Walshes wagon rolls on with Commanche

When it comes to racing's happy families, first and foremost come trainer Ted and his son Ruby, members of the Walsh clan. The family added to their legend here yesterday when Commanche Court collected an incident-strewn Heineken Gold Cup to add to his Irish Grand National of last week. A great trinity of victories for the Walshes had been started at Aintree when Papillon lifted the Grand National. "I thought all my luck had come there," Ted said yesterday. "How could you believe all this?"

If it was hard for Walsh to imagine this victory then it was impossible for him to have predicted its manner. There was mayhem out there.

Micko's Dream had not got past the first obstacle in the Grand National and it looked as though he was once again in for a truncated journey when he burst through the foliage of the first fence yesterday. But then the chestnut began to pick up his legs, white-stockinged at the rear to football-sock height.

Danoli departed at the fence before the straight first time round as Micko's Dream ground relentlessly on. At the third last, though, came a calamity which looked as though it must bring with it a fatal outcome. The leader put in a short, unnecessary and disastrous stride before the obstacle and went crashing through the fence in an ugly arc. Dorans Pride, previously hard-driven in the leader's shadow, now could not miss him. Four bodies were on the floor.

This huge mêlée completely altered the complexion of the race. "They all had to stop to a walk," Walsh said. "The boys could have got off and had a cup of tea at that stage."

Nicky Henderson's heavily-backed Stormyfairweather veered towards the wrong side of a marker doll until his rider, Mick Fitzgerald, was alerted by Adrian Maguire on Addington Boy. In a manoeuvre to stay on the proper track Fitzgerald's mount cannoned into the unfortunate Addington Boy, who was brought to a virtual standstill. When the smoke cleared it was a knight in white and a horse with a white face coming to the fore.

Commanche Court, too, had suffered interference at the fence of peril and had to vault over the stricken Micko's Dream. But we shall remember this as the spring of the Walshes, and there was something beautifully inevitable about the result once Ruby engineered his partner into a challenging position. By the end, Commanche Court had forged four and a half lengths clear. Behind him, all the fallen were able to get back to their feet.

Later, Fitzgerald was banned for two days for careless riding. The jockeys suggested afterwards that dazzling sun had been the main factor behind the ruck. It was the same sun which seems to have been following Ted and Ruby Walsh for a month now. Ted has been quite stunned by it all. "I always thought the Irish National was a possibility because we'd been there or thereabouts in it with Papillon and Barney Burnett," he said. "But I never thought in my wildest dreams of winning at Aintree.

"I didn't realise how big an occasion it was until afterwards. Within racing, the Gold Cup has more prestige and I, for one, would dream of winning at Cheltenham above all others as that signifies that you have the best horse around at the time. But the hype of a Grand National is something else. "No other sporting event captures the imagination of the outside public like the National. To have been part of it all, part of history, has been great.

"We got plenty of cards after we won the Triumph Hurdle [with Commanche Court in 1997] but we have had literally thousands of cards and faxes from all over the world, Australia and America. Even the president of Ireland [Mary McAleese] sent a letter. It's a huge thing. The National is a fairytale, just something that comes your way if you're lucky."

It is all going so well for Ted that he will not change a jot of it. There are no grand ideas about expansion, no great recruitment drives in motion. "There's room," he said, "but I wouldn't be having any more because I'm getting to 50 years of age and I want to enjoy it."

Today's card at Punchestown offers several large pots and none more swollen than the £70,000 Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle, which was won 12 months ago by Katarino. His stable will not relinquish the title lightly and this year Henderson is represented by the Triumph Hurdle duo of Regal Exit (second in the Cheltenham race) and Mister Banjo (10th).

Five of the seven runners in the Swordlestown Cup Novices' Chase are from Britain, including Henderson's Arkle Chase winner, Tiutchev, and the Grand Annual victor at the Festival, Venetia Williams's Samakaan. Seven Barrows is represented in the Stayers' Hurdle by Bacchanal, who has already collected the big daddy of staying hurdles at Cheltenham.