A tale of two Harrys

Fry started training with a Champion Hurdler in his ranks, and already has another winning machine in Festival banker Unowhatimeanharry. Hannah Lemieux finds out more.

- Hannah Lemieux

A Cheltenham Festival winner tucked under the belt is an accolade jump trainers can spend years trying to accomplish.

At just 30 years of age and now in his fifth season training, Harry Fry has already reached this upper echelon of the National Hunt ranks — thanks to his stable star and the 2016 Albert Bartlett winner Unowhatimeanharry.

On top of that, Harry has the renowned racehorse owner, JP McManus, on board and “Harry” (the horse, to make it confusing) now carries the famous green and gold silks.

The Dorset-based trainer has been lauded for his training performance of the nine-year-old gelding, who has won all eight starts for him and is on course to dominate once again at the Gloucestershire track, this time in the stayers’ hurdle (16 March) for which he is favourite — despite having joined the yard with few expectations.

“At no point did we expect Unowhatimeanharry to reach the heights he has — we had no aspirations for him really and purchased him for our racing club to have some fun with,” explains Harry as we sit in the office at Manor Farm, while a hive of activity continues on the yard outside.

“Last season, he was brilliant for the racing club and won three times at Cheltenham. He thrives on his racing — he just eats, sleeps and repeats.”

A chance email out of the blue, in 2015, led the two Harrys to come together. “His owner at the time [SJ Hartley] emailed me saying she was looking to sell her horses,” Harry explains. “It’s not the usual way you find horses and the kind of email you usually dismiss, but I was on the lookout for horses for the racing club, so I went to see him at Helen Nelmes’ yard.