Champion Hurdle
Defending champion Hardy Eustace proved
that his previous victory, at 33/1, was no fluke by justifying 7/4
favouritism, albeit narrowly, at the expense of Harchibald and Brave
Inca, who went down by a neck and the same in a thrilling finish.
However, the race is equally well remembered for the defeat of the
talented, but enigmatic, Harchibald, who was hard on the steel
halfway up the run-in, but found next to nothing when asked for an
effort by jockey Paul Carberry.
Queen Mother Champion Chase
Moscow Flyer, who’d unseated jockey
Barry Geraghty at the fourth last when odds-on favourite to win his
second consecutive Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2004, made amends.
However, it was Well Chief, trained by Martin Pipe and ridden by
Timmy Murphy, rather than the 2004 winner Azertyuiop, who emerged as
his main rival. The pair was involved in a decent battle over the
last three fences, but Moscow Flyer stayed on the stronger to win by
2 lengths, with Azertyuiop, who never really recovered from a blunder
at the water jump, 13 lengths back in third.
Stayers’ Hurdle
Newly sponsored by Ladbrokes and
renamed the World Hurdle, the 2005 renewal represented the second
attempt by Baracouda, the winner in 2002 and 2003, to record a third
victory. Francois Doumen’s 10-year-old was all the rage to do so
but, despite his best efforts under A.P. McCoy, was “run down”
approaching the final flight by the 6-year-old Inglis Drever, trained
by Howard Johnson and ridden by Graham Lee, who went on to win by 3
lengths.
Cheltenham Gold Cup
The 2005 Cheltenham Gold Cup had the
distinction of being the first to be run on a Friday, after an
additional day was added to the Festival programme. In the absence of
defending champion Best Mate, who was withdrawn a week before the
race with a burst blood vessel, Kicking King, trained by Tom Taaffe
in Co. Kildare and ridden by Barry Geraghty, was sent off the
heavily-backed 4/1 favourite. The King George VI Chase winner took a
keen hold, but soon put any stamina doubts to rest, staying on
strongly to beat Take The Stand by 5 lengths with Sir Rembrandt 8
lengths further behind in third.
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