Hero Of The Cheltenham Double

Graham Buddry remembers Fifty Dollars More

One of history’s forgotten horses, although he won his own place in racing folklore, is Fifty Dollars More, the strapping bay gelding son of that champion sire of National Hunt horses, Deep Run.

Cheltenham have two big early season handicaps which, to the casual observer, seem very similar but are far different in many ways. The first, known then as the Mackeson Gold Cup is a 2½ mile handicap chase run since 1960 on the Old course and listed among the early winners are the likes of Fortria, Gay Trip, Bachelors Hall and Bright Highway.

The Old course is sharp, fast, and puts a premium on quick, accurate jumping while the New course is slightly longer, the fences a bit further apart and plays to the strengths of the resolute galloper. The New course played host to the Massey-Ferguson, first run in 1963, a 2m5f handicap chase a month later and its early winners include Flyingbolt, Titus Oates and Pendil as well as a third-placed Arkle.

Quite a number of horses have run in each race over the years, yet winning both on such different courses proved impossible. The closest to this unique double was the future Grand National winner, Gay Trip, who ran in both events in 1969, winning one and finishing a length second in the other and then, in 1971, winning the Mackeson for a second time followed by a close fourth in the Massey-Ferguson four weeks later. Gay Trip’s two victories were part of a four year record winning sequence for the trainer, Fred Rimell, which still stands today.

The top trainer around this time was Fred Winter yet the closest he had come to winning the Mackeson were the second places of Soothsayer in 1974 and Bula two years later when the race was run at Haydock.

Winter had better luck in the Massey-Ferguson, later re-named the Kennedy Construction Gold Cup, having two winners courtesy of Pendil in 1973 and Observe nine years later, yet still no horse had ever won both races.