Legendary horse racing magnate John Patrick ‘J.P.’ McManus has been Champion National Hunt Owner in his native Ireland 17 times and, while he has been usurped in that respect by Gigginstown House Stud in recent years, he remains far and away the most succesful owner in the history of the Cheltenham Festival. Seven winners at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, including a 1,019/1 four-timer on Ladies’ Day, won him the Bentley Leading Owner Award and extended his record winning tally to 66.
Indeed, McManus’ gold and green hooped colours have become such a familiar sight in the winners’ enclosure at Prestbury Park, it is hard to imagine a time when had yet to add his name to the Festival scoresheet. Of course, there was such a time and it would be fair to say that the Cheltenham Festival has not always provided rich pickings for the man once known as the ‘Sundance Kid’.
In 1978, his Jack Of Trumps was sent off odds-on favourite for the National Hunt Chase, but came to grief, and the following year, Deep Gale, who was rated a ‘real certainty’ by trainer Edward O’Grady – and backed accordingly – met a similar fate in the same race. In fact, it was not until the second day of the 1982 Cheltenham Festival that McManus finally broke his duck.
McManus later described victory for Mister Donovan, ridden by Tommy Ryan, in the Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle as ‘very special’, coming off the back of what was, by his own admission, ‘a disastrous first day’. Mister Donovan reportedly won McManus £250,000, without which, he later reflected, any subsequent racehorse ownership might not have been possible. Mister Donovan was trained, like Jack Of Trumps and Deep Gale, by Edward O’Grady and had previously been diagnosed with a pronounced heart murmur. O’Grady later joked that McManus’ first Cheltenham Festival winner ‘was a maiden with a heart murmur.’