Racing: Banquet to join top table at Cheltenham

If it comes to a brutal slog over terrain that might encourage trench foot then the Cheltenham Gold Cup may well be fought out by Bacchanal and Alexander Banquet.

Both in Newbury's AON Chase on Saturday and yesterday's Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Leopardstown there was no room for prettiness. Only the hardy survived. In Berkshire, Bacchanal may have jumped right at most of his obstacles, but there was a persuasive relentlessness about his galloping. Similarly in Ireland, Alexander Banquet relied on something more than just plain athletic ability as he repelled the sole British challenger, Behrajan.

It was a beast of a day at the Dublin track, rain blown sideways by a horrid wind and ground soft enough to stir. The conditions provoked a near farcical first lap of the feature race, which was conducted at a speed which would have shamed a dressage.

If Rince Ri was pacemaker it was a description which came close to infringing the Trade Descriptions Act. He was, more specifically, the leader, followed by Sackville and Alexander Banquet, with Florida Pearl and Behrajan pulling their heads from side to side at the back in resentment at the funereal progress.

Down the back, for the second time, it all changed. Sackville was the first to be punished by the acceleration, dropping away quickly as the race proper developed.

At the entrance to the straight it looked like a fourth consecutive victory in the race for Florida Pearl, as the favourite swept menacingly around the outside. This master of illusion had another deception for us however as he went from cantering to panting in a matter of strides.

That left Alexander Banquet crashing away at the head of affairs. He remainded resolute as Behrajan, who had been outpaced between the last two fences, came back for some more. A length and a half was the winning distance.

Alexander Banquet is now only just a double-figure price for the Gold Cup on 14 March and the Grand National the following month as the confirmed plan is to attempt the elusive double.

It was compliment enough to Barry Geraghty that it was unimaginable that he was the jockey on his first day back at work after three weeks out of the saddle with a fractured elbow. "I saw Norman [Will-iamson on Behrajan] coming but I was never going to be headed," the winning rider said. "He's very tough and when he saw the other one coming he found more again."

Alexander Banquet himself has not been entirely sound of limb in recent times and has enjoyed just one run since chasing home Florida Pearl in this contest 12 months ago.

"Alexander Banquet deserved to win a race like this," Willie Mullins, the victorious trainer, said. "He was second last year when he was only three-parts ready so he had to have a big chance this year.

"He got a bit of a leg after that and we rested him and that has worked the oracle. This was the first time he has been right since he chipped a bone in his knee behind Barton at Cheltenham over hurdles three years ago.

"But since he was third in the Ericsson here in December he hasn't missed a day and he has been 100 per cent. The Gold Cup has always been his objective and there is a good probability he will go for the National if he comes out of Cheltenham all right. The extra two furlongs and a fast-run race at Cheltenham will suit him."

Both Alexander Banquet and stablemate Florida Pearl ran with their tails tied up and knotted, a technique employed to stop excessive mud being taken on board. While it worked for the winner, the practice seemed to act like a tourniquet on Florida Pearl's bloodflow. He faded fast into fourth.

"Adrian [Maguire] said he didn't handle the ground," Mullins reported. "There is no excuse for him and it was disappointing. But the Gold Cup is still on the agenda and hopefully back on better ground he will be all right."

The gigantic Behrajan was not embarrassed in second and with a more even gallop in the Gold Cup it is not just a madman's suggestion that he could turn the form around with the winner. Certainly his trainer, Henry Daly, is not throwing in the towel. "They quickened away from him and it got a bit tight," he said, "but I was very pleased with that."