Magical McCoy bags four-timer
There’s simply no stopping Tony McCoy.
Two days after chalking up the fastest ever double century on St Stephen's Day, the champion landed a four-timer at Newbury.
The highlight was his win on Coolnagorna in the Stan James Challow Hurdle at Newbury.
Jonjo O’Neill’s 4-6 chance made every yard under McCoy to beat Calling Brave by 29 lengths with Lady Laureate a further 13 lengths back in third place.
It was the third leg of a 48.5-1 fourfold that left fans of the champion jockey celebrating – as they usually do.
McCoy’s four-timer had been initiated with Beyond The Pale (7-2) in the opening Anniversary Novices’ Hurdle.
The Noel Chance-trained gelding jumped well and led after three-out before winning with something in hand.
Next came Montalcino, who made a made a hugely impressive chasing debut as he strode away with the H&T Pawnbrokers Novices’ Chase over two and a quarter miles.
The four-timer was completed in the concluding bumper with 6-5 favourite Sixo.
Paddy Power, who were offering even-money about McCoy reaching the 300-winner mark this season only a week ago, now offer just 4-7 after he moved on to 208 by the end of the afternoon.
At the other end of the winning scale, Albert Ennis trained his first winner in 18 months with a trainer’s licence as Eltigri took the Stan James Mandarin Chase.
The 10-1 chance ended a frustrating spell for Ennis that has seen him saddle the runner-up 15 times.
Eltigri carried the colours of the stable’s principal patron, Andrew Wates, the owner of 1996 Grand National hero Rough Quest, who was trained by Ennis’ former boss, the late Terry Casey.
“Andrew is a true horseman and I owe him a lot – he is a great man to train for,” said Ennis.
“He told me that I mustn’t give up and I am so pleased we did it with this horse. He has had terrible problems and Terry and I used to spend ages nursing his legs.”
Tonoco landed an appropriate victory for trainer Sue Smith and owner Trevor Hemmings in The Last Fling Chase at Haydock.
The Bet Direct-sponsored handicap was named in honour of Mrs Smith’s course specialist, who carried Hemmings’ famous yellow, green and white colours.
In the 1999-2000 campaign The Last Fling, who fell fatally in last season’s Martell Grand National, won three of the four major chases at Haydock – the Edward Hanmer, the Bet Direct Peter Marsh and the De Vere Gold Cup – and was runner-up in the Tommy Whittle.
Tonoco jumped in the bold style reminiscent of his former stable companion and never putting a foot wrong in the hands of Dominic Elsworth, the 5-2 favourite saw the three miles out well to dispose of Raffles Rooster by five lengths.
Tonoco was running over three miles for the first time and Smith said: “We didn’t know he would get the trip but he saw it out well and he jumps well.
“He’s rightly handicapped but we’ve had that many problems with his wind so we’ve had to tube him.”
There was an emotional win at Musselburgh where Peter Monteith realised an ambition to win the Col. W Monteith Handicap Chase run in memory of his father, thanks to Indien Du Boulay.
A delighted Monteith, who trains nearby at Roswell, said: “It is seven years ago this week that my father died – this is the sixth running of the race and it is good to win it, though I think we have had only one runner in it before.”
Len Lungo produced Plutocrat fit and ready to win the Tote Bookmakers Handicap Hurdle, the richest jumps race run at the Scottish course, in the hands of conditional Bruce Gibson.
