ALAN WALLER had the pleasure and privilege of signing the winners’ book in the hospitality room at Cheltenham last Friday on behalf of the owners of the Gold Cup winner Coneygree.

He took responsibility as, looking around the room, he calculated that he was the most coherent of the group quaffing the complimentary champagne.

Waller, from Ashton Keynes, was also at the very start of the journey some 10 years earlier when he and Lord John Oaksey headed to Shropshire to look over a potential mate for Plaid Maid, the broodmare they part-owned.

“John’s favourite racehorse was Ardross and a son of Ardross, Karinga Bay, was at stud in Shropshire,” said Waller.

“I drove us up there and I remember John asking for their best price. I think he got a £500 discount. We paid £3,000 for the mating.”

Afterwards Waller got a prime example of the affection in which ‘the noble lord’ was held.

“We were just having a pub lunch after sealing the deal and so many people just wanted to come up and chat to John,” he said. “And he was in his element telling them stories too.”

Twenty years ago Waller was invited to take a share in the then-budding racehorse Plaid Maid along with four members of the Oaksey family – John, his sister Lady Dundas, his son Patrick and a nephew-in-law Patrick Crawford, along with Marlborough accountant Duncan King who still looks after the books for trainer Mark Bradstock and his wife Sara, Oaksey’s daughter.

Plaid Maid was an average racehorse, winning four chases at Exeter, three with AP McCoy in the saddle. Her main claim to fame at the time was that she was the multiple champion’s first winner of the new Millennium, on January 1 2000.

Since then she has become much more famous as an exceptional broodmare.

“She had six foals before dying while giving birth to her latest, Flintham, who is also a promising young horse and was unlucky to be balloted out of the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham,” said Waller.

For each foal the six core owners – with Lady Oaksey taking over from her late husband – have found four more people to bring each partnership up to 10. Plaid Maid’s first foal Carruthers, who is still racing, won the Hennessy Gold Cup and was fourth in a Gold Cup, earning her the TBA National Hunt Broodmare of the Year award.

She looks a shoo-in for the award once more having produced the superior Coneygree to win last Friday’s Gold Cup worth £313,000 to the winner. Still unbeaten after just four races over fences, Coneygree became the first novice to win the Gold Cup for 41 years, since Captain Christy in 1974.

Flying in the face of that statistic the trainer and owners opted for the top race of the week, rather than the RSA Chase for novices. “It was a very difficult decision as, after just three chases, we had no idea how good he was,” said Waller.

“I was doubtful but the Bradstocks convinced us saying he might not be in one piece in another year and this was one way of finding out just how good he was. Then the weather gods smiled on us with the rain softening the ground towards the end of the week.”

By the time Alan, his wife Sarah and son Tom had returned to Ashton Keynes from the races, congratulatory cards had already been pushed through their door.

And they have been fielding emails and phone calls from friends and family as far away as Australia, New Zealand and Thailand ever since.

“For a few days I will be the most popular man in the village because so many people backed Coneygree,” said the now-retired Waller, whose last post was as manager of Charing Cross Hospital in London.

“I’m just overjoyed to be part of the fairy tale. This was a victory for the grassroots of racing. We’re a group with limited resources but unlimited patience.

“It shows you don’t need the money of J P McManus, Rich Ricci or Michael O’Leary to win the Gold Cup.

“As we were ushered out of the hospitality suite, J P was coming in having won the Foxhunters and he was gracious enough to congratulate us. National Hunt people are so sporting.”

The owners and the Bradstocks have already planned next season’s campaign for their superstar.

“God willing, if he stays free from injury, Coneygree will go for the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November, the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, the same Newbury race he won this season and then the Gold Cup again,” said Waller.

And there may be even more excitement further into the future.

At the same time Coneygree was galloping up the Cheltenham hill three times last Friday, his sister Maid Of Oaksey was being covered by the stallion Kayf Tara.