Saturday Spotlight: Wylie goes from racing novice to one of the Festival's leading lights

HE is set to have up to ten runners at next month’s Cheltenham Festival, and boasts the ante-post favourite for two of the three feature novice hurdles, but Graham Wylie hasn’t always enjoyed such a privileged position within racing.

Sitting with one of Britain’s most successful owners, overlooking the 18th green at Close House, the championship golf course he has built to complement his equine empire, it is easy to imagine that the Newcastle-based businessman always moved in exalted sporting circles. In fact, the truth is rather different.

“I got my interest in racing from my father, who was a coal miner,” said Wylie, who made the bulk of his estimated £180m fortune from the sale of his stake in the Sage Group, the technology company he helped establish from scratch in 1981. “Every day, he’d sit and read the Daily Express while he had his breakfast, and he’d put a pound on a three-horse accumulator.

“I’d be sitting watching him while he flicked through the paper and wrote down his horses, and I’d try to keep half an eye on how they got on. We’d generally watch the racing together on a Saturday, and I used to love the big events like the Grand National and Derby when he got really excited.

“When I was in business, I used to go to the races sporadically, either as a guest or hosting other people. But it was purely social until a friend of mine said, ‘Graham, you enjoy it here so much, you’d love it if you were an owner’.

“It took a while to buy one, but after a bit too much wine after dinner one night, he persuaded me to go with him to see a horse he had with a trainer in County Durham called Howard Johnson. We went to see him the following Sunday, and there were two grey horses standing in a field. By the time we left, I’d bought one of them.”

That horse was Lord Transcend, an unraced five-year-old who was regarded within Johnson’s stable, near Crook, as nothing particularly special. Little did Wylie know it at the time, but he would prove to be the spark for a love affair that rapidly took over the North-Easterner’s life.

A class four novice hurdle at Newcastle might seem like an inauspicious way to launch one of the most successful ownership careers in National Hunt racing, but that was the setting for Lord Transcend’s first run, an event that did not exactly turn out as intended.

“He was 33-1 and I said, ‘Howard, I’m going to go and put a bet on. I’m going to have five pounds each way’,” said Wylie. “Howard said, ‘Don’t be so stupid – he’s got no chance of winning today’.

“I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Listen, he’s not going to win. It’s his first time on a racecourse, he’s got no idea, and there are a couple of good horses in the race. It’s not going to happen’.

“Anyway, he romped in. He won by about ten lengths and by the time I got back to see the horse, Howard was having a furious conversation with the jockey.

“I said, ‘It’s alright Howard. I put the bet on anyway so I’m going to get my winnings’. He said, ‘No Graham, he’s lost his novice status’. I didn’t have a clue what that meant, but it meant he would have to run in much better races the following season. Not that it did him any harm mind.”

Elevated to handicap company, Lord Transcend went on to win four of his next five races, with his only defeat coming in the Aintree Hurdle during 2003’s Grand National meeting. Wylie was hooked, and having plucked his first horse at random from the middle of a field, his lucky streak continued.

“My second horse was Royal Rosa, my third horse was Inglis Drever, my fourth horse was Arcalis and my fifth horse was No Refuge,” he said. “So it wasn’t exactly a bad way to get going.”

Even today, more than six years after his retirement, Inglis Drever is still discussed in reverential tones whenever his Cheltenham record is mentioned.

The long-distance hurdler won three World Hurdles, a record that is only matched by the equally legendary Big Buck’s, and regularly blitzed his rivals with a rare combination of pace, power and seemingly endless reserves of stamina.

His successes catapulted Wylie into the racing stratosphere, and contributed to a remarkable week in 2005 that saw the rookie owner celebrate three winners at Cheltenham.

“He was the horse of a lifetime really, and I guess I’ve been trying to find another one like him ever since,” he said. “If I hadn’t had those big winners early doors, and experienced the thrill of having a horse like Inglis Drever, would I have all the horses I have today? Probably not. I had that great success early on, and really got a passion for it. I’ve been trying to emulate it ever since.”

That search has seen Wylie preside over some of the biggest names in jumps racing. Tidal Bay, one of the most enigmatic horses of the last decade and runaway winner of the 2008 Arkle. Boston Bob, victor in the Melling Chase and Punchestown Gold Cup. On His Own, runner-up in last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup after a thrilling photo finish with Lord Windermere.

The successes have been plentiful, but things haven’t always followed an unbroken upward curve. In 2011, Wylie’s friend and trainer, Johnson, received a four-year ban from the British Horseracing Authority for showing a “reckless disregard” for horse welfare.

