Favourite Denman takes Royal & SunAlliance

Denman, trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Ruby Walsh, won the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Denman erased memories of a short-priced reverse at last year's Festival when running out a thoroughly convincing winner of the Royal & SunAlliance Chase.

Ruby Walsh always had the Paul Nicholls-trained 6-5 favourite to the fore in the Grade One contest and the pair soon got into a beautiful rhythm.