Celestial strikes Hennessy gold

Celestial Gold completed a famous double by taking the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury today.

The 9-4 favourite, ridden by Timmy Murphy, was adding this long-standing staying handicap chase to his victory in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham earlier this month.

Celestial Gold, trained by Martin Pipe and owned by David Johnson, held the game novice Ollie Magern (13-2) by a length and a half, with Royal Auclair (11-2) another length and a quarter back in third and Lord Transcend fourth.

Celestial Gold was very keen on the run to the first fence and had to be heavily restrained at the rear by Murphy as Midland Flame and Lord Transcend set the early pace, with Ollie Magern close up.

There was little change up front, with all the field jumping well with the exception of Nil Desperandum, who was pulled up at the 15th fence.

After Midland Flame cried enough four out, Lord Transcend went on, but Celestial Gold was making stealthy progress, as was Royal Auclair.

Ollie Magern took a definite advantage at the second-last, but he could not hold Celestial Gold, who just led at the final fence and held his game rival on the run to the line.