Close House owner geed up for Cheltenham

Close House owner Graham Wylie joins the masses at the Cheltenham Festival this week as the successful businessman indulges in his passion for horse racing.

Wylie, whose north east venue will host the ISPS Handa PGA Seniors Championship in June, will look to maintain a winning streak over the famous course having entered a solid stable of runners.

His passion for horse racing was nurtured by his father, a coalminer who would have a daily accumulator. Weekends were spent watching on TV to see if that day’s bets came in and ensured that the sport of kings became a firm favourite with Wylie.

But it wasn’t until he sold his very successful Sage business that he finally became a race horse owner – and then it was purely about his love the sport.

“I used to go hospitality when I was in business and a friend said if you enjoy it you might enjoy it even more if you owned a horse but I was too busy in business to do that,” he said.

“I retired in 2003 and my wife said why didn’t I go and buy a team of horses and have some fun with my money.

“I ended up buying five or six and all of them won every race they went into and I thought this is an easy game. I bought some more and really enjoy the excitement when your horse wins a race. When your horse jumps the last at Cheltenham and he’s in the lead it’s such a great thrill.

“I had a very good horse called Inglis Drever who was the first horse to win the world hurdle three times. I tried the flat but I can’t compete with the big boys on the flat like the Sheik Mohammeds and Coolmore who spend an absolute fortune as they go for stud value. I don’t have a stud it’s more passion than business.”

That passion stems to a strong stable of horses split between the UK and Ireland with two of the sport’s leading trainers with Wylie intent on securing the best.

“I’ve got a lot of race horses. I’m down to 27 whereas at one point I had over 140 in training. Those were the days I went a little bit mad as I had great success in the early days. I won three races at Cheltenham in my second year of ownership.

“I’ve got 15 with Willy Mullins and 12 with Paul Nicholls all good horses and run at the likes of Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown. I was lucky last year to win the Punchestown Gold Cup, I’ve won the Melling Chase at Aintree and other races at Cheltenham. It is a real passion of mine.

“In the early days, my trainer was based in Durham and I could go every week and see the horses getting trained and I loved that. Unfortunately, I had to move my horses and chose the best two which was Paul Nicholls in England and Willy in Ireland.

“They’re so far away I can’t see the horses every week. They tend to run down south or in Ireland so I only see them at the big meetings.”

That begins today however, it is tomorrow and in the Gold Cup on Friday that Wylie will have his focus firmly fixed.

“I have two in the Gold Cup – Boston Bob, who won the Punchestown Gold Cup last year, and On His Own, who came second last year. I’ve also got some good novices. Nichols Canyon is favourite for the Neptune (on Wednesday) and Black Hercules is favourite for the Albert Bartlett on Friday.

“I’ve got some good bumper horses and a good spread. They all have got chances. They are good enough to go there. You don’t take a horse to Cheltenham if it’s not going to do anything. They’re good enough to compete.”

*The ISPS Handa PGA Seniors Championship is at Close House over June 11-14. For more information and to secure complimentary tickets go to http://www.closehouse.com/pgaseniors/