Faivoir kickstarted Gold Cup day on a positive note for former Irish point-to-pointers when he battled gamely to victory in the McCoy Contractors County Handicap Hurdle.
A debut winner of a four-year-old maiden at Fairyhouse point-to-point back in 2019, the Coastal Path gelding was sent off as a 33/1 shot having pulled-up in the valuable Betfair Hurdle at Newbury a month earlier.
Dan Skelton: “I was watching Pembroke the whole way around and for a novice in a field like that when he made the mistake two out that was it. He will have his day as he is a very good horse.
“Trusting a novice in a big field like this is hard but all power to Bridget. Once he went down to the last like that I just felt it was possible. It is pretty good. That was absolutely brilliant Bridget. I was watching Pembroke the whole way round and old Favoir nips in up the straight and pulls out one of them.
%uD83D%uDE32 Faivoir by a neck in the McCoy Contractors County Handicap Hurdle
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) March 17, 2023
%uD83D%uDCAA A 33-1 shock for @DSkeltonRacing#ITVRacing | #CheltenhamFestival | @bridgeandrews pic.twitter.com/IAa5LzDqhE
“It was a great bit of riding from Bridget. She doesn’t get many dances on the big stage because obviously Harry takes precedence but as you can see she is more than capable and I’m very proud of her. I said on television before he went out there we thought he would win one of those big handicaps this season and he went to Newbury the other day and he said no way not on that ground.
“She has won a Grade Two on him and she has done plenty on him. He is just a good horse on his day and understands the big fields and that is the one thing I had in the back of my mind about Pembroke, but he is a very good horse and I’ve not lost faith in him.”
