Riders Onthe Storm takes advantage of Cyrname’s fall at last
The £150,000 Betfair Chase at Ascot may have boasted only four runners, but the race in which Riders Onthe Storm ran out a fortunate winner to complete an excellent payday for Nigel Twiston-Davies, proved more dramatic than yesterday’s forecast weather.
The rapidly improving seven-yearold, who is now unbeaten since joining the trainer during the summer, jumped past Cyrname, the top-rated chaser in the country and 4-11 favourite, at the third last and appeared set for a comfortable victory. However, in taking on Cyrname so far out, Riders Onthe Storm had begun to tire and Traffic Fluide was bearing down on him at the last when he fell.
At the same stage, the below-par Cyrname looked set to finish a tired fourth but, possibly distracted by Traffic Fluide’s fall in front of him, he stepped at the fence, took a heavy fall and then lay winded for some time.
“Arguably he was a lucky winner in the end,” admitted Twiston-Davies. “Taking on Cyrname probably tired him out and he was hanging [left], so the Cheltenham way round, and probably better ground; I think we should be a good thing for the Ryanair. We came here expecting to pick up £35,000 for coming second – you don’t expect to beat Cyrname – but we’ve won £85,000 and we’re going home extremely happy.”
Paul Nicholls will now draw stumps on this season for Cyrname. “I don’t think it was the ground though it was the softest he has run on,” he said. “Something’s missing though. People might say it was beating Altior but there’s something missing I can’t put my finger on.”
Colin Tizzard woke up yesterday morning wondering why he was not running Copperhead in a handicap off his current mark, but after winning the Sodexo Reynoldstown Novice Chase by wear down the front-running Lord Du Mesnil. Yala Enki, who is expected to be ridden by yesterday’s jockey Bryony Frost in the Grand National, ran a creditable race with a big weight some 20 lengths behind the winner in third.
With Smooth Stepper not entered for Aintree and Lord Du Mesnil unlikely to take up his entry unless it is heavy, a more eye-catching National trial was Ballyoptic’s convincing win off top weight in the Keltbray Swinley Chase at Ascot, and the first leg of Twiston-Davies’s Ascot double.
He was far from done with when he fell four out in last year’s National. This year, carrying 10st 11lb, he will likely be the mount of Sam Twiston-Davies.