Champion Chase ReportNewmill managed to wrestle the Queen Mother Champion Chase crown from Moscow Flyer yesterday but even that spectacular feat didn't result in any loosening of the old champion's grip on the public imagination.

It's an unfair fact of life that Joe Public can sometimes take time to warm to the new boy on the block. Never was the point better illustrated than after Newmill's pillar to post nine-length demolition of Fota Island and the 50 to 1 outsider Mister McGoldrick.

As the winner returned to a generous if relatively muted reception, the unsaddling area for the unplaced horses, bitterly christened the "long face" parade ring, was mobbed by a media pack eager to find out about Moscow Flyer.

Rarely if ever can a fifth-placed runner have received such attention. But then Moscow Flyer is a pretty rare case, and he'd just taken part in a dramatic swansong that came perilously close to disaster.

Only half the 12-strong field managed to finish and the main fireworks came at the third fence when the favourite Kauto Star fell, brought down Dempsey, and sent Barry Geraghty into scramble mode on board Moscow Flyer.

Somehow the old boy fiddled his way to survival but afterwards he was always struggling to recover the ground. In the circumstances he did well to finish just off the placed horses in fifth as only Mister McGoldrick prevented the ultimate Irish clean sweep.

"I thought he was gone," admitted Jessica Harrington as Moscow stamped sweatily around here and the heaving media pack.

"He was lucky to survive. He tanked to the first three but after the incident he was always hard pressed to get his position back. But his heart is still there. He kept going."

The big question though was if Moscow Flyer's career would keep going too. After the carnage that had just occurred out on the track it would be nice to think it wasn't just hunger for a line that had the parasitic press pressing even closer as Harrington consulted with owner Brian Kearney. The consultation took less than a minute.

Harrington turned and said in a stage whisper: "He's not racing again." Maybe it's fanciful but there was general relief at the announcement.

"He'll get the retirement he deserves," announced Kearney. "The dream is finished but it was a great dream while it lasted. It's been a great eight years."

Over such a long time familiarity helped gather the widespread affection so evident for Moscow Flyer and in the years ahead the same may yet happen for Newmill. But yesterday there was a struggle to come to terms with a new era.

Newmill's trainer John Murphy stood in the middle of it all and did a fair impression of a man who's been used to such occasions all his career. But this was very much virgin territory for the 44-year-old based near Innishannon in Co Cork.

He had only ever sent a handful of horses to Cheltenham before from his small yard and never come close to winning. However, last year's transfer of Newmill, who mixed it with the best hurdlers earlier in the season, from Thomas O'Leary's yard just 20 miles away in Clonakilty has opened up a new world.

"I decided to go for this race rather than the Champion Hurdle but if we'd met Brave Inca and Macs Joy again he would be a totally different horse. We have been building his confidence but I've no regrets. It's not better than this," said Murphy, who was full or praise for the 22-year-old jockey Andrew McNamara.

"He's a top-class jockey, out of the top drawer," he said of one of the tallest riders in the weigh room.

McNamara was still in nappies when his father, Andrew snr, won the 1985 Arkle with Boreen Prince but he too greeted this career-defining success with an impressive sangfroid.

"We were quietly confident. I heard a lot of noise behind me but I wasn't sure what was going on," McNamara said.

"He took a blow or two but got his breath back coming down the hill and really started to travel. I looked before the last and saw we had them. I could feel the buzz coming up the hill."

No doubt the bookmakers, delighted with the 16 to 1 winning SP, felt it too and they quickly made the Cork horse a 10 to 1 shot to repeat the feat next year.

By then though Newmill may well have established a considerable travelling fan club of his own.