Brandsby saddler Peter Beaumont has announced he will not renew his training licence at the end of the month. Turf Talk looks back to his finest hour – Jodami’s 1993 Cheltenham Gold Cup victory.

STRIDING up the Cheltenham hill, ears pricked, even the bookmakers were cheering Jodami as he joined National Hunt racing’s greats in claiming a Gold Cup.

There was, of course, the treble of Irish Gold Cup victories at Leopardstown and the dual Peter Marsh wins at Haydock.

But, in the setting of the glorious Gloucestershire hills, this is the moment for which he, and his Brandsby trainer Peter Beaumont, will be always remembered.

They had been lining up to oppose the eight-year-old pre-race favourite.

While The Fellow was backed in to 5-4, and would have been the biggest loser in William Hill or Ladbrokes history had he prevailed, Jodami actually drifted out to 8-1.

In a race which attracted £12 million of bets nationwide, the smart money was elsewhere.

The 1993 Cheltenham Festival, however, was an oddity.

Not one outright favourite won a race in the entire week and, with firm going, the Irish were having a field day – six victories being their highest tally since 1982.

Beaumont himself had added to the pessimism by down-playing Jodami’s chances in the run-up to the blue riband contest.

His horse might have won a thrilling Irish Gold Cup, seeing off Chatam by a head the month before, but no winner of the Leopardstown race had gone on to Cheltenham glory.

And the considered view was the English chaser would have his work cut out against The Fellow, the French raider trained by Francois Doumen. Beaumont himself admitted Jodami had something to find on form. “But we can improve a bit between now and Cheltenham,” he said.

The journey to Cheltenham had been long.

Jodami was picked up four years previously when Beaumont went to Ireland to look at a couple of horses and was pointed in the direction of a four-year-old.

John Yeadon, a Wetherby farmer, took ownership and named the horse after himself and his two sons, David and Michael.

The winners flowed early. A bumper at Kelso in March 1990 was the first of a regular string of successes, with the first Grade victory coming at Ayr in the West of Scotland Pattern Chase in January 1992.

At a massive 17-hands high, this was a serious horse, and he had the speed and ability over the fences to match. And despite all the odds and statistics against him, he was irresistible at Cheltenham.

Malton jockey Mark Dwyer had the steering task but everything went according to plan. Jodami jumped without error and made steady progress throughout on the undulating surface.

Even when he slightly slipped on the final turn in towards home, he was soon back into his stride. Rushing Wild was brushed aside at the final fence before the finishing hill, the straight which has ended so many Festival hopes, was taken with aplomb.

“He was a wonderful horse, who never put a foot wrong,” recalled Beaumont of his stable star, who would only narrowly fail to beat The Fellow again when the two rivals met in a Gold Cup re-match 12 months later.

His fabulous gelding would spend most of his retirement, following his last win at Haydock in January 1997, with the Ryedale trainer before dying, at the age of 23, in December 2008.

He is still the last northern-trained winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

There were other successes for Beaumont.

There was Hussard Collenges, the 2002 Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Chase winner, there was Bobby Grant, a dual-winner of the Tommy Whittle Chase.

But as he sets off into retirement, he will surely remember as we do. There was only one Jodami.