JP McManus: the £250,000 festival gamble that reshaped jump racing
Lee Mottershead tells the story of McManus's most important ever victory
They say you never forget your first. JP McManus has never forgotten. Without his first Cheltenham Festival winner the rest might never have followed, nor a financial investment in jump racing of unprecedented proportions.
McManus desperately wanted Mister Donovan to win. He desperately wanted the gamble to be landed.
Here truly was a bet that changed racing. The winning owner and punter has certainly implied as much. With McManus you sometimes have to read between the lines. When it comes to the lines he has spoken about the impact to him, and therefore to others, of the 1982 Sun Alliance Novices' Hurdle, the race's significance becomes clear.
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