Brewin'upastorm strikes in National Spirit again to make Murphy's day

Olly Murphy paid a heartfelt tribute to Brewin'upastorm after his stable star won an incident-packed Betgoodwin National Spirit Hurdle for the second time.

Brewin'upastorm has been a mainstay of Murphy's Warren Chase Stables since 2018 and, along with Thomas Darby and Itchy Feet, has done as much as any horse to illuminate the trainer's name on racing's map.

A comfortable winner of Fontwell's signature jumps race two years ago, Brewin'upastorm was headed only in the closing stages last year. Murphy was pinning his hopes on a recent wind operation making the difference on this occasion and the ten-year-old did not let him down.

It was not all plain sailing, however, with regular partner Aidan Coleman forced to switch around the leaders turning for home as his preferred route up the inner closed in front of him. A final-hurdle blunder then opened the door to Sceau Royal but, back on an even keel, Brewin'upastorm found more to prevail by a length and a half for owner Barbara Hester.

"I've been training for five years now and you need these horses," said Murphy. "He, along with Thomas Darby and Itchy Feet have been stars and none of them are on the decline. I've trained some big winners and that was right up there, I really enjoyed that. He's left a couple of good races behind in the past but you don't realise until they're gone how good horses like this are. He's very special to us all."

While Murphy enjoyed the aftermath, watching the £80,000 contest unfold was a different story altogether.

Olly Murphy: "It was such a messy race, a horrid watch"Credit: Edward Whitaker

The winning trainer added: "It was such a messy race, a horrid watch and I'd say a ghastly one to ride in. I'm just delighted he retains all of his ability because he travelled around really well in the Relkeel [at Cheltenham] then just flattened out but Aidan came in and said get his wind checked again.

"Fair play to Ben Brain who did his breathing operation but it was tight getting him here today. I've been negative for the last ten days, thinking I'd have loved another week but credit to everyone at home. He's in the Coral Cup but won't run at Cheltenham. Whether we look at Aintree again or Sandown at the end of the season I don't know but he's won his good pot again for the year and still retains his ability."

Not for the first time, the mercurial Goshen tested the patience of his connections and backers, continually jumping to his right and offering rider Jamie Moore little assistance.

It was a brave call to run him around this tight left-handed course and his rider thought this would be the last time he would be asked to race in this direction.

Moore said: "He's always hung but there are just so limited opportunities for him. We know we have to go right-handed on soft ground but there are literally no races for him. We took a punt and it didn't work out again. I'd say that's the last time [going left-handed]."

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