Big races on the agenda for Mansony
Mansony is as low as 14-1 with William Hill to lift top honours at Cheltenham next season after upsetting some of the established order with victory in the Kerrygold Champion Chase at Punchestown.
The Arthur Moore-trained eight-year-old, the least exposed runner in a field deprived of Nickname due to the quick ground conditions, flew from last to first in the closing stages to score for trainer Arthur Moore and jockey Davy Russell.
The 13-2 chance was detached turning towards the final two fences – hitting an in-running high of 94-1 on Betfair – but kept eroding the advantage and threw down his challenge on the far rail.
He finished with a full head of steam to deny Justified, who had looked every inch the winner over the penultimate obstacle, by a length and a quarter.
The Queen Mother Champion Chase will be on his radar in 2008 and Moore said: “He’s always been a smashing horse.
“He would have preferred softer ground, but he’s now gone and won in Grade One company and we will have to go down that route with him next year.”
Ferdy Murphy had a famous victory snatched from his grasp as Aces Four crashed out at the final fence in the Ellier Developments Hanover Quay Champion Novice Chase.
The West Witton handler’s eight-year-old was strides away from giving the British a first win at the four-day festival, but simply failed to take off when asked by Graham Lee.
The 6-4 favourite had just seemingly taken the upper hand from Offshore Account and his error gifted the Grade One contest to Charlie Swan’s 16-1 chance.
The eventual winner had appeared full of running three out and took the bend upsides Aces Four, with his jockey Denis O’Regan adamant he was going to win even without his rival’s error.
O’Regan said: “I think I would have won anyway – I took a pull turning for home.”
Swan also saddled One Cool Cookie to finish third behind runner-up Knight Legend, with the former having provided the trainer with his first Grade One win at Fairyhouse over Easter.
Offshore Account was landing his fourth race on the bounce and earned a 50-1 quote with Cashmans for the 2008 totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Swan said: “He (Offshore Account) travelled very well throughout. He’s always late getting to the front so he’ll never win by too far.
“The good thing is we’ll never know if he would have won anyway.
“He won during the winter on the worst ground you can get so I thought he must have a bit of class.
“The Cheltenham Gold Cup for Offshore Account is going to be a little bit at the back of our minds next season.”
Of Aces Four, who was reappearing just 11 days after an electric display at Aintree, Murphy reported: “He’s a little bit concussed, but he will be OK.
“It was a shame what happened as he had the race won. At least he’ll live to fight another day.”
Lee was taken to hospital following his fall for X-rays on his elbow, but was later given the all-clear.
Edward O’Grady is looking forward to next season with Clopf, who missed the Cheltenham Festival with a setback but made handsome amends under Barry Geraghty in the Grade One vcbet.com Champion Novice Hurdle.
O’Grady said: “There’s a lot to look forward to with him and I think he is better than that and he will improve again.
“He’s not shown that sort of resilience and toughness in his races before and it was nice to see. He’s finished for this season now and I may give him an early campaign next autumn as he obviously likes good ground.
“Hopefully there’s a lot to look forward to next season.”
Geraghty used similar tactics on Charlies First 40 minutes later when punching the 14-1 chance into the lead on the run-in to collect in the Evening Herald Handicap Hurdle.
