Cheltenham Festival 2016: Blaklion roars in RSA Chase to restore his trainer’s grin

Within 24 hours, Nigel Twiston-Davies was transformed from Mr Extremely Sad into Mr Deliriously Happy

Sprinter Sacre en route to victory yesterday, to the delight of jockey Nico De Boinville (PA)

On Tuesday night, Nigel Twiston-Davies, having made the short journey home from Cheltenham, sloped off to bed, as miserable, he said, as he had ever been in his life. On Wednesday afternoon, he was back at Prestbury Park skipping around with joy, the most blissful man on the planet.

Cheltenham can do that to you. In as long as it took for Blaklion to make his extra reserves of stamina count in the final lunges of a gruelling RSA Chase, the Cotswolds trainer morphed from Mr Extremely Sad into Mr Deliriously Happy.

And he stayed happy right through to the end of the afternoon when another of his young stars, Ballyandy, nosed out Battleford, one of Willie Mullins’ seven runners, in the Champion Bumper.

Twiston-Davies had told everyone who would listen going into the Festival that his horses would shine this week, especially The New One in the Champion Hurdle. It was, therefore, a juddering blow to morale when that horse was not only mauled by Annie Power but could not even finish in the first three.

“Ah, you all want to talk to me now,” Twiston-Davies opened with a grin. “I was wishing I was dead on Tuesday night. I was inconsolable. I really thought The New One would win and instead I was thinking that all the press who were saying that he was past his best were right.

“And I was worried about the ground drying out for Blaklion because he has won all his chases on soft or heavy ground. But I did have a nagging feeling that, because he’s small, better ground might suit him and it has.”

Blaklion’s jumping, sometimes clever, sometimes bold, was an asset as he stayed in touch when the field quickened down the hill. At first it seemed the market leaders, More Of That and No More Heroes, might have it between them, but when push came to shove up the final, punishing hill it was Blaklion and Mullins’ outsider Shaneshill, finishing runner-up at the Festival for the third year in a row, who came clear.

The winner earned a quote of 16-1 for next year’s Gold Cup, a race won by Twiston-Davies in 2010 with Imperial Commander.

It later transpired that More Of That had broken blood vessels, while No More Heroes suffered a career-threatening tendon injury.

Winning rider Ryan Hatch, unable to claim his 3lb allowance in a race of this status, became Blaklion’s partner only when stepping in for the injured Jamie Moore 15 months ago and has also benefited from the trainer’s son, Sam, being employed as stable jockey to Paul Nicholls.