Humbled To Deliver Potts’ Lifetime Ambition

Alan was a fantastic man and was very passionate about racing and horses.

The Dream Season
I was very lucky when he moved his horses like Sizing John and Supasundae to Jessie’s yard and I got to ride them. We had a fantastic time of it from Christmas last year.

Sizing John became the first horse to win three Gold Cups and it was Alan and Ann’s lifetime ambition to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup which they achieved this year.

For me to deliver that for them in their final season as owners was absolutely fantastic.

When Sizing John came to us his form was all over two miles. On his first run he finished second to Douvan in Leopardstown at Christmas. It was a case of do we try and chase Douvan around for the rest of the year or do we step up in trip?

I always had the feeling that he would stay further and Alan was also keen to try and step him up in trip which worked and thankfully it reaped the rewards.

Superstar Horses
Alan will be sadly missed by people everywhere. He has a great family behind him. Hopefully his son and two daughters will keep the business going and Sizing John and Supasundae to name a few will stay with Jessie.

Likewise hopefully Finian’s Oscar and Fox Norton will stay with Colin Tizzard. There are some fantastic horses there and hopefully they will run for a long time in his memory.

A Great Character
Alan was a great character, a typical Yorkshire man. He didn’t say a whole lot but he meant what he did say. He was very competitive and obviously loved his horses to win as we all do.

He was very open to options which reaped the rewards especially with Sizing John. If Alan had not given us the go ahead to step Sizing John up in trip then we wouldn’t have won three Gold Cups.

To Alan, Cheltenham was everything. He absolutely loved the festival and had his box and tickets booked for this weekend. The whole season was always geared towards Cheltenham. Hopefully we can do him proud at the festival again next year.