Special Tiara win highlights glorious uncertainty

There is no meeting quite like Cheltenham to highlight the glorious uncertainty of National Hunt racing and the very essence of that unpredictability was encapsulated by Wednesday’s Champion Chase.

On one hand the admirable Special Tiara looked to be turning up with solid place prospects on his fourth crack at the two-mile championship. By contrast, Douvan lined up bidding to enhance his already towering reputation and status as a chaser of limitless potential.

The by now well documented outcome was victory for Henry de Bromhead’s charge, while Douvan turned in an effort that was simply too bad to be true. Just over half an hour before the Champion Chase the hugely popular Henry de Bromhead saw his former charge Supasundae claim the Coral Cup.

However, any twinge of regret on his part was almost immediately dispelled as he got back among the winners at the festival for the first time in six years and did so in one of the meeting’s iconic contests.

In his post race debrief, an elated de Bromhead, enjoying a ground breaking season on all fronts, also touched on that uncertainty which is an integral part of racing’s charm.

“We felt we were coming here to pick up place money again but you just never know, it’s a horse race,” he said.

Douvan’s better days?

For Douvan there will hopefully be many other days in the sun. At various times over the last two years he has looked nigh on invincible but on this occasion it wasn’t to be. It is fervently hoped that this will be just a blip in his otherwise exemplary record.

Furthermore Willie Mullins is to be commended with the equanimity with which he dealt with the aftermath of his stable star’s defeat, which called to mind those two lines from Rudyard Kipling - ‘If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same’.

He who bites last

In keeping with the theme of uncertainty, Might Bite proved the doubters wrong, after a fashion, in the RSA Chase. However, his errant wanderings after the last kept everyone on edge until he somehow pulled victory out of the fire in the dying strides.

For most of the race though, Might Bite showed that he does indeed possess stellar quality and it will be utterly fascinating to see how he progresses in coming season.

Cause for celebrations

At the end of the day, Gordon Elliott once again took centre stage as he teamed up with long time ally Jamie Codd for both cross country and bumper glory.

Festival regular Cause Of Causes is nothing short of metronomic in his ability to deliver at meeting, regardless of what challenge he is posed with.

In terms of the bumper winner Fayonagh, one could run out of superlatives to describe the manner in which she managed to come from last to deny the gallant Debuchet. Her switch to hurdling is eagerly awaited.

Surely not even the wildest optimist could have foreseen what the future held for Elliott when Silver Birch, his first Festival runner, took second in the cross country race 10 years ago.

Jessie’s got Power

Lastly, it was a landmark afternoon for Jessica Harrington whose triumph with Supasundae makes her the most successful female trainer in the meeting’s history.

Afterwards Robbie Power reflected that Bostons Angel in the 2011 RSA seemed like a long time ago but one got the impression though that the gap between the rider’s second and third winners at the meeting wouldn’t be at all as long.