THE JUMPS STAR TRAINED BY STOUTE

Graham Buddry remembers Triple Crown champion Kribensis

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If you think of that master Flat trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, and the perennial top owner of blue-blood champions, Sheikh Mohammed, it is difficult to com prehend they had victories at the Cheltenham Festival, yet, as strange as it may seem, they did just that; and more.

Kribensis was a small, dark dappled grey by the Derby winner, Henbit, and great things were expected of him and he delivered, yet not in the way it was expected.

As a two-year-old Kribensis won over a mile at Ayr on 17 September 1986 and then, nearly eight months later, and now a three-year-old, he won two more races at Salisbury and Sandown, showing Stoute that he acted well on firmer ground and he needed a good distance to perform at his best. Unfortunately a broken jaw, brought about when unsuccessfully trying to bite someone, kept him off the track for the rest of the year yet the naturally fit Kribensis recovered well and eight months after his last race he was ready for another run, the only problem being it was now late January of 1988.

In what may be deemed either a quirk of fate, wonderful insight or divine intervention, Stoute sent his charge to Doncaster for a two mile event over hurdles where everyone seemed to take notice, thus the Even money starting price in a field of 16. Driven hard on unfavourably soft ground by Steve Smith-Eccles, Kribensis prevailed by a neck. There is no record of what Sheikh Mohammed thought at the time although rumours he was spotted rushing between bookies in Tattersalls with wads of £50 notes are probably unfounded.