Johnson was proved to have run a horse after it had undergone a palmar neurectomy, an operation that involves the severing or removal of leg nerves running to the foot. His stables were effectively closed down overnight, with his reputation in ruins. Given how much time and money Wylie had poured into Johnson’s operation, was he tempted to throw in the towel?

“It never even entered my mind,” he said. “I had a lot of good horses, and I wasn’t going to just give them away. I never thought about pulling out of racing – it was just a question of how best to move on.

“I said to Howard, ‘I’ve got to put my horses somewhere’, and we agreed that I should go to the best trainer in England and the best trainer in Ireland. That was Paul Nicholls and Willie Mullins.

“Howard really pushed going to Willie because he thought a lot of the horses were best on soft ground, and you tend to get that in Ireland. I put 12 over to Willie and 12 with Paul, and Willie has been absolutely fantastic so I’ve actually gone on to buy more.”

The fruits of that recruitment drive will be apparent at Cheltenham next month. As well as On His Own’s Gold Cup return, Wylie will also be able to watch three of the most exciting novice hurdlers in racing, with Shaneshill, Nichols Canyon and Black Hercules set to tackle the Supreme, Neptune and Albert Bartlett respectively.

“I’m enjoying it more than ever,” he said. “My wife and I go down to Cheltenham every year. That’s our week away, and I have a box right next to the judge.

“The excitement never leaves you. Every time one of my horses is running, I get a tingle of nerves and excitement. Hand on heart, I just hope they all run well and come back safely. But if one of them wins along the way, that would obviously be great.”

And unlike the day when it all started, it’s a safe bet that none of them will be going off at anything like 33-1.

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GRAHAM WYLIE'S FIVE CHELTENHAM HORSES TO FOLLOW

SHANESHILL

(Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Tuesday March 10, 12-1)

“He hasn’t been out since he came second at Navan in December because he had a setback. Willie says he’s hoping to get him to Cheltenham for us, and he’s getting there.

“He’s not there yet, but he’s getting there and if he lines up it’ll be in the Supreme and he’ll have a decent chance. Willie obviously has Douvan in the race as well, and some people are saying the Supreme is not the right race for him, but Willie is adamant that it is. Hopefully, his stamina will come into play.”

NICHOLS CANYON

(Neptune Novices’ Hurdle, Wednesday March 11, 4-1)

“He’s been excellent all season, and it’s just a shame he stepped on that hurdle over Christmas (at Leopardstown) because that’s the only blemish on his record. He would have won three Grade Ones if that hadn’t happened.

“He’s still a double Grade One winner though, and if he jumps well, Ruby says he has tonnes of stamina. He’ll run in the Neptune, and he’s got a great chance.

BRIAR HILL

(World Hurdle, Thursday March 12, 16-1)

“He had a crashing fall at Cheltenham last year and we’ve spent all year nursing him back into contention.

“He came eighth at Christmas, but that was just a little run around the back to get him back into the swing of racing really. David Casey actually said he thought he was going to win at the third last, but he clipped the second last and emptied, but that’s because he wasn’t fit enough.

“He came fourth after that and Ruby said he was getting there, and then last time out he was primed, he came to win the race, but he fell at the last. He’s fine, but it’s what’s in his head now that is the question.”

BLACK HERCULES

(Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, Friday March 13, 5-1)

“He’ll run in the Albert Bartlett over three miles. He’s a monster, and I’m sure he’ll stay that no problem. He’s been in great form, although it’s a bit of a shame that we haven’t been able to get him out since December.

“There haven’t been that many three miles races to put him in, and that’s what he needs. Willie’s looking forward to seeing him in action again, and there’s also a chance he could roll on to Aintree and Punchestown too.”

ON HIS OWN

(Cheltenham Gold Cup, Friday March 13, 20-1)

“To be honest, I’ve been a bit disappointed with him this season. I thought he was going to finish seventh when he came over the last in last year’s Gold Cup, but by the end, I thought he’d maybe won it. He stormed up that hill, and to come second was brilliant. I had to supplement him for the race, and I was just thinking, ‘Don’t make an idiot of me’.

“He ran well in the Lexus, but the ground was heavy that day and it was a stamina test. That’s what he wants. In the Hennessey, it was better ground, and Ruby got off and said three miles wasn’t far enough for him.

“He’s going back to the Gold Cup. It’s three miles two, with a hill at the end, and hopefully the greater stamina test, run at more of a pace, might suit him.”