Everyone who joins a racing syndicate dreams of big-race glory.
Lifting one of the sport’s shiniest trophies in the winners’ enclosure of one of Britain’s top tracks might sound like wishful thinking – but it’s not. Just ask members of the If The Kap Fits syndicate.
Less than a year since they all bought into Kap Vert, the 10-strong group were celebrating an unforgettable Coral Scottish Grand National triumph.
Now they can spend the summer watching endless replays of the Ayr contest and dreaming of even greater targets, with, perhaps, the greatest of them all on the agenda next season.
Joint-trainer Johnson White said: “My massive congratulations go to the people in the syndicate who own him. They’re a fantastic team of owners. Most of them were there on the day making a bit of a holiday of it, which was fantastic.
“They all had lunch together and they couldn’t have had a more phenomenal day.
“It’s been a phenomenal journey with Kap Vert and I don’t think the journey is over just yet.
“We’ve got lots of dreaming to do. The Grand National was in the back of my mind but he’ll have a nice summer off before we start the dreaming.”
Kap Vert had already given them two great days earlier in the season with victories at Taunton, much closer to home, when he set out on the long road to the west coast of Scotland.
He might not have been among the favourites for the Scottish National, but he showed the bookies had got it all wrong with a superb performance.
Travelling smoothly and jumping accurately for jockey Sean Houlihan, he saw out the four-mile distance well to spark wild celebrations.
The successful syndicate – made up of owners local to Philip Hobbs and Johnson White’s Somerset stables – were at the centre of the festivities.
After heading home to the west country as the parties finally died down, they were all invited back to Taunton Racecourse the following Wednesday to continue the celebrations.
As their hero Kap Vert paraded in front of thousands of racing fans enjoying the track’s final meeting of the season, they were entertained as guests of honour in the directors’ lounge.
Among them, clinging on to the impressive trophy was Graham Ambridge and his wife Sarah.
He said: “To win something like the Scottish National is a dream.
“It is unbelievable. I think you could have heard us from Somerset. We still haven’t got over it.
“We’ve got shares in other syndicates with Philip and Johnson and thoroughly enjoy it. Syndicates are definitely the way forward.
“It’s a great way to get into horseracing for the ordinary man – you don’t have to be a millionaire.
“It’s great fun and you meet great people – we’ve met so many friends.”
It’s not the first time joint-trainer Phillip has been responsible for sparking celebrations among syndicates.
He trained Dream Alliance to win the Welsh Grand National in 2009. It was a story so remarkable, it was turned into a film.
Dream Alliance was bred by south Wales barmaid Janet Vokes and raised on an allotment in Blackwood. She gathered more than 20 syndicate members together and, paying as little as a tenner a week, they set out with dreams of glory.
The extraordinary journey from humble beginnings to the Chepstow winners’ enclosure is told in the film Dream Horse, starring Damien Lewis, Toni Collette and Joanna Page.
Dreams clearly can come true. Both in Wales and Scotland – and, maybe, even Aintree next spring.
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