Owner of the Day - Steve Preston and Editeur Du Gite
As the voice of Owners, the ROA are consistently promoting the impact and benefits of ownership whilst working to make ownership more rewarding.
We are proud sponsors of the Cheltenham Festival Leading Owner Award as well as the daily ROA Owner of the Day award, both of which will be championing Owners’ successes and their contributions to the sport.
Today’s (Wednesday 16th March) ROA Owner of the Day is Steve Preston from Cheshire, the owner, along with his family and friends and Trevor Jacobs, of Editeur Du Gite, who tackles the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase (4,50pm).
Speaking to the ROA a couple of hours before his beloved Crystal Palace hosted champions Manchester City on Monday night, owner Steve Preston found it hard to assess whether that was a tougher assignment than the one his horse was due to face at the Cheltenham Festival.
In the end, Palace held City to a goalless draw, so taking a total of four points off them this season without conceding a goal. Over to you, Editeur Du Gite.
It’s hard to believe it had been knocking on for nine years since Preston was interviewed for Owner Breeder, shortly after Sire De Grugy had won the-then Grade 2 Celebration Chase at Sandown.
Sire De Grugy was a coming force, known also for his colourful band of owners bedecked in the Palace colours of red and blue. Gary Moore’s stable star was to scale far greater heights in the seasons that followed, winning five Grade 1s including the 2014 Champion Chase by six lengths under the trainer’s son Jamie.
Although not in the first flush of youth at eight, it’s not possible to say for certain that Editeur Du Gite won't follow in Sire De Grugy’s hallowed hoofprints by dining at the top table one day. He is certainly on an upward curve having won his last four completed starts - he unseated at Ascot - and was under strong consideration for the other two-mile chase at the Festival on Wednesday, the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
“We bought him with Gary Moore and Trevor Jacobs,” says Steve. “He’s not stopped improving since the first year Gary had him, when he had a setback, a small injury which kept him out for the best part of that first year.
“We didn’t expect much at Sandown and Kempton in December 2019 as he was coming back from injury, and then, moving on to the beginning of last season, the ground was attritional and that does not suit him at all. He doesn’t like too much cut in the ground.
“Once we got to last spring, first, he’d been improving with every race and, second, the ground was coming in his favour, plus they’d learned how to ride him. With a combination of all those things he really did improve dramatically, and that hasn’t stopped through this season.”
He also, happily for connections, seems well suited by tracks that happen to stage pretty good racing.
“He seems to only like going left-handed, he never jumps as well at Ascot for example as he does Cheltenham or Aintree,” says Steve.
“Flat, left-handed tracks are ideal but as he’s gotten older he seems to last okay up the hill at Cheltenham. We’re lucky in that respect that Cheltenham and Aintree suit him!”
He continues: “We were literally spinning a coin still this morning about whether to go for the Queen Mother Champion Chase. In the end Gary thought that by leading in the Queen Mother he would likely just be setting it up for higher-rated horses, and we don’t know yet how good he is.
“He thought we would have more chance of being competitive at this stage in a handicap, even though he is just 3lb off the topweight. We’re still a bit unexposed and Niall Houlihan has taken 5lb off the last twice, but he likes the track, the ground should be about perfect and we’re quite hopeful.”
With the Grand Annual the second-last race on Wednesday, there will be quite a bit of build-up tension time at Cheltenham, though of course it is not Steve or his posse’s first Festival rodeo.
He says: “Unfortunately we’re in the 4,50, so we’ve got to stay sober, longer than usual anyway. No, I am joking. We’re going down on the Tuesday, staying in Stroud and we’ll watch the racing from there.
“We have a group of 16 of us, which Cheltenham has kindly allowed, so we’ll be mob-handed on the day, we have all kitted ourselves out in our red and blue. We’ve vowed to recreate the group shot of our owners that we took in 2014. We had something like 18 that day.
“We’ll be nervous and on tenterhooks, but we’ll get the race out of the way and hope everything goes well in it, and then celebrate, win, lose or draw. That will be no change from 2014!”
Talking of those halcyon days, how is the now 18-year-old?
“We went to see Sire De Grugy last Sunday, we were down there for a wedding,” reports Steve. “He’s as happy as anything, looks as good as ever, and he still gets ridden out every day. It’s a lovely story. We basically gave him to Gary Moore, and it’s been brilliant all the way through with the family, I couldn’t ask for more.”