Sir Alex Ferguson breaks record after £633k deal for Cheltenham Festival hope
Sir Alex Ferguson is to become one of the new owners of a leading Cheltenham Festival hope.
The ex-Manchester United manager will share Caldwell Potter with friends Ged Mason. John Hales and Peter Done after the jumper fetched a record sum at auction on Monday.
Trained by Gordon Elliott, Caldwell Potter announced himself as one of the top novice hurdlers in training after winning at Grade 1 level in December and is as low as 8-1 to score at the Cheltenham Festival in March.
He was one of 29 horses to go under the hammer at Tattersalls in Ireland after following recent horse deaths.
Amid a packed auction ring, bloodstock agent Anthony Bromley secured the horse when bidding €740,000 [£633,000] to smash the record paid for a jumps horse at public auction. Elliot was underbidder.
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He will join the yard of 14-time champion jump trainer Paul Nicholls who lost Grade 1-winner Hermes Alllen to a fatal injury in a fall at Sandown on Saturday. Ferguson, Mason and Hales were also involved in that horse.
Bromley told Tattersalls: "I don't feel great about taking the horse out of Gordon Elliott's yard. He's done so well with this horse.
"But this is business and you've got to do the best for your clients and when I saw the horse coming up for sale there was only one phone call I made and it was to John Hales. He's been a client of mine for many, many years.
"I bought him for a little partnership they've got together, four guys, John Hales, Ged Mason, Sir Alex Ferguson and Peter Done."
He went on., "He doesn't have to go and run at Cheltenham I believe. It could be that he needs the time to settle in and go to Aintree.
"But really we bought him to be a steeplechaser because he's got the pedigree for a three mile Gold Cup I think. He's such an exciting horse for the longer term. "
On a tragic weekend for the Nicholls stable, the death was announced of a member of their staff while riding in a point-to-point in Kent on Sunday.
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