IMPERIAL CALL,
1996 GOLD CUP
TWENTY years ago this week, Irish racing enjoyed one of its preeminent Cheltenham triumphs when second season novice chaser Imperial Call swept up the Cheltenham hill having taken the lead over the fourth last and crossed the line to win by four lengths from Rough Quest and Couldnt Be Better. The punters’ favourite, Our Man, finished a tired sixth.
Imperial Call was the first Irish-trained winner of the Gold Cup since Dawn Run’s epoch-making victory 10 years previously and the first runner at the festival for his remarkable trainer.
The uncontrolled joy of the reception that greeted the chaser, jockey Conor O’Dwyer and the 64-year-old trainer Fergie Sutherland, a Korean War veteran who had lost a leg when stepping on a mine in that conflict, was testament to what this win meant to the Irish racing public both in Cheltenham and at home.
Euphoric fans swept into the unsaddling enclosure almost carrying horse and jockey with them, hoisting O’Dwyer into the air, and singing The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee in tribute to the Cork based trainer who commented: “He put them in their place today and he’s improving every day. I haven’t been to Cheltenham for 30 years and this is the only way to come back.”
Sutherland had trained in England in his earlier career but in this year of his Gold Cup triumph he had charge of six horses in his yard near Macroom. Imperial Call and Coming On Strong has been bought for Lisselan Farms Ltd and the Blackburn family in a £20,000 deal from that master recruiter of talent, Tom Costello.
Imperial Call began racing as a four-year-old in 1993, winning four times over hurdles in his first season and then progressed to chases in the 1994-1995 season, winning three more times.
He stepped up to Grade 1 company in the Power Gold Cup at Fairyhouse in April 1995 and finished a creditable third behind Strong Platinum and Sound Man. Gerry O’Neill partnered Imperial Call in his early career.
Clonmel in November 1995 was his next outing and the Grade 3 Morris Oil Chase saw a confidence boosting easy win for the young chaser but in the Grade 1 Punchestown Chase later in the month he fell at the first fence.
Charlie Swan was on board for the next victory, a handicap at Leopardstown where Imperial Call beat Strong Platinum, who was carrying 12lb more.
HENNESSY HERO
It was now 1996 and Imperial Call was prepped for Grade 1 glory again this time in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup in February, where the Kim Bailey-trained trained Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Master Oats was the favourite. With his future Gold Cup partner Conor O’Dwyer riding for the first time, Imperial Call led from the start and recovered from a bad mistake at the last fence to win by six lengths.
Next stop was Cheltenham and in the early part of the Gold Cup, O’Dwyer held up Imperial Call but moved up with the leaders on the second circuit.
His perfect jumping rhythm saw him take the lead four fences out and he stayed on strongly to record the sensational triumph.
Sadly Imperial Call never progressed as had been expected as he suffered from ongoing injury problems but he still went on to win the John Durkan at Punchestown and the Punchestown Gold Cup when trained by Raymond Hurley following the retirement of Sutherland in 1998.
Adrian Sutherland, son of Fergie, told The Irish Field: “Imperial Call was the epitome of the type of horse that my father and stepmother Ann loved. A very genuine natural athlete with springy hocks, a jumper’s bump and big ears. He thrived, like so many others, on the training regime and personal attention he achieved at Killinardrish.
“Whenever I saw him at work, I could only marvel that he was seemingly going half-speed when others were going hard. He was brilliantly trained and ridden.”
Fergie Sutherland died on October 31st 2012 following a long illness. He was 81.
Imperial Call died at the age of 25 in late November 2014.