? Irish runner makes good three years after hurdle debacle
? Time For Rupert found to be ill after RSA disappointment
When Sizing Europe came cruising down the hill as favourite in the 2008 Champion Hurdle, he appeared to be two minutes away from success in one of the Cheltenham Festival's four great championship events. It took a little longer than expected but, three years later, that victory is his, thanks to a performance in the Queen Mother Champion Chase that outclassed two opponents who could boast three wins in the race between them.
Sizing Europe stopped to nothing in his Champion Hurdle, leading some to suggest that he had a physical problem or, worse, that he might have a soft centre when the competition was at its fiercest. The eventual diagnosis was a strained joint in his pelvis and all doubts were banished 12 months ago when Henry de Bromhead's chaser took the Arkle Trophy. Sizing Europe had failed to win any of his four subsequent starts, but his superiority in Wednesday's feature event was beyond doubt.
All the money beforehand was for Master Minded, who had been one of the most impressive winners in the history of the Champion Chase when he won it 48 hours after Sizing Europe's capitulation in the Champion Hurdle. Despite finishing well beaten behind Big Zeb last season, Master Minded was backed relentlessly to 2-1.
Sizing Europe was in the first two from the off, took over with about a mile to run and was never headed from there. Master Minded was not far away but already under pressure when his challenge was abruptly halted by a horrible mistake two out and, though Big Zeb got to within a length of Sizing Europe at the last, the winner powered away from him up the hill.
His finishing surge was a reminder that Sizing Europe finished behind Kauto Star over three miles at Down Royal in November and he was an intended runner in the King George VI Chase over the same trip at Christmas until the cold weather intervened. De Bromhead, though, was persuaded by statistics that the Champion Chase should be his race at the Festival and Sizing Europe is now the 13th Arkle winner in a row to at least reach the frame when tackling the two-mile championship race the following season.
"I'm very protective of him," De Bromhead said. "He's like a child to me. Just ask my wife, she'll tell you that I spend more time with him than with anyone else.
"He has no turn of foot, he just gallops and gallops, and when they didn't go quick enough, Andrew [Lynch] took it up and it paid off. He got into a beautiful rhythm."
Lynch was riding his second winner at the meeting from as many rides after the success of Sizing Australia in Tuesday's cross-country event. "A small bit, yes," he said, when asked if it had been an emotional walk back to the winner's enclosure.
"But you have to be on a day like this. It's unbelievable, two out of two, you can't get much better than that. Maybe I should give up for the rest of the week."
With both the market leaders beaten, the Champion Chase was a good result for the bookies, and their Festival had already taken a turn for the better in the preceding race when Time For Rupert, another of the week's strongest favourites, finished only fifth in the RSA Chase.
Paul Webber's young chaser was reported to have bled after the race and also to have coughed during a subsequent vets' examination.
The race saw a frantic finish as Bostons Angel, trained by Jessica Harrington, took charge after the last, only to start idling on the run-in. He eventually held on by a neck from Jessies Dream to give Robbie Power, his jockey, his first Festival winner.
Power should probably have been celebrating 35 minutes earlier, though, as he did everything right on Harrington's Oscars Well in the Neptune Hurdle, only for his horse to stumble after jumping the last in front and allow First Lieutenant to edge out Rock On Ruby by a short-head.
It took courage, sugar and nicotine to ease the pain. "Jessie just told me that it was done and dusted," Power said. "I went and had a glass of coke and a fag and came back out."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/16/sizing-europe-champion-chase
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