The last two winners of the race were expected to fight out the finish in the Queen Mother Champion Chase but their ageing bodies proved to be no match for youth, both in the saddle and underneath. Dodging Bullets, who was bred to win a Derby by the Flat jockey Frankie Dettori, gave Sam Twiston-Davies the biggest win of a career that is still mostly in front of him. For Sprinter Sacre, however, the glory days are surely gone beyond recall.
Sprinter Sacre produced one of the finest individual performances that the Festival has ever seen when victorious in the Champion Chase two seasons ago. He was sent off as favourite on a wave of sentimental money by fans who were desperate to see one more tour de force, but they did not even see him cross the line. Instead, Barry Geraghty pulled him up before the last, as Dodging Bullets and the outsiders Somersby and Special Tiara set off up the run-in with the race between them.
It was Dodging Bullets and Twiston-Davies who found the finishing kick to win by a length and a quarter, with Somersby nearly two lengths ahead of Special Tiara and Sire De Grugy, last year’s winner, another seven lengths away in fourth place. For Paul Nicholls, the trainer of Dodging Bullets, it was a fifth victory in the race, but Somersby, an 11-year-old running at his seventh Festival, emerged with almost as much credit.
The future, though, belongs to Dodging Bullets and his rider, who is a strong candidate to be the first champion jockey of the post-Tony McCoy era next season. Twiston-Davies’s rapid rise to the top of his profession owes much to the decision of Paul Nicholls, National Hunt’s champion trainer in eight of the last nine seasons, to appoint him as stable jockey at the start of this campaign. Dodging Bullets had already recorded a Grade One win for trainer and rider at Sandown back in December, and victory in one of the Festival’s feature events underlined the success of a partnership that should only grow stronger with time.
Dodging Bullets had beaten Sprinter Sacre in a Grade One event at Ascot in January, when the former champion was running for the first time since suffering an irregular heartbeat in a race at Kempton on 27 December 2013. The betting suggested that the former champion would find enough improvement to reverse the form, but Nicholls was not surprised by the outcome.
“I know the other two were past champions,” Nicholls said of Sprinter Sacre and Sire De Grugy, “but I couldn’t see why they were ahead of us in the betting, it must have been on sentiment. Dodging Bullets was the progressive young horse and it’s them that usually come out on top.
“He would have liked the ground a bit slower and I thought Sam gave him a fantastic ride. Sam is so much more confident this season, it all just takes a bit of bedding in but he’s been awesome this year. He rides really well and we’re all very fond of him.
“The horse won’t run again this season and I expect we’ll be dreaming all summer. The whole aim will be to come here again in a year’s time.”
Dettori, who sent his mare Nova Cyngi to be covered by the top Flat sire Dubawi in the hope of producing a Classic winner, echoed the approval of Twiston-Davies’s performance in the saddle.
“Sam gave him a fantastic ride, he jumped like a stag and was gutsy all the way to the line,” Dettori said. “He was bred to win the Derby but this is second best. It’s the equivalent of the 100m final at the Olympics and what a horse. He didn’t make very much [when sold] as a yearling because his legs were pointing in the wrong direction, although they have got better with time.
“I watched it with the owners and my legs were shaking a little bit walking down the steps because I was so excited. It’s completely different to have those feelings when I don’t have anything to do with it. Sam was tactically very astute. Riding is all about confidence and for a young man, you’ve got to say that Sam is top class.”
This was the biggest success of Twiston-Davies’s career to date and will remain so until next season, at least unless he wins Friday’s Gold Cup or the Grand National at Aintree next month.
“I’ve always said my dad [Nigel] is the best trainer I’ve ridden for, but Paul Nicholls is some man,” Twiston-Davies said. “It is a massive win and hopefully means I keep hold of the job for years to come.
“Big winners make up for the days when things don’t go so well, we didn’t have a great day yesterday but Paul said: ‘I’ll leave it [how to ride the race] to you, so get on with it.’ It eases the pressure and hopefully I’ll ride better and better as the week goes on.”
After Willie Mullins’s Grade One four-timer on Tuesday, Nicholls moved into second place among the trainers this week with a treble on the day, as Aux Ptits Soins took the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle with Twiston-Davies in the saddle, and then Qualando beat stablemate Bouvreuil in the Fred Winter Handicap Hurdle. Nicholls will saddle Silviniaco Conti, the favourite, in the Gold Cup, a race that Mullins, who trains three of the 18 declared runners, has yet to win.
