'Sunshine and alcohol' bring Tyson Fury to Cartmel - but Big Gypsy King out of luck behind unbeaten Joseph O'Brien hurdler

Big Gypsy King was unable to make a winning hurdling debut for former heavyweight world champion boxer Tyson Fury, who was in attendance at the track alongside his manager Spencer Brown.

The pair joint-own the daughter of Sea The Moon and Fury said before the race that he'd be happy if Big Gypsy King "could get anywhere close" to the hot favourite Dignam on her first start for Jimmy Moffatt after winning once in seven starts on the Flat for Darryll Holland and Paul and Oliver Cole.

However, Big Gypsy King could only manage fifth of seven in the 2m1f juvenile hurdle, finishing just shy of 40 lengths behind the impressive 30-100 shot Dignam, who won on the bridle under JJ Slevin to extend his unbeaten record over hurdles to three for trainer Joseph O'Brien.

With a Flat rating of 88 – 33lb higher than Big Gypsy King – the superiority of the Paul Byrne-owned Dignam came as little surprise, but will not have dampened the enthusiasm of Fury, who named Cartmel his "favourite racecourse".

Fury and Brown were also represented by Sea The Clouds, who was pulled up in the 3m1½f Cavendish Cup, but when asked on Racing TV what else attracted him to Cartmel aside from his two runners, Fury said: "The sunshine, the alcohol and all these people."

Brown added: "We've got five horses together; we've got various Flat horses and three good jumps horses. She [Big Gypsy King] ran on the Flat at Doncaster two weeks ago in a 0-60 handicap, so we thought we'd give her a run out. She's been jumping for three weeks.

"She's won already and Sea The Clouds is a recent winner, so we'll keep plodding away and having a bit of fun with the game."

Read more:

'Hopefully John will come with Ombudsman' - O'Brien keen on rematch for Delacroix in Irish Champion Stakes 

'It's a dream come true' - meet the plucky rookie taking on a Grand National winner at Epsom on Monday 

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