Sprinter Sacre back in business at Cheltenham
With doubts as to whether the nine-year-old would ever again be the majestic performer he was when he dominated the two-mile division, the 2013 Champion Chase winner truly looked back to a level somewhere near his best, destroying his rivals in the Grade Two prize.
Although his last visit to Prestbury Park ended with him pulling up in March, the chances of a similar happening were thankfully remote from an early stage, with new pilot Nico de Boinville exuding confidence aboard the seven-times Grade One winner.
Mr Mole took the field along until giving way to the well-backed 15-8 favourite over the fourth-last, in what was to be a race-winning move.
With his rivals all feeling the pressure, Sprinter Sacre continued to turn the screw, just as he did in both his Arkle and Queen Mother successes, opening up a sizeable advantage on the run down to the second-last.
Although flicking through the top of the penultimate fence it failed to halt the momentum of Nicky Henderson’s pride and joy as he bounded on in imperious fashion to the final fence.
Clearing it decisively, the hugely-popular chaser stormed up the hill helped by the roar of more than 15,000 spectators to further widen his gap and claim an emotional 14-length success from Somersby.
Sprinter Sacre was cut from 16-1 to 6-1 for the Champion Chase by race sponsors Betway, while both William Hill and Paddy Power trimmed him from 14-1 and 16-1 respectively into 3-1 for the same race. RaceBets went 5-1 from 14-1.
Henderson said: “Everybody has done brilliantly with him. We’ve been happy with him and we are getting there. He just looks so different, his whole demeanour is completely different.
“He’s taken to us to some amazing places over the years, but probably nothing anywhere like that today.
“It had to happen or otherwise the doubters would have been winning the argument and we had to come and do something. If it hadn’t happened today people would have stopped believing.
“The conditions of the race were in his favour. We’re not all the way there, but we are going in the right direction.
“Everybody has worked their socks off for a very long time since that happened (pulled up at Kempton in December 2013 and diagnosed with a heart problem).
“It’s been a long uphill battle. Of course there have been doubters and I’ve been one of them at times.
“He came back in from the summer looking fantastic. He just looks completely different.
“He’s aggressive, his jumping is good. We’d been working on his back and all sorts of things. It’s a great effort from a lot of people. It has been uphill, but we’ve got there.”
Henderson added: “We were just desperately keen to get that race into him. He was ready for it, he needed a race to bring him on. We are where we want to be.
“I said to Nico, if he takes you there let him do it, but he probably didn’t want to take it up that soon.
“He was back as if he was the king, and he raced like he was the king. It was very special and the fact that it was appreciated meant a lot.
“We’ll have to see how he is after this, but we’ll have a look at the Tingle Creek. It’s the obvious race.”
While winning the Gold Cup aboard Coneygree will always be the jewel in the crown of victorious rider De Boinville, it was clear by his reaction afterwards that this win will not be too far behind.
He said: “It was just a fantastic feeling and as close to flying as you could get. The jump he did coming down the hill was unbelievable.
“I just hoped that I hadn’t gone too soon, but I didn’t want to pull him back and stop his momentum and that would have done him the world of good mentally.
“The reception he got coming back in was very emotional. It means so much and it’s all about the horse. That’s the great thing about Cheltenham, everyone appreciates the horses.
“It’s a very similar feeling to winning the Gold Cup and it’s fantastic to be in that position.
“I would not go so far to say he was back and get carried away about it, but it was as close as you could have got him to being back.”
