Cottage Rake

Cottage Rake is the horse credited with putting the legendary Vincent O’Brien on the map. Bought by wealth Bradford wool merchant Frank Vickerman, at the behest of O’Brien, despite a wind infirmity, Cottage Rake was a smart handicapper on the Flat, winning the Irish Cesarewitch in 1947, as a eight-year-old, but it was as a steeplechaser that he would find lasting fame.

Indeed, from his original base in Churchtown, County Cork, O’Brien sent out the lightly-framed son of Cottage to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running in 1948, 1949, 1950. Thus, Cottage Rake became just the second horse, after the legendary Golden Miller – who won five years running between 1932 and 1936 – to complete a hat-trick in the ‘Blue Riband’ event. Ridden on all three occasions by Curragh-born Aubrey Brabazon, Cottage Rake is credited with transforming the Cheltenham Gold Cup and igniting the now-traditional rivalry between Britain and Ireland at the Cheltenham Festival. O’Brien once said of his charge, “…there were very few chasers who had speed after jumping the last; he [Cottage Rake] was light and finer than all the other ‘chasers, which was unusual.”

On his first visit to Cheltenham, on March 4, 1948, Cottage Rake had won just once over fences and was sent off at 10/1 in a field of nine runners. He looked beaten when outjumped by the better-fancied Happy Home at the final fence, but rallied on the run-in to win by a length and a half. Cottage Rake returned to defend his Cheltenham Gold Cup title in 1949, albeit on April 11, after the final day of the Cheltenham Festival was abandoned due to frost. Sent off at odds of 4/6 in a field of 10 runners, he again had to work hard for his victory, eventually getting the better of Cool Customer inside the final half-furlong to win by two lengths. Back again, as an 11-year-old, in 1950, Cottage Rake was once again sent off at a shade of odds-on, at 5/6, and completed his hat-trick in taking style, coming home 10 lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer, Finnure, ridden by Dick Francis.