RED to be a Kentucky Derby winner, it is not at Churchill Downs but at another iconic course where Cause Of Causes has earned his reputation.

The son of Dynaformer, a half-brother to the 2003 Derby winner Kris Kin, excels at jump racing’s home of Cheltenham where he has competed at the last five Festivals and won three different races over the past three years.

Trained by Gordon Elliott for J.P. McManus, the one constant for Cause Of Causes as he successfully tackled each unique challenge posed by the different races he has won at Cheltenham is jockey Jamie Codd. The reigning champion amateur was first paired with Cause Of Causes by Elliott for the 2015 National Hunt Chase and it was a winning move.

A year later the pair was reunited for the Kim Muir Chase over the Gold Cup course and distance. The race may have been different but the result was the same - Cause Of Causes and Jamie Codd up the legendary hill and across that winning line ahead of the rest.

Last year, Cause Of Causes was handed yet another challenge by Elliott; this time the diminutive chaser was to tackle the undulations and unique navigational hazards of the cross-country course.

With Codd back in the saddle, and despite it being only the second time Cause Of Causes had raced over banks, he nonetheless brought up the hat-trick of Festival wins.

“Three wins in three different races over three different trips, he is an amazing little horse and has been a little star for me,” remarked the Wexford man. “It’s funny the way things work out because he wasn’t bred to race at Cheltenham, he’s a half-brother to a Derby winner but he is a very versatile horse and to win at three Festivals is incredible.”

That cross-country victory in March 2017 was Codd’s first in the race and elevated Cause Of Causes to a place amongst the select few horses who have won three different races at the Cheltenham Festival. Among the members of that elite group is the legendary Flyingbolt, Bobs Worth who won the 2013 Gold Cup and Vautour whose fleeting time overlapped with that of Cause Of Causes.

“It is great to be associated with him, it’s great for Gordon and for everyone in the yard to have a horse who has won at three different Festivals and to be second in the Grand National last year after winning the cross-country was fantastic,” adds Codd.

Then a nine-year-old, the bay gelding went to Aintree after his third Cheltenham triumph and ran another fine race, finishing runner-up in the Aintree marathon to One For Arthur providing his jockey with another memorable occasion.

Codd says: “It was great to ride in the race and I was delighted the day went so well, nothing was left out there by either the horse or myself and it was brilliant.”

Cause Of Causes seems to reserve his best performances for the grandest of stages; his three victories at Cheltenham constitute the entirety of his success over fences throughout his career and his Aintree placing was the only other podium position he achieved in 13 runs since his breakthrough moment at Cheltenham. Even before he won the National Hunt Chase, Cause Of Causes had just three chase seconds on his record at one of those was in the 2014 National Hunt Chase for Nina Carberry.

As a four-year-old he won the Listed Betfair Handicap Hurdle at Ascot and at the 2012 Galway Festival, Cause Of Causes narrowly failed to reel in Rebel Fitz at the end of the Galway Hurdle.

With an illustrious flat pedigree and some well-known relatives. It could be imagined that the atmosphere generated by the crowds at the Festival connects with Cause Of Causes and inspires him to raise his performance levels. The man who has enjoyed so much success with him, has a more prosaic, less poetic explanation.

“I think the nicer ground has something to do with it,” Codd offers, “as he always seems to be a better horse in the spring and as well as that, Gordon is very good at getting him to peak for Cheltenham. Hopefully, he can do it again this year.”

“He is definitely my favourite of all the horses I’ve ever ridden, followed closely by Fayonagh.”

FAYONAGH

The shooting star that was Fayonagh blazed through the Festival skies last year and provided Codd with the opportunity to race against the sport’s biggest names, and win.Codd won his first Cheltenham Grade 1 with one of the most extraordinary runs to win the Festival bumper. Riding Fayonagh for Elliott and the Gittins family, it seemed that all hope was lost when the mare dwelt at the start but Codd didn’t panic. With only a furlong to race, she was still only 13th but did a fair impression of Pegasus when soaring up the hill to glory.

“It all happened so fast and it felt like a disaster, I wasn’t sure if I should pull her up or keep going,” he reveals. “I decided to go on and thought that if she finished in the first 10 then it would be a good performance. She showed she was a little special that day because she wasn’t in the race three furlongs out.”

At the Punchestown Festival, Fayonagh became the first mare to win the Cheltenham and Punchestown Champion Bumpers. For her jockey on both occasions, Fayonagh who was sourced by Codd at the 2016 Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham December Sale, it was important the mare backed up her Cheltenham triumph, particularly in light of what befell Fayonagh six months later.

“Coming back to Punchestown and winning showed how good she really was, that her Cheltenham performance wasn’t a fluke, she was just that good. It was a dream that Fayonagh turned out to be that good, to get the double was brilliant and for a mare it was incredible. It was nice she was able to do that before she was taken,” he reflects.