Submitting.
Just a day after that extraordinary win, he fell in a race at Hexham and landed in hospital after he was trodden on by another horse.
In the following months, he struggled to maintain the required weight to the extent that it made him “miserable, grumpy… very selfish. I didn’t like the person I was”, as he later told the BBC. His love of racing had gone and it seemed as if his career was over.
But, after nearly five years away from the sport, he returned and an “over the moon” Mania has now won on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival, one of the biggest events in horse-racing.
Updated / Tuesday, 16 Mar 2021
17:16
Vintage Clouds returned at 28-1
Vintage Clouds provided the first shock of the Festival, with a 28-1 victory in the Ultima Handicap Chase.
Sue Smith s grey, ridden by the Yorkshire yard’s Grand National-winning jockey Ryan Mania, was running in the opening handicap of the meeting for the fifth year in succession.
The 11-year-old’s best previous effort was second in 2019 – but this time, he took over on the final circuit and was never headed again.
Runner-up Happygolucky, the 100-30 favourite, and third-placed Aye Right both ran with great credit but never looked like pegging back the winner, beaten five and a half and a further two and a quarter lengths respectively.
Grand National-winning jockey Ryan Mania rode his first ever Cheltenham Festival winner on the Sue Smith-trained Vintage Clouds on Tuesday (16 March) – seven years after he announced his retirement from the sport at the age of 25. Mania was “enticed back” in October 2019, describing his first Festival winner in the grade three Ultima […]
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