'The most nerve-wracking race I’ve ever watched' but Monkfish finds a way to win

Paul Townend riding Monkfish scrambles over the last beside a loose horse to win The Brown Advisory Novices' Chase during day two of the Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse. Picture: Alan Crowhurst/PA

They tried to serve it up to him, but Monkfish and Paul Townend had all the answers in the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novice Chase. The performance was solid and unspectacular, but just as he had done in the 2020 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at this meeting, he found a way to win.

This was not the display of a cast-iron future Gold Cup winner, but neither did it diminish his reputation. A couple of novicey mistakes – through lack of concentration trainer and rider would both later offer – did little to aid his cause, and neither did the loose-running Eklat De Rire, who had earlier decanted Rachael Blackmore.