Ryanair Chase (Grade 1)

AT times it must have felt like an Everest-like challenge for British trainers taking on their Irish counterparts this week, but Dan Skelton has shown it can be done, and a day after he saddled a superbly plotted handicap double, it was a double of the Grade 1 variety, following Protektorat’s gutsy display to see off last year’s winner Envoi Allen in the Ryanair Chase.

Protektorat (17/2) was an impressive winner of the Betfair Chase last season, before finishing an honourable fifth in the Gold Cup. This term he has been campaigned in handicap and Grade 2 company and although he hadn’t won, his trainer, as is his wont, was working back from this Festival target.

Harry Skelton was content to sit off a solid pace set by Stage Star and Ahoy Senor on the nine-year-old. He travelled strongly to challenge the former going into the straight, but then had to deal with the challenge of Envoi Allen, who looked the likely winner between the final two fences.

The pair jumped the last together, but it was here Protektorat’s latent stamina kicked in, and by the line he had four lengths to spare.

“He was great, absolutely fantastic,” said the winning trainer. “When you see Envoi Allen loom up with all that experience around here you think ‘oh no’, but what a gritty, unbelievable horse. Some horses love to run, he’s like Forest Gump, he just loves running.

“He’s not quite Gold Cup standard and the reason I didn’t run over this trip was the Gold Cup is the one race the boys (owners John Hales, Sir Alex Ferguson and Ger Mason) haven’t won and would love to win. But it was obvious at the start of the season that we needed to come down this route and this is a biggie, that’s brilliant.

“Harry is riding out of his skin. He was probably more reserved on occasions this week than I think he perhaps has been. It’s magic.”

Reflecting on his Festival as a whole, Skelton added: “It’s amazing. We all plan to do this, trainers both sides of the Irish Sea, we all plan to do this, but how it’s come off, I don’t know why, or how, I don’t know what’s different this time, but whatever it is I hope it lasts.”

Envoi Allen put up a valiant title defence in second and looked to have no excuses. Henry de Bromhead reflected: “They went a real good gallop and Rachael (Blackmore) said she was only ever just about travelling.

“I’d say the ground was testing enough for him, even more testing than he’d be used to, but we were just beaten by a very good horse. He just stayed on better than us after the last and on that ground, it probably played into his hands.

“We could look at the two-and-a-half-miler now at Aintree – I will have a chat with everyone at Cheveley Park.”