Jack Cantillon
I’m in love. Three words, but one hell of a statement. Empires fall, lives are lost and billions are spent in pursuit of this great intangible, love. I myself found it one misty morning on the Curragh. Was it her good looks, amazing personality or obsene wealth that brought me to this momentous state of bliss? No, it was his ability to run around in circles, jumping various objects at a very high speed that won me over. You see I’m in love with a horse. I’m in love with Captain Cee Bee.
This infatuation began way back in Easter of 2006. I was in Eddie Harty’s training yard for the week after striking up a friendship with his son Patrick in school. I was over every morning at 7am, not doing much work if I’m being honest, but watching everything and everyone in the hope of identifying the next winner to come out of the yard. It didn’t take long for me to find him. Day one, this big bay, strapping Germany gelding with a long narrow white blaze came bounding out his box. He was the easiest horse in the world to spot, a gallop watchers dream. Patrick turned to me and said “Jack, this is the best horse in the yard, this is Captain Cee Bee”. You know the way they say ‘do you believe in love at first sight?’ Well, after seeing this guy I was a believer in every sense of the word.
The Captain in all his glory
The Captain, as he became affectionately known, was due to run at Fairyhouse that very week. I was broke at the time so I searched the house high and low for any spare change that could be put togther to form some kind of respectable wager. In the end I managed to gather 23 euro and 27 cent, a massive achievement in a house noted for 5 cent coins being kept under lock and key. I made my way to the bookies and had ( in what must be a world first) €23.27 on the nose at 8/1. The bookie is still looking at me after such a bizarre wager. In any event, Captain Cee Bee hosed up, beating a newcomer of Colm Murphy’s called Big Zeb. This was a relationship that gave you money, not took it all away on Gucci handbags , Jimmy Choo shoes and Prada dresses. What could possibly be better?
Captain Cee Bee had a campaign on the flat the next year before switching his attentions to hurdles at the end of 2007. This was where the fun really began. If the Captain could do the business over hurdles he would be heading to Cheltenham in March which just so happended to coincide with my first trip to the Festival. Before he had even jumped a hurdle in public I was backing him to win the Supreme Novice. He opened up at 33/1 and I had a sizeable wager on, how could I desert him now? This would all be folly in the extreme, though, if he wasn’t able to jump. However, jump he did and he won his first two starts over hurdles very impressively. Next stop, Cheltenham.
I kept backing him on the road to Cheltenham. 25/1, 16/1, 12/1 even a bit of 8/1 on the day. So there I was, my first Festival and I had the biggest bet of my life on a horse in the very first race. To say this would make or break my Festival would be underestimating things, this was to make or break my financial and mental state for the next year. He just had to win or I didn’t know what to do and I was in bits. I watched him get saddled up by Patrick and sent him a well wishing text. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a BEE” in hindsight, highly cringe-worthy, but come on, give me a break, I was 16 and not exactly in a fit mental state to deliver the most witty of messages.
The race began and from the outset he looked in trouble. At the last minute Robert Thornton had replaced Tony McCoy on him as he had switched to the well fancied Binocular. The Captain and “Choc” Thorton just did not seem to be jelling. Then the unthinkable happend, Choc started to get a tune out of Captain Cee Bee. He stormed up the Cheltenham hill to grab Binocular on the line and win the Supreme Novices. I was on cloud 999,999.
Captain Cee Bee easily overcomes a hurdle
The Captain came back the next year with a new Cheltenham target, the Arkle Chase. Why break what isn’t broken? So, I rolled in again 25/1, 12/1, 6/1, I had even more on than the year before. He started 9/4 favourite and now in my 5th year at school I watched between my fingers as the love of my life took flight over the notorious Cheltenham fences. Sadly, the Captain never took off and finished in a disappointing 8th place. I was down to say the very least but most certainly not out.
So, to 2011, and myself and Captain Cee Bee are returning in the Queen Mother Champion Chase. I’ve raided the student account, I’ve sold my Trinity Ball ticket and I’ve lived on stale bread from Tesco for months just to finance one final gamble on The Captain. He is currently 12/1 and no doubt I will avail of these odds again shortly. Why such an obsession, why don’t I just let him go and why don’t I admit he’s past it? This is no ordinary horse. This is my horse, this is Captain Cee Bee and this is my love story. And who does the Captain have to beat to give me my fairytale ending ? A horse of Colm Murphy’s called Big Zeb, the horse who was second when my €23.27 had me wheeling out the winnings in a wheelbarrow. If that’s not a Hollywood ending , I don’t know what is.
