'You've got to feel positive' - Queens Gamble seals emotional win for Sherwood

Oliver Sherwood has opened up about a difficult season on and off the racecourse which he hopes to put behind him as he awaits the results of chemotherapy treatment.

The trainer, whose talented newcomer Queens Gamble provided him with a 12th winner of the season at Cheltenham on Thursday, is poised for the lowest tally of his training career but admitted the stylish success of the four-year-old had raised his spirits during an onerous spell.

He said: "It's been a crap old year. I've had a bit of chemotherapy which I only finished a month ago. I had a scan on Monday and I'm now just waiting for the results. You've got to feel positive and I am now after that."

Victory for Jersey Lady at Ffos Las last week broke a two-month drought for the Lambourn trainer but the stable lost eight-time winner Jersey Bean, for the same connections, earlier this month in the Scottish National.

That heartbreak, on top of the quiet spell, added further disappointment to arguably the hardest campaign of his 38-year training career.

Watch Queens Gamble's impressive victory in the mares' bumper at Cheltenham

"From January I had a bad batch of hay, we lost Jersey Bean in the Scottish National, and I was thinking somebody in the world doesn't want me," he said.

"We had a winner at Ffos Las and this has gone and happened now. I'd written off this year and regroup for next season. It's quite emotional."

Queens Gamble appears an exciting prospect for the team next season. The four-year-old daughter of Getaway, part-owned by Tote chief executive Alex Frost, showed an impressive turn of foot to win by ten lengths. Mullenbeg, a previous Listed winner at Cheltenham, was second.

"It's nice to finish at Cheltenham with a winner," said Sherwood.

"What you see at home you don't necessarily see on the racecourse. I've been at it long enough to know that, but it was nice to see that. I'm chuffed for Alex, to do it as a home-bred. He was in floods of tears. She travelled great and was just so professional."

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