trainer Harry Fry, scoring with consummate ease by 13 lengths

Fehily added: “Harry Fry does a brilliant job training her and knows her inside out. I suppose the pressure was on today.

“The pressure is on every time she runs now, because she has been running up such a sequence of wins.

What a mare 🏇
Cheltenham Festival heroine Love Envoi readily lands Listed honours at @Sandownpark to make it eight wins from nine starts with a commanding performance for @HarryFryRacing1 @JohnnyBurke2 | @ndfehily | @DavidCrosse pic.twitter.com/bMxvNZMpe7
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) January 7, 2023

“She was 100-30 on today and was expected to win, and you kind of fear something will go wrong, but I thought she was brilliant the way she went through the race.

“She is getting more professional as she goes, and she finished off the race strong. She just looks to me like she is improving all the time.

“It is quite possible we will go to Warwick with her. We’ll see how she comes out of the race, but there is every chance she will go there before Cheltenham.”

The magnificent brace on a big Saturday was the perfect advertisement for the business, which offers a 10 per cent share in each horse and allows each of the 10 owners to receive tickets and see the horses run each time.

The Noel Fehily Racing Syndicates have 26 horses in training currently and Fehily added: “We have a lot of nice young horses coming through and they’re the ones we want to have, the likes of the Love Envois and the Tahmuras, who start off in bumpers and progress to hurdlers and chasers in time. Those are the types we are buying.

“But honestly, we could not have had a better day. It is unbelievable. I can’t believe it actually happened. It has been a brilliant day!”