Kelly stays cool after Cheltenham exploits of Presenting Percy and Mall Dini

HE’S the mystery man of the Cheltenham Festival. The racing media, in particular, don’t know what to make of him; can’t fathom him out at all – this small West of Ireland trainer who has taken the sport’s biggest meeting by storm for the past three years, but still continues to shun the limelight.

Pat Kelly has always been his own man; does things his own way; and has little or no interest in the trappings of big-race winners. Cool under pressure and guarded in the hour of victory, the Craughwell handler has already gone down in Cheltenham folklore thanks to his horses’ exploits in the shadow of Cleeve Hill.

Outside of the big two, Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott, he and Henry de Bromhead, another trainer with a strong string, were the only other Irish stables to visit the winners’ enclosure in Cheltenham last week. Kelly was mixing with the gentry of the sport; but has no interest in extolling his training virtues or getting caught up in the moment.

He took just two horses to the 2018 Cheltenham festival and came within a half a length of pulling off the most astonishing double. Presenting Percy lived up to all the hype with a brilliant run when pulverising a decent field in the RSA Chase last Wednesday before Mall Dini was just denied by the stamina-ladened and front-running Missed Approach in the Kim Muir Chase 24 hours later.

The roar that went up from the grandstands when course commentator Mark Johnson fervently relayed that Mall Dini was still ‘tanking along’ coming into the home straight reflected the punters’ faith in what Kelly brings to Cheltenham. Only the shockingly poached ground up the hill prevented the horse from getting his head in front.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.