Horse Racing: Big Zeb claims the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet
Leopardstown hosted the much awaited Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase today and featured some of the most talented racehorses of the country. The Grade I meeting was run over a distance of 2 miles and 1 furlong and was impressively won by the winner of the Queen
Mother Champion Chase, Big Zeb against his major rivals that included the champion colts Scotsirish and Golden Silver.
The winner of the event has been training under the care of the trainer Colm Murphy. The nine-year-old racehorse previously won the Navan meeting that took place last month, and was his first appearance of the winter racing season. At the beginning of the
jumping event, Big Zeb was led by the couple trained by Willie Mullins, Scotsirish and Golden Silver.
As the race proceeded, the winner was seen to jump over the fences at a really fast pace and thus managed to hold off his rival Golden Silver when he leapt prodigiously over the final hurdle in the back straight and then went on to take over his other major
rival Scotsirish as the pair was on their way for home.
While jumping over the final fence, Big Zeb under the jockey Barry Geraghty gave a remarkable performance as he dominated the field with a distance of five lengths. Nonetheless, Big Zeb did not run to the line which brought his runner up Golden Silver closer
and thus the former colt won the race by a distance of three and a quarter lengths. Big Zeb, also the winner of Ireland’s Horse of the Year Award, once again proved his talent and potential.
In a post-race interview, his delighted trainer was reported as saying, “That couldn’t have gone any nicer. I was afraid that he would feel the effects of missing a vital piece ofwork during the week because of the weather and Barry Geraghty said that he
could feel it. But I’m happy with that. We’ll back off him for a while before deciding where to do next.”
The racehorse who disappointed his fans and connections by not performing well in this meeting was the winner of the Punchestown Festival, Captain Cee Bee. The colt was observed making distracted jumps and thus was one of the last four finishers of the race.
After Big Zeb’s success in the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase, the racehorse will be defending his Champion Chase crown at Cheltenham, meanwhile Golden Silver is being booked for the Ryanair Chase.
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