Alan King has four winners at the Newbury Festival - but Hennessy Gold Cup still eludes him
The 2014 bet365 Hennessy Festival at Newbury Racecourse saw Barbury trainer Alan King succeed with four winners. But his two entries for the Hennessy Gold Cup did not bring him his first winner of the Festival's most prestigious race.
King started the Festival a bit on the back foot with both his yard's mainstay jockeys - Choc Thornton and Wayne Hutchinson - sidelined with injuries. But the first day of the Festival, King had three winners - making him the most successful trainer of the day.
AP McCoy - back from his lengthy lay-off after a bad fall - rode JP McManus' Yanworth to victory in the card's National Hunt flat race. Denis O'Regan brought Ned Stark home to win the bet365 Novices' Limited Handicap Steeple Chase. And Noel Fehily rode Carraig Mor to the other two runners in another Novices' Steeple Chase.
The second day of the festival was not so bright for King - with just the second placed Karezak in the Juvenile Hurdle.
On the Saturday card, King had another second placed horse - Avispa in the Mares' Novices' Hurdle. Then Richard Johnson brought the relative outsider Medinas home to win the Long Distance Hurdle. The win gave Johnson his treble - adding to his recent spell of successes.
Claudia King with Medinas' trophyWhile Alan King was getting his two entries ready for the three-and-a-quarter mile Gold Cup, his daughter Claudia came forward to collect Medinas' trophy for him - on the dais with the winner's owners Mrs and Mrs Bell.
This was a great achievement for Medinas - beating More of That ridden by AP McCoy. More of That won last season's Ladbroke's World Hurdle and was clear favourite for this hurdle race. But after three days and all the rain earlier in the week, the ground was getting stickier or as McCoy put it: "It's heavy and very hard work."
Smad Place Next up was the Hennessy Gold Cup: Alan King trained Smad Place had been a good hurdler (coming third in the 2012 and 2013 World Hurdles) and had gone on to won two steeple chases in muddy conditions last season before coming second in the RSA Chase at Cheltenham. He had been much favoured for this Gold Cup - with odds just short of the favourite Djakadam.
But Denis O'Regan could only manage to bring Smad Place home in fifth place. Barbury stalbemate Midnight Prayer (with Tom Bellamy up) was ninth of the 19 horses that went to post.
Many Clouds & Leighton AspellThe Gold Cup went to Many Clouds trained by Oliver Sherwood at Lambourn and ridden by Leighton Aspell. Even before Aspell brought a very tired and very hot Many Clouds into the winner's enclosure, there were scenes of wild joy in the parade ring.
This was a comeback occasion: Aspell, aged 38, had retired as a jockey in 2007 and re-started his career by winning the Grand National in April. Oliver Sherwood has had some lean patches in his long training career - and last won the Gold Cup in 1990.
The seven year-old Many Clouds stayed on well to win by three-and-a-quarter lengths - despite carrying a fairly big weight. However, many clouds do not have silver linings: after the race Aspell learned the stewards had given him a seven day ban and a £1,800 fine for a whip offence.
Former champion trainer Paul Nicholls was in the parade ring at Newbury watching the big screen transmission of the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle. He had the enormous pleasure to see Irving win the race - giving Nicholls is hundredth grade one victory.
One thing concerning many punters at the Festival was the number of races with a fairly small number of entries. Where have all the horses gone? Is austerity biting?
 Channel Four's Clare Balding & Mick Fitzgerald watch the Gold Cup on a TV monitor |  Alan King receives congratulations |