He had led over the last on Edredon Bleu and was still going well enough to think that nothing
He had led over the last on Edredon Bleu, and was still going well enough to think that nothing would come past him. With half a furlong to run, though, something did.But if McCoy was surprised, the grandstands were less so, for Call Equiname had been quietly tracking Edredon Bleu from the top of the hill. To judge by the look of puzzlement on his face, he was trying to work out what had gone wrong. Barton, who was backed down to 2-1 favourite for the Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle, galloped right away from his field to win by nine lengths, while the closing stages of the Queen Mother Champion Chase were fought out by Edredon Bleu and Call Equiname, the first and second favourites.As he was led back towards the runner-up’s position, Tony McCoy, Edredon Bleu’s jockey, was twisting in his saddle to watch a replay of the closing stages on the giant screen above the paddock. He must also be a fine prospect to have lived with Nick Dundee’s remorseless gallop for as long as he did, though there seems little doubt that he would have finished an honourable second but for the favourite’s fall.The failure of Nick Dundee brought a sudden halt to a golden run for the punters.
It is an image which will still be sharp if he ever returns to Cheltenham for a Gold Cup.The only consolation for the Irish punters as their tickets hit the floor was that Looks Like Trouble was ridden by one Irishman, Paul Carberry, and trained by another, Noel Chance. It was the memory of Nick Dundee as a brown monster galloping smoothly down the hill, full of running and with all but one of his rivals long since beaten off. Nick Dundee stood on all four legs and then walked into the horse ambulance a few minutes after his fall. Philip Arkwright, the clerk of the course, reported that “the vet at the scene thought there would be no permanent damage and the prospects look good”.
It meant that the crowds who had left hundreds of thousands of pounds in the betting ring could at least walk out of the gate with something to cling to. Looks Like Trouble, who was left clear by the fall and won the Royal & SunAlliance Chase in a canter, met the hush of a church as he galloped past the stunned grandstands a few seconds later
By the evening, though, the news seemed better.
As he struggled to his feet, the horse that most of Ireland had come to back started to hop and stagger on just three legs, normally the sign of a broken bone and an imminent bullet. THE FESTIVAL nearly died here yesterday, in the time it took Nick Dundee to turn from a cruising champion to a tangled mess of legs on the landing side of Cheltenham’s notorious downhill fence. It is scripted that FLORIDA PEARL (nap 3.15) should win the Cheltenham Gold Cup.. A bar stool can be made vacant in the heavens because this afternoon we are about to witness a racehorse of the rarest accomplishments.It is scripted that the century should go out gloriously. His preparatory races have not been debilitating tests and that will help him in this the most demanding of contests.It could be that Double Thriller is a very good horse indeed and it is his great misfortune to be running against an animal unusual by his uncharted ability. When something like that happens you don’t just say to yourself `well that was bad luck wasn’t it?’ It was just my temperament I suppose.”Double Thriller has not proved so bellicose this season, slaughtering sad animals like the keeper of an abattoir.
