Thursday 3 November 2016 12:13, UK
Cheltenham favourite The Giant Bolster, placed in the 2012 and 2014 renewals of the Gold Cup, has been retired.
David Bridgwater's stable star always saved his best for Cheltenham, winning three times at Prestbury Park, including when taking the Grade Two Argento Chase in January 2014.
That was to be his last success and the 11-year-old bows out having won just under £373,000 in prize-money in a 40-race career.
The Giant Bolster, who ran at seven consecutive Cheltenham Festivals, was a 50/1 runner-up to Synchronised in the 2012 Gold Cup and was beaten three-quarters of a length when third to Lord Windermere two years later.
He also finished fourth to Bobs Worth in the 2013 renewal of chasing's blue riband.
According to Bridgwater, the decision made by owners Simon Hunt and Gary Lambton to retire the popular gelding was agonising.
"He was probably a 'nearly' horse to everyone else, but to us he wasn't," the Gloucestershire handler told Press Association Sport.
"With luck in running, he could have won two Gold Cups.
"Had he done that, I suppose he would have been considered as one of the greats, but there is no question he has been our flagship horse for many years.
"He's given us some unbelievable days. It is like anything else, you will miss it when it isn't there.
"There is a big void now. That is why it has been so hard for Simon to make the decision to retire him.
"It's like having a wife for 30 years and then she runs off with someone else. It is a huge hole to fill.
"But I know it is the right thing to do. For the last 18 months the writing has been on the wall.
"He has been harder to get fit and any horse has got to want to do it. I'm not one of these people who will flog them regardless, and neither is Simon.
"Over that time, 'The Bolster' has been looking after himself and I've been very much looking after him. I'd like to think we've done each other proud."
The Giant Bolster was a standing dish at Cheltenham's Festival Trials Day each January.
Bridgwater added: "It was a wonderful meeting for him. He won there all three times he went to that meeting.
"Everybody tries to get a horse like him and we have been exceptionally lucky to have had him.
"When you look back, you think, 'Ah, we nearly won the Gold Cup twice', and we've had a wonderful time for seven years going to the Festival with him.
"But would it have made much difference to my training career had he won the Gold Cup? Probably not. I wasn't, all of a sudden, about to get sent 100 horses, was I?
"But we were very lucky to have had him, and we want another one like him, please!"
The Giant Bolster was a "people's champion", according to owner Simon Hunt.
Despite the disappointment of going so close twice in the biggest race of all at their local track, Hunt said he would not swap those experiences.
"The Giant Bolster has taken us to the pinnacle of National Hunt racing and realised big days we could only dream about," said Hunt.
"Running in seven consecutive Cheltenham Festivals has been amazing. For a trainer and his team to present a horse in top condition to compete in four consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups is an incredible achievement.
"I cannot thank David Bridgwater and the team enough - that lad has turned himself inside out for our horse.
"The Gold Cups were amazing, the goosebumps never go away. I well up when I talk about and watch them - they were an unbelievable experience. You can't buy the feeling."
Hunt and schoolboy pal Gary Lambton had been going racing together since they were 14.
Lambton was about to turn 50 and Hunt wanted to do something special for his mate. He didn't know just how special his present would be.
As the two pals sat there in the George Hotel in Cheltenham on the evening of January 24, 2014, the reaction was mixture of sheer joy and open-mouthed disbelief when Hunt told Lambton that he was giving him a share in The Giant Bolster, who was running in the Argento Chase the following day.
The Giant Bolster then put the cherry on the cake by landing the Grade Two, beating favourite Rocky Creek by seven lengths.
"Gary couldn't believe it," recalled Hunt. "He led him in and the reception the horse got that day was phenomenal. The Cheltenham crowd are always very knowledgeable and he was a people's champion."
The Argento was to be his final victory and Hunt now says it is time for The Giant Bolster to enjoy life with a new beginning.
"Having bought him as a youngster and knowing him and his quirks so well, he would always tell us when his racing days were over, and while he is fit and well, he can now go on and comfortably do another job and have some more fun," said Hunt.
"We would like to get him in the Retraining of Racehorses programme, to take him showing.
"He is such an easy-going horse, you could put him in your living room and you wouldn't know he was there. He is not a horse who would be happy out in some field all the time.
"He deserves a happy retirement. The Giant Bolster brought a racing dream to life and he is one in a million."
