- Trainer celebrates remarkable 100th winner at festival
- Blackmore makes most of hot favourite’s Champion Chase exit
There have been afternoons at the Cheltenham festival in recent years when it seemed that Willie Mullins had found a way to banish the abiding air of uncertainty that had always been the meeting’s motif in earlier times. Within the first 90 seconds of the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday, however, the script had been read and then rejected as far too predictable, as El Fabiolo, the 2-9 favourite, was pulled up with well over a mile still to run, leaving in tatters countless bets on a Mullins treble in the day’s Grade One events.
Captain Guinness and Rachael Blackmore, who finished nearly 15 lengths behind El Fabiolo last month at Leopardstown, were the pairing to take advantage, finishing one‑and‑a‑half lengths in front of Gentleman De Mee, a stable companion of the odds-on favourite.
Written by Greg Wood at Cheltenham
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/mar/13/willie-mullins-brings-up-cheltenham-festival-century-after-bookies-avoid-huge-payout-horse-racing under the title “Willie Mullins brings up Cheltenham century after bookies avoid huge payout”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
