WEST Somerset based Jeremy Scott notched up his first winner at the Cheltenham Festival when Golden Ace, a 10-1 shot ridden by Lorcan Williams, won the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, writes Richard Walsh.

The six year old, who is trained high up on Exmoor near Brompton Regis, was up again two fancied Irish horses Brighterdaysahead, the 5-6 favourite trained by Gordon Elliott, and Jade De Grugy, from the Willie Mullins yard who went off at 2-1.

Back at home after what is undoubtedly the high spot of his training career to date the former dairy farmer, who saddled his first winner under National Hunt racing rules back in 2007, said: “I have never been to the Cheltenham Festival thinking that I would have a better chance of a winner so in the end it was more of a relief than anything.

“It’s good to have finally got a winner at the Festival and there were so many local people there as well to help us to enjoy the outstanding occasion.

“It has always been a dream to get a Cheltenham winner and we were lucky in the early days a horse called County Derry went to the Festival several years in a row and was pretty much always placed in the Hunter Chase but we never felt that we were quite good enough to get into the winners spot.

“Over the years we have had runners been placed but it was fabulous to have had a winner.”

How did it feel to stand a watch the closing stages of the race? “Going into the last we knew we needed a good jump and knew that we looked to be travelling better than the opposition so once we got that jump we thought that as long as we kept going we’d win but it was very very exciting.”

What does it mean to the yard to have a Cheltenham Festival winner? “Having a winner obviously ups your profile in terms of the general public but I think that its been a really long hard slog of a winter and all of the staff have been getting wet everyday so it feels like a justification for all of their hard work and puts a spring in the step of everyone.”

Does being based high up on Exmoor help his horses to cope with the conditions better? “Our horses certainly get plenty of fresh air and they have got used to galloping on fairly soft ground, but the weather has taken its toll on the humans, with a lot of wind and rain as well to contend with and you’re out in it pretty much all day long.”

Finally Jeremy said: “We are very much a family affair here and our daughters are involved which really helps having everybody pulling together and going in the same direction.”