Long Run earns another King George victory
A valiant effort from Long Run helped him secure the William Hill King George VI Chase Grade 1 for the second time in his career. He had to push extremely hard this time around though, as his rivals did not allow him to dominate the proceedings completely.
The French challenger entered the competition with a starting price of 15 to 8 and was the outright favourite to succeed. Things did not work out exactly as he planned, as he committed a couple of bad mistakes.
Despite that, the Robert Waley-Cohen’s owned gelding finished on top of the table in the end. He was prominent at the start, but struggled over a few fences, which cost him some crucial time.
However, he displayed strong nerves towards the final few yards and finished on top of the table by a neck distance. This was his ninth success in chase events out of 16 times. He has never dropped out of the top-three in any format and his team will certainly
be proud of his achievements.
Nicky Henderson, trainer of Long Run, was absolutely delighted with a strong performance in the King George VI Chase. He praised the overall effort put in by the entire team and said that they worked extremely hard to achieve success at the highest level
of the sport.
According to the veteran trainer, “Both horse and jockey have put any doubters to rest. Long Run has proved stamina, willingness, guts, determination and Sam has given him a great ride as well. Between the two of them you couldn't fault it. It was hard work
today but that's hard work ground. He has come back and deserved to win.”
He went onto say, “There were two rather untidy jumps towards the end which looked as though they might have been a bit expensive but at the end of the day that little extra at the end was enough to get him in front.”
Other than Long Run, Captain Chris also did a superb job in the race, but failed to finish first in the end. He started steadily, but improved his pace towards the end.
However, it was not enough for the Philip Hobbs’ trainee to cause an upset in the end and he had to settle for the runner up position.
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