Double for Walsh and Nicholls at Warwick
Ruby Walsh made a smooth return to riding action at Warwick as Eurotrek landed a gamble in the feature totesport Classic Chase.
The jockey, who had last been seen in action when suffering a nasty-looking fall at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, came back to partner a double for boss Paul Nicholls and extend the trainer’s already handsome advantage in this season’s title race.
As his rivals fell by the wayside thanks to the testing conditions and the fierce early gallop set by Granit d’Estruval and then Control Man, Eurotrek (6-1) always travelled strongly under Walsh.
The winner went on from Control Man at the second-last fence and pulled well clear at the end of this gruelling test to win by 15 lengths.
Sir Rembrandt was cut from 33-1 to 20-1 for the Totesport Gold Cup as he stayed on to grab second spot close home from Control Man, with Crytal d’Ainay fourth.
“He jumped like a stag, travelled great and loved the soft ground,” Walsh said of the winner, who emerged as a live John Smith’s Grand National candidate.
“He’s a fair horse but it was a handicap and he only had 10st 9lb on his back. It could be a different story if he is upped in grade, but you couldn’t be more than happy with him.”
There was drama halfway through the race when Joaaci, the 3-1 favourite, was brought down by Dead-Eyed Dick at the seventh fence.
Nicholls added: “He’s had loads of problems, but when he’s fresh and well, he’s a good horse. He’s not one you want to do a lot of work with.
“He definitely will not run at Cheltenham. It’s the wrong track for him.
“But he will have an entry for Aintree. If he went there without another run it wouldn’t matter. There are obviously races along the way you could run him in. I’ll put him in at Haydock and Wincanton but if we wanted to be really serious about Aintree then he would probably go straight there.
“We’ll just see – it’s nice for him to win anything at all after the problems he has had. He had a lot of time off for a fibrillating heart which was making him break blood vessels, but Geoff Lane did a great job in getting him back.”
Eurotrek gained a best-priced quote of 25-1 for the National with Bet365 and Totesport.
Robert Alner was just as pleased with Sir Rembrandt, who plugged on dourly up the hom straight.
The 10-year-old, twice placed in the Gold Cup, will now return to Cheltenham for another crack at chasing’s blue riband.
“It’s great to see him running well again, although it does make you wonder what might have happenedin the Welsh National if he hadn’t fallen,” said Alner. “Hopefully we’ll head back to Cheltenham now.”
Alner confirmed that Sir Rembrandt’s stablemate and better-fancied Gold Cup candidate Kingscliff will run at Haydock next Saturday in the Peter Marsh Chase as part of his preparations for the big race.
Walsh and Nicholls had struck first with Be Be King, who is unlikely to tackle stablemate Denman in Cheltenham’s Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle in March, despite taking the totescoop6 Leamington Novices’ Hurdle.
No winner of the race in its short three-year history has finished worse than fourth in the Cheltenham novices’ championship.
But Nicholls said that although the 2-1 winner would be entered for that race, he would not be taking on the SunAlliance’s ante-post favourite, who is set to run next at Cheltenham in a fortnight’s time.
Be Be King still looked green as he swerved left and right under pressure from Oscar Park in the final stages.
But Walsh kept the winner going to account for his pursuer by three and a half lengths.
“Since we schooled him over fences at home, his hurdling seems to have improved,” said Nicholls.
“He is still a bit of a baby and sometimes he gets a touch of sore shins, but he is going to be a nice chaser next season.
“It’s good to have Ruby back. I told him to wait until today before he came back because this horse would nearly win.
“He’ll get an entry for Cheltenham but you wouldn’t want to be taking Denman on with him. We’ll try and find something else.”
