VETERAN trainer Sue Smith feels Vintage Clouds might have had half a chance of retaining his Ultima Handicap Chase title at Cheltenham this week, if the race had been held a day later.

The Irish grey was a surprise 28/1 winner at the Festival last year, but faded after a bright start to his title defence on Tuesday, pulling up towards the end of the race.

Smith, who runs the stables up at Craiglands Farm in High Eldwick, Bingley with husband Harvey, said: “He ran a big race, but the going was very fast on the first day at Cheltenham.

“He just got caught out by that, as he’s getting a bit old now.

“He’s still in good form though, and things could have been different for him if he’d ran on the second day, with all the rain that was about.”

It was a great day for Smith and everyone connected to the Bingley stables when Vintage Clouds won last year at Cheltenham, but sadly there were no spectators there to witness his historic success.

Asked if it was good to have the fans back this time, Smith mused: “As his trainer, it’s not so much the crowds we missed, but the prize money wasn’t as good in 2021, and a few things connected to that.

“But we were delighted with what Vintage Clouds achieved last year, we’re pleased with his form this season, and he’ll be running in the Scottish Grand National on April 2.

“That’ll probably be it for him for this year, and we’ll likely assess him going into next season after that.”

Vintage Clouds was Smith’s only horse competing at Cheltenham this week, as she explained: “We decided to try and have Small Present run for us on Thursday, but he didn’t get in to the race we had planned due to the ballot list.

“It was a full field, so he was placed on the reserve list, but didn’t get the call.

“Up next, we’ve got a couple of horses racing this weekend (today) with Silva Eclipse at Uttoxeter and Cracking Find at Newcastle.”

Midnight Shadow was Smith’s in-form horse in 2021/22, with a win and two third places in his first three runs of the season.

But then tragedy struck in race four at the end of January, with the nine-year-old dying at Doncaster, suffering a fatal injury after a mistake at the seventh fence in the Sky Bet Chase.

Smith reflected: “It affected everybody at the yard when we lost Midnight Shadow.

“It was a pretty sad day for all of us, and we lost a good horse.

“It’s a life lost to the whole yard, which is tough to deal with.”

Painful as it is, Smith and her team have had to move on from the death of Midnight Shadow, and there are a couple of talented young horses at the yard to keep an eye on.

She said: “We’ve got one or two youngsters coming through.

“The most notable is probably Prairie Wolf, who we’re looking to enter into the upcoming Champion Bumper at Aintree.

“He won one at Doncaster in January, and one at Kelso last May, so we’ve decided to keep him in that class.”