Golfers Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell have major' Cheltenham challenger

22 January 2024 , 15:42

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Golfers Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell have major' Cheltenham challenger

Star golfers Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell could be in with a chance of celebrating another major win - this time on the racecourse.

The pair are co-owners in Givemefive who took his score to two wins from two starts over jumps at Warwick on Monday.

Trained by Harry Derham. Givemefive won his second juvenile hurdle by 18 lengths at odds of 2-1.

And he could now be switched to contest the JCB Trumph Hurdle, for which he is a 25-1 chance with Paddy Power, at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Derham got to train Givemefive after winning a ‘nearest the pin’ bet with McDowell during the summer.

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Neither golfers were at Warwick but the trainer revealed that the friends, both previous winners of the US Open, watched the race from their Florida base.

“Graeme, Brooks and Daniel Gambill (another part owner) are great guys and they were all watching the race in Florida. My WhatsApp has been going mad with messages after that,” said Derham.

Givemefive made a winning debut at Market Rasen 46 days ago and turned his latest race into a procession.

Derham said: “I thought he had improved, but I was not expecting that. As he was carrying a penalty against smart horses, he is obviously a smart horse.

“We were hoping he might go and run in the Fred Winter and you could go for the Adonis (Juvenile Hurdle at Kempton Park) before that.

“Entries close for the Triumph Hurdle tomorrow and I’m going to enter him after winning like that carrying a penalty.

“I need to think about it. To run in the Fred Winter he needs to have another run. If he didn’t need to have another run then I would almost certainly run him in the Triumph.

“I’m not going to commit to anything now, but it is a nice problem to have.”

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Jon Lees