Champagne Fever edges thrilling battle
The two, both returning from more than a year and a half on the sideline and whose Cheltenham successes were over drastically different distances, met over an intermediate trip, in the listed two-mile-six Boomerang Horse & Country Store Chase, and it was the grey neck of Champagne Fever which stretched out enough to deny his determined challenger.
Keen early and exuberant in his jumping, with just one exception, he would have been forgiven had his early enthusiasm proved his downfall in the closing stages, but the now nine-year-old showed time off has not dimmed his spirit, and battled on bravely to hold a determined effort from Lord Windermere.
