Vautour moved to the head of the market for next year’s Gold Cup alongside his stablemate Don Poli after a brilliant 15-length success in the Grade One JLT Novice Chase here on Thursday, a performance which was as emphatic as his victory in the Supreme Novice Hurdle on the first day of the Festival in 2014.
Willie Mullins, who trains both Vautour and Don Poli, who took Wednesday’s RSA Chase, has yet to win the Gold Cup, although he will saddle three credible contenders in Friday’s renewal. His challenge for the 2016 renewal promises to be stronger still, however, after a victory by Vautour that was described as “flawless” by Ruby Walsh, his jockey.
“He’s very, very good,” Walsh said. “When Willie and I talked about plans for this horse last autumn, I maintained he wanted a trip, that he won the Supreme by purely staying and if we took him to the right distance he would be even better. Today he jumped like a gazelle and quickened up so impressively off the bend, I would say it was flawless. The horses behind are very good and he ran them ragged.
“The hardest job I had was riding him back to the winner’s enclosure. The rest was easy. He’s the real deal, I might be wrong but you have to dream.”
Both Vautour and Don Poli are top-priced at 6-1 for next year’s Gold Cup, while Vautour’s success completed a clean sweep for Mullins in the meeting’s three Grade One novice chases, with Un De Sceaux having taken the Arkle Trophy on the opening day.
“There will be no match-up [between Un De Sceaux and Vautour],” Walsh said. “One is going up in trip [Vautour] and the other is staying where he is. I’d say Vautour would be a better match-up for Don Poli.”
It was an afternoon for front-runners, with Uxizandre making all to take the Grade One Ryanair Chase to give Tony McCoy a winner at his final Festival, and the 14-1 chance Cole Harden making all in the Grade One World Hurdle later in the afternoon.
Cole Harden’s victory was the first at the Festival meeting for both Warren Greatrex and Gavin Sheehan, his trainer and jockey respectively.
“That is what dreams are made of,” Sheehan said. “He did everything right but I was just waiting for a horse to fly past and beat me. He pings off this sort of ground and when I pulled him up after the race, he still had more running in him.”
Greatrex said that Cole Harden had benefited from a soft palate operation after a disappointing run in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham earlier in the season.
“I believed in the horse, but I was struggling with him early season,” Greatrex said. “He was having trouble with his wind and I sent him away to be tested, but then he went to Wetherby and won well and I thought that the people looking at his wind didn’t know what they were on about.
“After that I struggled with him and in the Cleeve, he wasn’t right, so then we had it done. We knew he was spot-on today, and we’ve just won a Grade One and beaten the best.”
Uxizandre’s win at 16-1 came as a surprise, but Alan King, his trainer, felt that a return to spring ground had benefited a horse who finished second in last year’s JLT Chase and then took a Grade One event at Aintree. JP McManus, meanwhile, was delighted that McCoy, his retained jockey for a decade, had been able to ride into the winner’s enclosure at his final Festival.
“I’m just so happy for AP’s family, my family, and Alan King and his staff,” McManus said. “In racing, you’ve so many marvellous people and marvellous jockeys, I admire them all. But AP, the first time I remember him is years ago when Christy Roche rang me and said: ‘Have you seen this young lad? He should be handicapped, not the horses.’ I always remember that.
“We never signed a contract, we’ve never had anything but kind words for one another. I respect him and everything he does, on and off the racecourse.”
Tom Weston, who fell at the fourth-last when riding Benbane Head in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Handicap Chase for amateur jockeys, has been airlifted to Southmead Hospital in Bristol for treatment.
Weston was attended on the course by doctors and medical personnel andtaken to Cheltenham Racecourse’s medical centre before being airlifted to hospital. He was breathing and conscious at the time.
