Champions Club Bon Chic Wins in Style

The Coral Champions Club celebrated its third birthday earlier this year but it received the ultimate gift on Tuesday afternoon when Bon Chic, a horse who represented a first foray into racehorse ownership, became its maiden National Hunt winner when winning impressively at Southwell. In a sport that thrives on hopes and dreams, we all entered a surreal state afterwards and arrived in a place that we’d all like to revisit more regularly.

When Dan Skelton phoned on the day of the Doncaster Sales back in early November to say ‘we have stolen one’, with it came excitement and expectation. Bon Chic was the mare Skelton could not let go. She had passed through the sales ring without reaching her reserve, but our club trainer could not watch the mare walk out of his life and he was quick to acquire the five-year-old daughter of Presenting. Skelton is no nobody’s fool, having spent nine years as an assistant trainer to champion National Hunt trainer Paul Nicholls, so such an opening statement, as bold as it was, was easily digested. Bon Chic had just won a bumper at Punchestown and the dream of further glory seemed imminent. The reports from Lodge Hill were extremely positive and when the mare rolled up at Fakenham in December priced up at odds of 4/7, hopes were high that our first ever National Hunt runner would duly oblige.

But jump racing has a habit of playing with your emotions and there was to be no early Christmas present. Looking back now, a win that day would have been just too easy. The disappointment though was shared. When Dan texted with his debrief, one could tell he was troubled by the performance. However, his optimism remained intact, he never lost faith in her ability. He ended by saying ‘needs good ground, will win next time’. Patience though would be the key. Legendary Australian trainer Bart Cummings summed it up best when he once said: ‘Patience is the cheapest thing in racing but most people don’t use it’. We adhered to those words and waited. Three months on, Mystic Meg has every right to start looking over her shoulder, because Bon Chic’s next run duly resulted in victory.