Racing:Sprinter Sacre emerged clear favourite for the Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham when destroying Peddlers Cross with a thrilling round of jumping in the williamhill.com Novices' Chase at Kempton.
Nicky Henderson has always held the five-year-old in the highest regard, and it was easy to see why following the gelding’s 16-length defeat of odds-on favourite Peddlers Cross.
The ball quickly went into Sprinter Sacre’s court when his rival belted the first. Barry
Geraghty then found himself in front and elected to press on, often getting some spectacular leaps from the free-going Sprinter Sacre.
But, equally, the 11-10 winner was very good when getting in close, as he showed when jumping the final fence off his hocks. Geraghty said: “He was all wrong at the last but was very clever at it. He jumped from fence to fence and is a horse that gets your blood up.
“He’s got the right combination of pace and respect for his fences. He’s one of the best I’ve ever sat on — he is frighteningly good.”
Henderson, who will give Sprinter Sacre one more outing before the Arkle, for which he is now as short as 2-1, said: “As Barry said, he’s frighteningly good. We’ve jumped the first and he (Peddlers Cross) hasn’t and we’ve gone from Plan A to Plan B Barry said that’s about as good as it gets.”
Donald McCain is now considering whether to step Peddlers Cross up in trip, while continuing his career in the novice chase division. He said: “At first I was devastated but I’ve spoken to Jason (Maguire) and he’s made me feel a huge amount better.
“He’s happy, he said he’s learned plenty. He gave the first a good old rub and that gave him a fright and he took a while to warm up after that. I think we have to seriously consider stepping up in trip. He won over two-five as a novice at Cheltenham and two miles around here on this day was sharp enough.
“He’s a neat and clever jumper but he’s not exuberant and it might be that we need to step up and we’ve always thought we may need to, we only dropped back to two because of the Champion Hurdle.
“We always thought we’d have this season over two with a view to stepping up to longer distances next season but we may have to do that sooner. I’ll have a good talk with Tim (Leslie, owner).
“Jason was happy, no excuses, the winner is a very good two-mile chaser — over this trip he might be very special.”