My Tribute to Many Clouds

It’s not often you get a horse like MANY CLOUDS these days. By that I mean a horse with a never say die attitude, a horse with an attitude of a warrior, a horse who will never give up and a horse who will literally die for you and sadly that is what happened on Festival Trials Day 2017  at Cheltenham. He was a loyal horse with a huge heart and in National Hunt Racing he was the heavyweight champ. I describe him as the heavyweight champion because no matter how many times you knocked him down he always got back up and made you fight. It was the heavyweight champ that we saw in MANY CLOUDS on that fateful day. Thistlecrack headed him but MANY CLOUDS responded with real guts and determination and basically stuck two fingers up to Thistlecrack. If horses could talk I am pretty sure the conversation after the last fence went like this.

‘’So you won the King George Chase and you think you’re the superstar but can you fight like me all the way up this hill? Come on then Thistlecrack, lets see what you got when the going gets tough. You might be the superstar but I am a Heavyweight Champ!’’

MANY CLOUDS was simply brilliant and his attitude to get the job done cost him his life. He will be missed by so many as he was a ‘Proper National Hunt Horse’.

The rise of Many Clouds

His career started at Wetherby in 2012 and he got off to a winning start. This was followed up with two runs in bumpers at the Cheltenham Festival and Aintree where he finished way down the field. Those early days you would never have thought MANY CLOUDS would be a Grand National Winner and multiple graded race winner. It shows the character of the horse who simply wanted to please all his connections. He just kept improving with age and went from a 140 rated chaser into a horse rated 167. He jumped a fence exceptionally and was never a faller. He got brought down once but never fell.

My greatest memory of the horse was like many his Grand National win in 2015. I tipped MANY CLOUDS up that day at huge odds of 33/1 to the delight of my members. Even in 2015 I could see the potential in the horse and at the time this was what I had put in my write up.

GRAND NATIONAL 2015 – 4:15 Aintree – MANY CLOUDS may be carrying plenty of weight but he is 5lbs well in after running in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and now on a new handicap mark. MANY CLOUDS is a horse who has plenty of class which I think is needed to win a National these days. He won the Hennessy Gold Cup, won the Grade 1 Argento Chase in February and ran with credit to finish 6th in this years Cheltenham Gold Cup. MANY CLOUDS is a horse who will stay all day, jumps for fun and is owned by Trevor Hemmings who loves to win this race. The owner has won this with BallaBriggs and Hedgehunter in the last 10 years. I am actually surprised the bookies have MANY CLOUDS at a huge 33/1 as for me he is the forgotten horse. He has done nothing wrong all season. A race like this could bring out the very best in him. WON 25/1.

MANY CLOUDS will be missed by many but he died doing what he loved. I mean this in the nicest possible way but he went out winning which is best way to go. We don’t get choose how it all ends, humans or horses, it happens, but if you had given MANY CLOUDS a choice it would’ve been on the winning post at either Aintree or Cheltenham after winning a race. I am just really glad it didn’t happen from an injury or a fall.

It is never nice but MANY CLOUDS needs to be enjoyed for the heavyweight champ that he was in this sport.

My thoughts go out to all connected to the horse.

RIP MANY CLOUDS

A video of MANY CLOUDS Grand National Win can be found below:

Grand National 2015 – Many Clouds

JPW Racing Tipster