RACING/NEWBURY REPORT:LONG RUN won his final prep-race for next month's Cheltenham Gold Cup but with a performance that moved bookmakers to lengthen their odds about him repeating last year's success in the Festival race. The fluency of his jumping and the ability of his amateur rider, Sam Waley-Cohen, are talking points among punters once more after he scrambled home by half a length from stablemate Burton Port in the Denman Chase here yesterday.

For both Long Run and Waley-Cohen this was a first success since their Gold Cup triumph, and the rider recognised the importance of bringing his losing run to an end before the Cheltenham Festival. “There’s no question; it’s nice to put that bogey to bed and say, actually, this is the same horse and the same jockey that won [the Gold Cup] last year.

“For the most part, he was as good as you could want him to be,” Waley-Cohen added, though he described Long Run showing “a lack of respect” for the water jump, where he got close to the take-off side, causing an audible intake of breath in the stands.

“He thought, that’s small, I’ll just gallop straight through it.”

In his past five starts, Long Run has won Britain’s two most prestigious steeplechases and been beaten only by Kauto Star, but he has also failed to shake his reputation as an unreliable jumper of fences and he undermined his chances here by going left at the final three obstacles.

It is a puzzle for spectators to know how much responsibility for such errors should be borne by his rider, a highly capable amateur whose talents are tested to the full by such a powerful, occasionally wayward mount.

Both receive regular schooling sessions over show jumping fences from Yogi Breisner, an expert in such matters, and Waley-Cohen expects there will be more of the same before March 16th.

“What we don’t want to do is jump a lot of steeplechase fences because he’s a horse that finds everything easy and the easier he finds it, the less respect he gives it.”

Those who stayed for the final race were rewarded with an inspirational effort from Tony McCoy, driving Shutthefrontdoor to a narrow win just two hours after it seemed he had been hospitalised after Darlan fell in the Betfair Handicap Hurdle.

The cost to the champion jockey was clear as he slid off, rather than dismounting, and walked gingerly back to the weighing room.

“I’m a bit sore,” he said with rueful understatement. Asked where he hurt most, he replied: “All over,” though he seemed almost as pained by the thought that Darlan may have won.