Ben Pauling

CHELTENHAM, UK -- On a day of high winds and even higher stakes at Cheltenham, it was Heart Wood (Choeur Du Nord) who best withstood the challenge to run out a wide-margin winner of the Ryanair Chase, Thursday's Grade 1 feature which lost much of its lustre when defending champion Fact To File (Poliglote) was withdrawn at the eleventh hour. Beaten nine lengths behind Fact To File when filling the runner-up spot 12 months ago, Heart Wood took full advantage of that rival's absence to make a deserved breakthrough at...

This time next week, County Waterford native Paul Cunningham will know whether he's the proud breeder of a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner. If he is, then National Hunt racing's blue riband will have delivered another rags-to-riches story to rival classics of the genre given to us in years past. Okay, so The Jukebox Man isn't trained by a dairy farmer a la 1990 winner Norton's Coin, nor will bookmakers be offering odds of 100/1 when the eight-year-old faces the starter at Prestbury Park. Equally, Ben Pauling, the trainer of The...

The Retraining of Racehorses Racing to Cricket tournament is set for Sunday, Sept. 3 at the Wormsley Cricket Ground on the Getty Estate, near High Wycombe. Teams from the yards of Nicky Henderson, Richard Hannon, Ben Pauling, Jack Channon, as well as the combined Newmarket trainers' team of George Boughey, James Ferguson and Charlie Fellowes will compete to win the RoR Racing to Cricket trophy. A champagne reception, as well as a buffet lunch and traditional cricket tea in the private marquee, will be offered but tickets for the event...

When Ben Pauling agreed last summer to train a couple of Flat horses for Andrew and Jane Megson who already had their string of jumpers with the Cotswolds-based 39-year-old, he had no idea what was coming. Pauling says, "Harry Dunlop had told them that he wasn't going to be training next season. The conversation went along the lines of, 'We've got a nice, big, backward 2-year-old colt who needs gelding and then he should be lovely for next year. And we've got a little filly who has run well to...