Fabulous Flyer a forever favourite
Both had it yesterday morning that 11-year-old Moscow Flyer would not regain his Champion Chase crown from the youthful eight-year-old Azertyuiop, based on the presumption that the younger horse had plenty of room for improvement, while the older animal did not.
But conventional wisdom and conjecture proved to be abject liars as Moscow Flyer scorched home to a typically raucous Irish reception ahead of a very impressive Well Chief and an inexplicably bad Azertyuiop in yesterday's Festival highlight.
He regained his crown with considerable aplomb, an impeccable display of jumping underlining the fact not conjecture that if he stays on his feet he wins. Eighteen times he's done it now.
Last year he clattered the fourth last and unseated Barry Geraghty. This time around there was an audible hush as he approached the obstacle. The sigh of relief as he cleared the ditch was palpable as he surged to a victory that makes him, alongside Istabraq, the most famous Irish horse since Arkle.
Last year his trainer, Jessica Harrington, blamed herself for his capitulation, having brought the horse to the race "too fresh." He had, she said, "arrived like a lunatic, convinced he could walk on water."
This year he was completely switched off, but as Geraghty reported, it was not quite as straightforward as it appeared.
"Last year was one of those things, but this time he put in a short one at the ditch again, and missed it like he did last time, but we got through it between us," the jockey reported.
Harrington admitted that her horse had won the race the hard way from the front. "I have to see every bit of the agony, although I did close my eyes at the fourth last, but fortunately he jumped it."
The thought of the horse as a joker might be hard for some to understand, but Geraghty reported that "turning for home he pricked his ears and started taking the mick."
If that was the case, then he was ladding his rival from the Paul Nicholls yard. Azertyuiop, jockey Ruby Walsh reported "ran no sort of race, he just wasn't himself."
The French-bred had made a bad mistake at the water losing loads of momentum, something impossible to recover from in a race this short, run at such a savage pace. Nicholls said he hadn't noticed anything wrong until that fence, but Walsh maintained the horse was not firing on all cylinders from the off.
"I knew it was over before he made his mistake. That's just not him, but I knew it was over early on because I couldn't keep up," said Walsh.
"It may be he has torn a muscle or something," Nicholls added, "but I've every confidence he'll be back."
If he does come back next year, then he will almost certainly have to face his old adversary, as the Flyer, having almost certainly completed his season at Aintree and Punchestown, will once again be prepared for Cheltenham.
There is the matter of a small celebration to get over, however. The Harrington entourage is staying with friend Nicky Henderson, who himself had two winners yesterday the Cork-connected Trabolgan in the SunAlliance Chase and Juveigneur in the Kim Muir.
"I think we will be celebrating properly tonight," Harrington reported.
"I wouldn't like to think what state we will all be in tomorrow."
There will be others in a state today too, perhaps not least the supporters of the Willie Mullins-trained Missed That, who ran home a well supported 7/2 favourite in the bumper under a fierce ride from Ruby Walsh. Missed That is owned by Violet O'Leary, wife of Cork insurance broker Archie, who also owned the great Florida Pearl.
"I never thought we'd have something like this again," commented Mrs. O'Leary "because horses like Florida Pearl only come along once in a lifetime. So this is very special and unexpected."
Meanwhile Nina Carberry's hopes of securing a remarkable double came to an unexpected and uncomfortable end yesterday.
Having ridden Paul Nolan's Dabiroun to victory in the final race on Tuesday to become the first female jockey to win at the Festival, she had the fancied mount on Karanja in the Festival Bumper.
However, the 20-year-old sister of champion jockey Paul came unstuck in her bid to join Graham Lee at the top of the jockeys' table.
Ironically Lee proved her undoing. As the horses waited for the off, Lee's mount, Lennon, became a bit over-anxious and ran away with his rider. When he finally got the horse back to the start, the tapes went up almost immediately catching Lee off guard and facing in the wrong direction.
"We were both turning at the same time but Lennon bumped into my fellow and I got thrown out the side door," Carberry said later.
"It was very unfortunate but it was just one of those things and there was nothing I could do," she commented.
Two days gone and two to go and the Irish have already racked up five winners with decent possibilities of a few more over the remaining races.
Conventional wisdom has become confounded wisdom, but nobody's complaining certainly not the Irish hordes.
