Altior joins the greats of chasing
ALTIOR landed the £150,000 Betfair Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown yesterday with a performance as polished as it was brilliant to surely settle any doubts that he is the best steeplechaser currently in training.
Nico de Boinville’s mount pulled four lengths clear of runner-up Un De Sceaux, a nine-time grade one winner and the 2016 Tingle Creek champion, after the pair had jumped the last fence upsides.
But the margin of victory bore no resemblance to Altior’s superiority.
On the one afternoon where Sandown always comes alive as a track, the crowd roared the 8-13 favourite home as he joined the list of greats who have won this race including Desert Orchid, Kauto Star, Moscow Flyer and former Nicky Henderson-trained stablemate Sprinter Sacre.
Only four had lined up for the race, but all were legitimate contenders and Ruby Walsh on Un De Sceaux set a searching pace when swapping the early lead with eventual third Saint Calvados. But De Boinville said he felt the race was in the bag jumping the famous three railway fences at the end of the Sandown back straight.
The jockey said: ‘Ruby went out and made it a true championship pace. It was stronger than I anticipated. On good ground, that would have been a good gallop.
‘That really sorted us out and all credit to Un De Sceaux for keeping going. It was some performance from him. It set up the race nicely for us. We always seem to have that kick at the end and when you reach a hill in that ground he goes into overdrive.’
Altior’s winning sequence extends to 15 races and he has not been beaten since running in a National Hunt Flat race in April 2015.
He holds an entry for the threemile King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day but it seems certain he will stick to two miles and head for the Desert Orchid Chase at that track 24 hours later. Henderson, who had been worried about the soft ground, said: ‘Ruby made it as tough as he could but this is an amazing horse and he couldn’t make it too tough for him.
‘That was special, I think that was really testing him today and if he was going to get beaten it would have been today.
‘When you have genuine championship horses it is great people appreciate them but it does make you feel pressure. They were four very good horses in horrible ground and they’ve all run their best.’
Altior is odds-on to win a second Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March.
Meanwhile, Walk In The Mill, a late withdrawal from last season’s Grand National when he went lame, has that race as his target after victory in the Becher Chase at Aintree for trainer Robert Walford and jockey James Best.