Venetia Williams and Liam Treadwell's 50/1 success with Carrickboy at Cheltenham (From Hereford Times)

Venetia Williams and Liam Treadwell's 50/1 success with Carrickboy at Cheltenham

3:00pm Wednesday 20th March 2013 in Sport

KINGS Caple trainer Venetia Willams may have been disappointed at not being able to saddle live outsider Katenko in the Cheltenham Gold Cup but she enjoyed Festival success when her Carrickboy, ridden by Liam Treadwell, sprang a 50/1 shock at the meeting.

Williams and Treadwell had famously teamed up to win the 2009 Grand National with Mon Mome.

This time, Treadwell, wearing the colours of Sir Trevor Hemmings, and Carrickboy made the Cheltenham race their own.

Making all the running from flag fall, Treadwell had his mount jumping from fence to fence and the nine-year-old, seemingly enjoying the better ground and being out in front, stayed on strongly to win by a length-and-a-half from Viego Griego and cement the outstanding form of the yard.

Willams said: “If he went for a handicap like this and was behind a wall of horses he’d just curl up and so his only chance was to be in the first rank.

“Liam has done a great job and Carrickboy has quite possibly enjoyed the better ground.”

“Liam had a good stable jockey job elsewhere and he had always ridden the odd one for us.

“I thought that with the season he had last year, he might be looking to make a move and I said it would be fantastic if he came out to ride regularly for us.

“He will certainly have plenty of rides coming his way.”

The Gold Cup proved an anti-climax for the Michael Scudamore-trained Monbeg Dude as the Bromash runner was never jumping with any fluency and became detached from the principal runners on the final circuit before being pulled up by jockey Sam Twiston-Davies.

Scudamore commented: “He seems OK. “He has a minor cut on his leg, but nothing of any significance.

“I don’t think he realised horses could go that fast until he ran the other day. Those top horses certainly have two or three gears he doesn’t.

“I think we'll be sticking to staying handicaps from now on. “We’ll see how he is over the next week or two, but that may be it for the season - I would say that's more than likely.

“The only real option for him is the Scottish National at Ayr but it is normally good ground or faster for that, so our horse will probably have a holiday.”

He added: “We'll look towards next season and hopefully having another crack at the Welsh National, whatever happens now he's been a star for us this season and doesn't owe anybody anything.”

l The scheduled Ross Harriers point to point was called off following heavy rain on the Friday and Saturday at the Garnons track.