Hipodromos y caballos - Racetracks and horses BloodStockReview2013 | Page 52

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N AT I O N A L H U N T 2 0 12-13

New names step
up to fill the void

BOBS THE BOSS IN GOLD CUP
WHILE SUPER SACRE REIGNS
SUPREME BY TOM PENNINGTON

J

UMPS enthusiasts went into the
2012-13 season with a sense of
uncertainty. Who was going to
fill the gaping void left by the then recently
retired big guns Kauto Star and Denman
as well as the ill-fated Synchronised in the
Cheltenham Gold Cup?
There was no need to worry, as this
year’s showpiece developed into one of the
races of the season with the diminutive but
lion-hearted Bobs Worth illuminating a
rain-drenched Prestbury Park on the Friday
of festival week.
Nicky Henderson’s eight-year-old, who
was bought for €16,500 as a yearling by
his big-race jockey Barry Geraghty before
being sold to The Not Afraid Partnership
for £20,000, was sent off the 11-4 favourite
after demolishing a strong field in the
Hennessy, but he would have been trading
at considerably bigger prices half a mile
from home.
The son of Bob Back was slow to respond
when the pace quickened at the top of the
hill and his chance looked to have been
severely hindered when he had to sidestep
Silviniaco Conti, who crashed out at the
third-last when still travelling strongly.
The race looked set up for a pair of
French-breds – past winner and reigning
King George holder Long Run and dual
Cheltenham Festival winner Sir Des
Champs. The last-named was bidding to
become a second winner of the week for
jumping’s latest sire sensation Robin Des
Champs following standing dish Quevega,
who landed a memorable fifth David
Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle on the opening day.
However, Bobs Worth went into
overdrive when he met the rising ground
and put in a spring-heeled leap at the final
fence. He stormed up the hill, just as he had
in the previous year’s RSA Chase, to run
out a comprehensive seven-length winner.
The form was bolstered when Gold Cup
runner-up Sir Des Champs led home Long
Run in the following month’s Punchestown
Gold Cup.

It was not a vintage renewal of the
Champion Hurdle but Hurricane Fly, by
far and away the best jumper sired by the
late Montjeu, stayed on dourly to become
the first horse to reclaim the race since
Sprinter Sacre
(left) and
Bobs Worth

Comedy Of Errors in 1975. He capped a
memorable season at Punchestown in April
when capturing his fifth Grade 1 of the
campaign, his record-equalling 16th in all.
The two-mile chase division was a
one-horse show. Nothing could get within
touching distance of the mighty Sprinter
Sacre, who sauntered to a stunning 19-length
success over Sizing Europe in the Queen
Mother Champion Chase following easy
victories in the Tingle Creek Chase and
Victor Chandler Chase.
It would have been easy for Henderson to
wrap up the seven-year-old son of Network
in cotton wool and draw stumps for the
season after the festival, but he ran him at
Aintree, where he slammed Ryanair Chase
winner Cue Card over 2m4f in the Melling
Chase