What is the Dream Alliance Story?

The barely credible story of Dream Alliance was recorded for posterity in the film ‘Dark Horse’, which won the World Cinema Documentary Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The syndicate that owned Dream Alliance, known as the ‘Alliance Partnership’, was the brainchild of Janet ‘Jan’ Vokes, who hit upon the idea of breeding a racehorse while working as a barmaid in a working men’s club in Cefn Fforest, on the outskirts of Blackwood, in the South Wales Valleys.

Together with her husband, Brian, and twenty or so other local people, Vokes raised £300 to buy the unheralded mare Rewbell, whom she paired with Bien Bien, twice a Grade One winner on the Flat in the United States, and Dream Alliance. Foaled on March 23, 2001, Dream Alliance was initially raised on the Vokes’ allotment, before being transferred to Somerser trainer Philip Hobbs, with each syndicate member contributing £10 a week towards training costs.

Dream Alliance made his racecourse debut, as a three-year-old, at Newbury in November, 2004. The following season, after 350-day break, which included a gelding operation, he won twice over hurdles, at Chepstow and Haydock, and even made an appearance at the Cheltenham Festival, albeit finishing unplaced in the Spa Novices’ Hurdle won by Black Jack Ketchum. Dream Alliance made a winning debut over fences at Exeter in November, 2006, and on his seasonal debut in 2007/08 finished a creditable second to Denman in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury.

At the end of that season, his racing career hung in the balance when he struck into himself, severing a tendon, in a hurdle race at Aintree. However, following stem-cell treatment, which cost connections £20,000, he returned to racing. On just his second start back from injury, he won the Coral Welsh National at Chepstow, worth over £57,000 to the winner. And if you have no time or resources to invest in horses, you can always try to win some tournaments playing poker online.

Why doesn’t the favourite win every horse race?

In a horse race, the favourite is the horse thought most likely to win, yet does so on just one-in-three occasions, on average. One reason for a high proportion of losing favourites is that roughly 60% of horse races run in Britain are handicaps or, in other words, races in which every horse is allotted a weight which, at least in theory, gives it an equal chance of winning as any other horse. Another is that, unlike, say, the roll of a die, in which the chances of rolling a particular number is, unequivocally, one-in-six, or 5/1, the odds offered on a horse race inevitably involve an element of human opinion.

A bookmaker may initially calculate the probability of a favourite winning based on its form and other information in the public domain, and post odds accordingly, but those odds will be affected by the opinion of other bookmakers and the betting public. The betting public voices its opinion by accepting, or rejecting, the odds offered and, in effect, ‘builds’ the market for the race in question. Of course, public opinion, like that of the bookmakers, is not always correct, but can sometimes lead to a horse being backed – in the absence of an informed alternative – simply because it is ‘favourite’ for the race in question.

Of course, horse racing is subject to a myriad variables, including, but not limited to, course, distance and going, plus an infinite number of imponderables – not least of the horse, itself, as a sentient being, capable of emotions such as anxiety and fear – so it should come as no great surprise that the horse that ‘should’ win a race fails to do so on a regular basis.

Who is Richard Hannon Snr.?

When he announced his retirement from the training ranks in November, 2013, Richard Hannon Snr. had just enjoyed his most successful season ever, numerically and financially, with 235 winners and over £4.5 million in prize money. In fact, his impressive seasonal tally not only made him Champion Trainer for the third time in four years, and the fourth time in all, but took his career total to 4,145 winners, thereby setting a record for the number of British winners for any trainer, Flat or Jumps.

Born on May 30, 1945, Hannon became a a trainer in his own right in 1970, when he took over the licence from his father, Harry, at a small, rented yard in East Everleigh on the edge of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. In an effort to expand his string, Hannon advertised for yearlings that had gone unsold at public auction. One of the horses he acquired in this way was Mon Fils, bred and owned by Brenda Davis, who won the 2,000 Guineas in 1973 at odds of 50/1. Hannon reportedly managed to secure 200/1 about the Sheshoon colt and used the proceeds of his winning bet – £35,000, or over £425,000 by modern standards – to fund the purchase of the East Everleigh yard.

Aside from Mon Fils, Hannon would win the 2,000 Guineas twice more, with Don’t Forget Me in 1987 and Tirol in 1990, and the 1,000 Guineas once, with Sky Lantern in 2013. He also saddled 32 winners at Royal Ascot, notably including Shalford and Bold Edge in the Cork and Orrery Stakes, now the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, in 1992 and 1999, respectively.

Does Cloth Cap represent Trevor Hemmings best chance of winning another Grand National?

In November, 2020, Trevor Hemmings identified Cloth Cap as one of the two horses most likely to provide him with a record-breaking fourth Grand National winners. For the record, the other one was Deise Aba, a seven-year-old trained by Philip Hobbs, who has failed to complete the course on both attempts, so far, in the 2020/21 National Hunt season.

Cloth Cap, on the other hand, made a respectable seasonal debut when third, albeit no match for the first two, in a handicap chase at Cheltenham in October en route to the Ladbrokes Trophy, formerly the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup, at Newbury the following month. Carrying minimum weight of 10 stone and sporting first-time cheekpieces, the eight-year-old jumped well at the head of affairs and kept on strongly in the closing stages to win, comfortably, by 10 lengths.

Cloth Cap has yet to win over further, but did finish third, beaten just 4 lengths, on his one and only attempt over a marathon trip, in the Scottish Grand National at Ayr in April, 2019, which augurs well for his stamina over 4 miles 2½ furlongs at Aintree. He has won four of his 16 steeplechases, all on good or good to soft going and, although he did fall once over hurdles at Ayr, he has jumped around Ascot, Cheltenham (twice) and Newbury without incident. Cloth Cap has no experience over the idosyncratic National fences, but is currently available at 25/1 ante post, which could look generous by the time April, 2021 rolls around.

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