Now 23 years on from that momentous occasion in Liverpool, there are dreams of adding a Gold Cup winner’s name to that roll of honour, Spillane’s Tower prepares for his staring role at the Cheltenham Festival. “There’s plenty of excitement, I don’t think psychologically we’ve gone there yet in our heads that he is a runner in the Gold Cup for us,” said the trainer’s daughter and racing pundit Jane Mangan. “He’s a runner in the Gold Cup for a trainer with less than 10 horses in training. I’ll hopefully do the paddock analysis for the Gold Cup, wish my parents good luck and then watch it on air, but it’s the job. Where else would you want to be when your dad has a runner in the Gold Cup?”Where would you want to be indeed.

Source: The Herald March 08, 2026 15:16 UTC