'He's put us on cloud nine for the last six years' CHELTENHAM 2009.

Byline: Peter Thomas meets William Frewen, owner of jump racing's latest cult hero Lough Derg 

INSTEAD of becoming one of the most doughty and large-spirited horses ever to peer through a bridle, Lough Derg could have been forgiven for starting his professional life with a complex that would turn him into a resentful and ungenerous old laggard. Bought for relative buttons by a champagnefuddled man on the hunt for a cheap birthday present, the French-bred youngster had every reason to turn up his unfashionable nose at the racing game from day one.

He chose, however, to channel his resentment into sheer bloody-minded determination, and last Sunday ground out a second National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell that brought his tally of wins to 12 and his earnings to an owner-friendly pounds 336,000.

The bare figures, though, fail to do justice to a horse who, now in his tenth year, has developed a gritty, underdoggish way of going about his business that has earned both the dewy-eyed admiration of the racing fraternity and his own fan club on Facebook. They would have seemed distant prospects on the autumn day in 2003 when William Frewen, a City fund manager, accepted a no-strings invitation from Martin Pipe to view the horseflesh at Pond House.

Frewen already had experience of the Nicholashayne soft-sell and was fully expecting to leave the yard one cheque lighter than he went in, but the manner of the transaction serves as a perfect illustration of the luck-heavy, hit-and-miss nature of racehorse ownership.

"I went down to the yard to have a look around," recalls the 49-year-old Londoner. "Martin was on particularly good form and took me round, showed me a lot of horses, just explained to me what he did, which is always nice when you're in the company of the greatest trainer that ever lived.

"As the day was ending, Carol said to Martin: 'Have you sold him a horse yet?' Martin said: 'It's not that kind of day.' To which Carol replied: 'It's always that kind of day.' "In fairness, I had a pretty good idea when I went there that I'd end up getting my wallet out. Anyway, it's always a good place to go and there's always plenty of champagne flowing, so after a couple of bottles, Martin was showing me this nice grey horse that was for sale, but for some reason I didn't like the look of him.

"Then I went and turned the light on in the box next door and saw a horse that really caught my eye. I know Tom Scudamore has been rude about him and said how he hasn't filled out and what a funny shape he is, but to me he looked great. I'd not be a judge of a horse, and perhaps my view of him was influenced by the price, which was considerably less than that of the grey, but I made up my mind this was the one I wanted to give as a present to my mum for her 70th birthday."

Perhaps Eileen, who was raised in Tipperary and rode out for trainers there, would have spotted the potential of the unprepossessing bay three-year-old in a more intuitive manner, but her son, with his financial acumen and his surfeit of champagne, did the job just as well.

The grey ended up winning a couple but turned out nowhere near as good as Lough Derg.

William had had his appetite for racing whetted by pub TV sessions with his friends, but the bug really bit in the build-up to the 1989 Derby, where three 500-1 shots caught his eye and, flying in the face of the wisdom of more learned colleagues, he formed a small syndicate to back the lot of them. When Terimon bagged second place behind Nashwan, our man was hooked and began joining with like-minded souls to venture into ownership. He enjoyed varying degrees of success with the likes of Sir Lunchalot, Eminence Grise and Lunar Crystal, but it was with a rare non-partnership horse that he would hit the jackpot.

Lough Derg was knocked down to Hubert Barbe, the Pipes' man across the Channel, for h16,000 at Goffs France in July 2003. Although he may have been a little way down the pecking order at Nicholashayne if asking prices are anything to go by, it soon became plain that the Pipes were not entertaining an angel unawares, as Martin freely admits.

"Like a lot of others, he'd come from France as an unraced three-year-old," he says. "He didn't show a lot early on, but when he made his debut at Newbury he was only 9-2, so that tells you he wasn't unfancied. He was nicely bred and we always liked him, but we never imagined he'd hit the heights he has. He always had a good attitude, though. He was tough and a bit of a character, not in a bad way, just playful, jumping for joy."

Frewen registered the horse in his own name in a vain bid to keep the gift a surprise for Eileen, only letting her in on the secret to lure her along to the Berkshire venue for that first public appearance in a juvenile hurdle in November 2003.

"They seemed to have done nothing with him when I first set eyes on him," he remembers. "He seemed completely raw but he was plainly ready to go as he was running within a few weeks. We were quite hopeful when he came round the bend in company with the short-priced favourite, and even more hopeful when he hit the front four out and won by 30 lengths.

"Tony McCoy said not to take him to the Triumph Hurdle that year as he wasn't ready for it, but by April he was beating the Triumph second, Chief Yeoman, at Cheltenham. I suppose that was when it first really hit home that we might have something special on our hands.

"When he was outpaced in the Gerry Feilden at Newbury the following November, we decided to up him in trip for the Relkeel Hurdle, or rather Martin did, as I thought he knew rather more about it than I did.

He was right, and we beat Exotic Dancer by eight lengths.

"The only time I put my foot down with Martin was when we sent him novice chasing for a short while and he fell twice out of his six runs. It wasn't usually a good idea to tell Martin what to do with horses, but when the screens went up for him at Cheltenham one day, I said this one would never run over fences again, or at least not until he was a lot older."

These days, Eileen is largely confined to barracks by osteoporosis and watches her horse's big days from the sofa, but William will be at Cheltenham for Lough Derg's next assignment - likely to be in the Coral Cup. He hasn't missed an afternoon at the festival in 20 years, but he's not optimistic of celebrating another glory day for the nine-year-old.

"But we know he'll be trying and he owes nobody anything," he adds.

"We've been on cloud nine for six years thanks to him and that's something we'll never forget."

Read Peter Thomas's blog on racingpost.com

Hero of facebook

2 groups dedicated to Lough Derg on the popular social networking website

288 members of the Lough Derg Fan Club - and 117 in Lough Derg 'Douglas'

5 kisses left by Jordan Chalmers - while his groom Leanne Green says he is the "love of my life"

CAPTION(S):

Dream horse: owner William Frewen is pictured with his beloved Lough Derg, along with regular pilot Tom Scudamore and groom Leanne Green