Racing: McBride skips clear of mayhem

Cheltenham countdown: Johnson eyes Festival options after hat-trick in Kempton feature

Richard Johnson continued his monopoly of the Racing Post Chase with a straightforward victory here yesterday on Gunther McBride, the well-backed second favourite. It was the jockey's third successive victory in the Grade Three three-miler, after Gloria Victis in 2000 and Young Spartacus last year and, in as far as riding over 19 fences in an apparently competitive field of 14 round a sharp track can be, more or less incident-free.

Johnson kept the little Philip Hobbs-trained seven-year-old, who had won over the course and distance just 26 days previously, close to the brisk gallop set by Tremallt for the first lap, took the lead four fences from home and scampered up the straight 17 lengths ahead of 25-1 shot Eau de Cologne, who pipped Mr Baxter Basics by a short-head.

But if the race was smooth sailing for the winner, he left a fair degree of mayhem in his wake. A stirrup leather on Luzcadou's saddle broke when he clouted the first ditch, giving JP McNamara no chance of maintaining the partnership. Occold, who had got loose before the pre-race parade and worked himself into a state of nerves, was pulled up, tailed off, after the seventh fence. After the next, Red Striker went so lame that his rider, Richard Guest, feared that he had broken a leg and dragged him to a halt, though happily the horse had merely knocked a nerve and was sound shortly afterwards. The 7-2 favourite, Lord of the River, was running a fine race in the van on his first outing for 1,074 days when two clumsy jumps in the back straight knocked the stuffing from him.

In the end, only half the field completed, with Dulas Bay, Lord Of The River, Tremallt and Dark Stranger chasing home the principals.

Gunther McBride, who was backed from 16-1 earlier in the week and was available at 8-1 yesterday morning, was aided in his efforts by Luzcadou, who kept going after dumping McNamara and accompanied the winner up the run-in. "Mine was beginning to idle out there in front on his own," said Johnson, whose rehabilitation is continuing apace after his three months off with a broken leg, "but the loose horse helped him all the way up the straight, giving him something to race against."

The consensus was that, in terms of quality, it was not an edition of the race that took much winning. Gunther McBride, officially the worst horse in the race with his allotted 10st 3lb, was given the go-ahead to take part only after the weights rose enough to allow him to run off his true handicap mark.

"It was only after he won here I entered him," said Hobbs. "It really was a last-minute thing, not really a serious thought, and, if he had been out of the handicap, I don't think he would have run. But he does stay and jump very well, as he showed." The gelding's owner, Mike Tuckey, skiing in Courcheval, was not present to witness the collection of the £52,200 prize that his trainer's after-thought had garnered.

Perhaps appropriately during the Winter Olympics, Hobbs was sporting a black eye, the result of some injudicious sliding on the slopes in the French resort last week. And, if the analogy is continued, Gunther McBride's short bob-tail, the result of its being gnawed by calves at grass last summer, resembled nothing more than a curling broom.

The diminutive bay, who stands barely 16 hands, holds two entries at the Cheltenham Festival, the William Hill and Kim Muir Chases. Johnson is hoping that connections opt for the former, as the latter is confined to amateur riders.

The Adonis Hurdle is usually a reasonable guide to the Triumph Hurdle at the Festival and yesterday it was the Jonjo O'Neill-trained Giocomo who nailed his colours to the mast with a two-and-a-half-length success, but the connections of the two who followed him home, Sud Bleu and the French raider, Tempo d'Or, were equally satisfied. Anyone considering a bet on the Triumph should probably approach Messrs Ladbrokes, who go 14-1 the field.

Galileo is also heading for the Cotswolds – not the brilliant dual Derby winner, of course, but a Classic winner nonetheless. The Polish-bred six-year-old of that name, a St Leger hero in his native land, is Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle-bound after a stylish 10-length victory in the Manor Novices' Hurdle.

Desert Mountain earned his ticket to the Queen Mother Champion Chase with an easy second successive victory in the Emblem Chase. Turning into the straight, Joe Tizzard was sitting up like a hussar with his partner cantering all over his two rivals, and a fine leap at the last left Ichi Beau trailing five lengths in his wake.

Tizzard will maintain his partnership with the white-faced bay in the Champion Chase, a race in which trainer Paul Nicholls will be mob-handed. Timmy Murphy will ride Rockforce, Ruby Walsh Fadalko and Mick Fitzgerald Cenkos. "I'm not sure if any of them are good enough to win," said their trainer, "but they all deserve to run and, if you throw enough mud, some might stick."

Golden Goal has proved himself one of the best of the first-season chasing brigade, but even after adding the Grade Two Pendil Novices' Chase to his Grade One victory at Sandown three weeks previously, he will skip the Festival in favour of Aintree.