Ballyandy owners dreaming of Cheltenham Festival success

From the Golden Jacket final at Crayford to the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival - Steve Wignall and John Flannery are living the dream.

Two of the sport's smaller owners are in the process of assembling a formidable string under the Options O Syndicate umbrella and Ballyandy has the pair purring ahead of his date in the Weatherbys-backed Champion Bumper.

A quite remarkable transformation from owning greyhounds with Dean Childs to thoroughbreds with Nigel Twiston-Davies and William Haggas, not even Wignall, an enthusiastic owner, would have envisaged this.

Lorrys Options went unbeaten through the aforementioned Category One competition at the Kent track in February 2009, going on to claim Stayer of the Year at the annual GBGB awards ceremony, and some seven years on Wignall is excited by the prospect of owning a Cheltenham Festival winner.

The 44-year-old from Christchurch reminisced: "We had great times owning greyhounds with Dean, but we always wanted to try our hand at horse racing ownership and we started off with three horses on the Flat with William Haggas.

"Dever Dream was the horse that put us on the map in 2010 and having won a couple of Listed races at Doncaster and Newmarket she was eventually sold to Pearl Bloodstock.

"The syndicate has been going for five years and having enjoyed some great days out with family and friends courtesy of our Flat horses John and I decided to buy into a couple over the jumps with Nigel."

And if by chance, Wignall and Flannery struck lucky again courtesy of Double Ross as he shaped with plenty of promise over hurdles, finishing third behind Fingal Bay in the 2011 Challow Novices' Hurdle at Newbury, before he improved markedly when making the transition to fences and won back-to-back Grade Three handicaps at Prestbury Park in the 2013/14 season.

Wignall and Flannery share a passion for racing but the partnership does not end there, as the pair run a successful business - Options Energy Services Ltd, a fast-growing independent civil engineering company offering a range of multiutility solutions.

But in Ballyandy's case this season, there is only one option for the admirable son of Kayf Tara as he is as short as 7-1 for the Champion Bumper and will arrive boasting as good claims as any.

Wignall continued: "He is a real favourite at home and everyone loves him. He has done extremely well at the track this season and his form stacks up against the best of the British horses.

"The Irish horses are the unknown quantity, but we think he deserves to be where he is in the ante-post betting.

"He won with plenty up his sleeve at Cheltenham in November and had to give Coeur Blimey weight at Ascot so that was a perfectly creditable run.

"Willie Mullins sent Bleu Berry across for the race he won at Newbury last time, but Sam (Twiston-Davies) got off that day and said he just kept galloping all the way to the line and was mightily impressive."

While still keeping his feet firmly on the ground and stressing Ballyandy is very much a long-term prospect, Wignall admits success at Cheltenham's showcase meeting would be the "pinnacle" and prompt a fairly big party.

"We've potentially got Double Ross for the three-mile, one-furlong handicap on the Tuesday and there is a race for our recent Warwick winner Minella Reception on the Thursday, but I will be super nervous on Champion Bumper day - it is fair to say the Wednesday will be our biggest in racing as owners.

"I have a lucky spot in the parade ring from which we will watch the race and if he does the business it would just be the pinnacle for small owners like us and we'll definitely be celebrating.

"I would thoroughly recommend both Nigel and William to anyone as they are both top-class trainers who always act in the best interest of their owners.

"We're enjoying every minute of it and we have been very lucky as owners when you consider where we have come from."