Cheltenham Festival: Kim Bailey recalls winning the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup in the same year

The records of recent times show that the names of Henderson, Mullins, and Nicholls have been consistently dotted on the roll of honour for both the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

But Kim Bailey completed the remarkable feat of landing the two main jewels of the Festival in the same year when Alderbrook and Master Oats completed the double in 1995.

It is an achievement that remains etched in Bailey's memory and he fondly explains: "How could you forget your greatest moment in your training career? We had already backed Alderbrook for the Champion Hurdle at odds of 66-1 and 33-1 before he made his debut for us in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton.

"He schooled exceptionally at home and also had some time with Yogi Breisner jumping poles and other things and he was obviously a very high-class horse on the Flat with Julie Cecil. The Kingwell Hurdle went exactly as we had planned and after that, it was a question of keeping him in one piece for the Champion."

An eight-length defeat of 6-4 favourite Trying Again in the Kingwell set a fair standard going onto Cheltenham but in what looked an ultra-competitive event.

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The inexperienced Alderbrook was pitted against his Bailey's great friend Oliver Sherwood's Large Action, who had won his previous four races which included a two-and-a-half length defeat of the 1994 Champion Hurdle winner Flakey Dove in the Grade 2 Bula Hurdle (now International Hurdle) at Cheltenham in December, and Danoli who had won the Sun Alliance Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham the previous season.

That pair were sent off at 4-1 joint-favourites for the Champion Hurdle but had no answer to the finishing surge of 11-2 shot Alderbrook as he swooped at the last under Norman Williamson to win going away by five lengths for Large Action, with Danoli a further two lengths adrift in third place.

Bailey said: "It was always plain sailing through the race and Norman was pulling double turning into the straight. He was able to cruise up to Large Action and off he went up the hill and the job was done."

Bailey enjoyed an evening meal with some friend afterwards and his appetite for further Cheltenham glory had been whetted for Gold Cup glory two days later.

He recalls: "Both horses wanted soft ground and Alderbrook had broken my duck at the meeting and we had thought Simple Arithmetic might do that for us in the Supreme, but he made a mistake at the downhill hurdle when he probably would have won, and he finished third, but it did give us confidence for Alderbrook as he was his galloping partner.

"The ground conditions were perfect for Master Oats as he wanted it like a bog, and I had walked the course with Edward Gillespie marking it out and thinking where we were going in the race."

Master Oats had entered the race very much in the ascendancy with a resounding defeat of subsequent and previous Grand National winner Earth Summit and Party Politics in the Welsh National run at Newbury on New Year's Eve and his prep for Gold Cup day in the Pillar Property Investment Chase (now the Cotswold Chase) at Cheltenham in January going silkily smooth as he skipped home by 15 lengths from Dubacilla.

Bailey said: "I was optimistic of his chance, but we were still worried about his jumping, so we schooled him over poles at Nicky Henderson's on the morning of the race. I watched from the lawn and he wasn't actually going very well for the first half of the race on the inside and then he made a mistake and Norman gave him a couple of backhanders and took him to the outside and he just took off."

The 100-30 favourite was once again pitted against his old adversary Dubacilla and the winning margin was once again 15 lengths as he skipped clear after leading two out.

That was the week that was for Bailey and further Festival victories were to come with Betty's Boy in 1999, Darna in 2015 and last year with Imperial Aura.

However, there would be no ruling out the possibility of another remarkable Festival double in 2021 as he has decent claims with a couple of emerging talents in First Flow and Imperial Aura.

Bailey said: "There is small matter of Chacun Pour Soi and he could be a fence clear, but First Flow was a good horse last year and he won his novices' chases very easily. He is an improving horse but confidence makes a huge difference and his confidence is very high."

At his base in Thorndale Farm in Andoversford, Bailey had very much mapped out First Flow's campaign with this season in mind and Cheltenham week last year saw him sent off to Carlisle on the Sunday to win a fourth novices' chase in a common canter.

"He was sent pot hunting last year to gain experience and loves soft ground and we had to make hay whilst the ground was soft."

A neck success from Amoola Gold at Ascot in November off a mark of 148 and hard-fought half-length success from Eragone in the Castleford Chase at Wetherby over the Christmas period hardly paved the way for a Grade 1 success in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot in January but the first venture at the top table was to prove a real eye-opener.

Taking on last year's Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Politologue and the classy Waiting Patiently, the nine-year-old declared his intent in no uncertain manner as he put up a career-best performance to score by seven lengths and a length and three quarters from the two aforementioned.

Bailey said: "He showed at Ascot that he stayed the two-mile and furlong trip very well and had the speed to quicken up. We haven't done any work with him yet, but he seems very bright and perky and I couldn't be happier with him."

Imperial Aura, the most recent name to appear on Bailey's Festival roll of honour when beating the other 4-1 joint-favourite Galvin in the Listed North Trust Company Novices Handicap Chase over two-and-a-half miles last season, is in line for a return visit in the Ryanair Chase although still holding the Gold Cup entry.

The Kalanisi gelding uncharacteristically unseated David Bass after a mistake at the second in Grade 2 Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton last month but had previously looked the real deal when dishing out a five-length defeat to Itchy Feet in the Grade 2 Chanelle Pharma Chase at Ascot in November.

Bailey said: "We think something probably took his eye off the fence, but he has been fine and he has schooled brilliantly since. He did a very nice piece of work last week and is on course if everything goes to plan to go for the Ryanair.

"He has improved on the racetrack this year and that run last year at Cheltenham was very good as that looks very strong form - there was some very good horses behind him."

The Thorndale Farm team have maintained their recent resurgence in fortunes with 46 winners and just short of £500,000 in prize money so far and Bailey assuredly nails the reason for the upturn, concluding: "We have been quietly working away buying better horses and we benefit from marvellous facilities and a dedicated team."

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