Tchico Polos takes Haldon Gold Cup for Paul Nicholls
Tchico Polos may have won the race but stable companion Twist Magic proved that he is still a force to be reckoned with in the Grade Two totesport.com Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter.
The first question was whether Twist Magic would consent to start in the limited handicap, in which he was conceding upwards 20lbs to what looked a strong field. After his antics at Punchestown in April, where he refused to race, Dan Skelton – assistant trainer to Paul Nicholls – was down at the start to ensure the horse got away.
He did but was still playing catch-up as Herecomesthetruth set a furious pace that had already burned off The Saywer by the sixth fence. However, whole Herecomesthetruth has speed the steering came be a bit of a problem and jockey Colin Bolger stood no chance when the horse veered right and ran out before the eighth.
That left I'msingingtheblues in front and he had withstood the challenge of Somersby over the first two fences in the home straight but the frenetic pace was starting to tell.
Tchico Polos is usually a front-runner, but he could not lie up with the early speed. However, he came on strongly through the final two furlongs to take the lead before the last, but Walsh had a scare when Twist Magic rallied to push him all the way in the final hundred yards. Twist Magic was only beaten a half-length and a mistake at the fourth-last probably spared Walsh’s blushes having elected to ride Tchico Polos.
“They went a right gallop. I knew when I was off the bridle they were going a h**l of a gallop,” Walsh said, adding of the moment when he realised that it was Twist Magic cutting down his lead “I didn’t know until I heard the commentator and I thought ‘oh Jeez – the wrong one’.”
Nicholls seemed just as delighted with the performance of the runner-up as he was with the winner. Twist Magic had appeared to a light of former days but now looks capable of shining again in the major two-mile races like the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown next month, he has won twice in the last three years. “Twist has run an absolute blinder for his first run. If he hadn’t walked through the fourth-last he might have gone very close. He’ll go straight to the Tingle Creek.”
Madison du Berlais would not have looked out of place in such a field but instead he was running over hurdles for the first time since coming to the Pipe yard from France in the first division of the toteplacepot "National Hunt" Novices’ Hurdle.
As a former Hennessy Gold Cup winner, Madison du Berlais had the edge on experience over the rest of the field but Mr Hudson, who was having his first run over hurdles for Nicholls having won a bumper at Newton Abbot in May, had the edge where it mattered most.
Walsh had tracked Madison du Berlais for most of the race and approaching the third-last flight he looked at ease on Mr Hudson while Tom Scudamore was working hard all the way on Madison du Berlais, but it was wasted effort once Mr Hudson took it up before the last.
Mr Hudson cost £50,000 at the Cheltenham sales in December 2008, which looks money well spent. “I bought him as a store at the Cheltenham sale,” Nicholls said. “He went point-to-pointing because I thought he was a bit backward. He got beaten [at Larkhill], ran him in a bumper when he made all and won and he’s just strengthened up again during the summer. This time next year he’ll be a cracking three-mile chaser.”
However, for every success story there will be plenty who will be written off as an expensive lesson. “We’ve probably got 15 or 20 and they all come with varying reputations and just because they go and win impressively, beating nothing, doesn’t mean they’re stars. Until they get on the racetrack you never really know.”
Dare Me has been to the track twice this season but his trainer, Philip Hobbs, may not be that much wiser about how good he is, other than it will take a much better class of horse to put him to the test than he found in the totetentofollow Novices’ Hurdle.
Richard Johnson had Dare Me in front from the start and the closest he came to a problem was when the horse and jockey had a slight confusion of thought and hit the middle hurdle down the back straight. But that did little halt their progress to a four-and-a-half-length win.
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