Racing: Casey claims victory in battle Royal

Hennessy Gold Cup: Reformed jumper enters National picture after justifying trainer's faith

How typical of the Irish to wait 22 years for a winner and then pop in one in the most fiercely contested Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup in memory. As a sense of security goes, this was almost silicone in its falseness for the British contingent as the gap that spread back to Bright Highway in 1980 was finally filled on one of those perfect National Hunt afternoons here.

It was typical also that the Irish representative in the winner's enclosure was the one everyone had overlooked, Be My Royal. But then you did not have to be the fiercest patriot to steer clear of Willie Mullins' eight-year-old, a second-season chaser who was not only 9lb out of the handicap but who had also managed to complete just one of his starts in his supposedly formative season over the bigger obstacles.

With 25 of the top staying handicap chasers – and a handful who could be legitimately insulted by such a description – setting out at a breakneck pace into the lifeless Berkshire mud, jumping was always going to be at a premium and it was Noel Meade's more fancied Irish participant, Harbour Pilot, who came to the last surrounded on all sides but seemingly needing only a decent leap to end the Emerald void in the trophy room.

Then came the Pilot error – a fence-crashing jump that did everything to upend the seven-year-old and broke as many twigs as punters' hearts – that put paid to that eventuality and it was left to Be My Royal, a 33-1 afterthought, to deny Gingembre by half a length. It was another length and a half back to the shaking head of Paul Carberry, speculating what might have been, on Harbour Pilot in third, with another two lengths back to the equally luckless Whitenzo, who had whacked the fourth-last when cruising.

For Mullins the victory was not as unexpected as many believed. Forget the fact that Be My Royal had crossed the finishing line in only four of his 12 outings over fences before yesterday and on this season's bare form, three wins from four, David Casey's mount was not without chances.

"Only that we were 9lb wrong worried me, his jumping never did," said Mullins after saddling his first Hennessy winner with his first runner in the race. "God knows what we were doing wrong last year, but we got it right in the summer. We didn't do anything different with schooling or anything. In fact, we got four or five people to school him – people who didn't know better, you could say – and we decided to let him have his own head and get his own confidence."

It was bucket loads of this particular virtue in the animal underneath him that allowed Casey to give Be My Royal a breather between the last two fences before he made his perfectly timed challenge on the inside at the final fence. "I knew he had a featherweight and I knew he would stay, so I just picked my moment and went for it," said the jockey. "I know it's hard to believe, if you look at the letters rather than the figures, but he has always been a good jumper. All options are open for him now."

And they have also opened up for Casey, a young jockey who was expected to be the next big thing himself when he came over to Britain to ride for Oliver Sherwood a couple of years ago. That particular sojourn ended under a cloud after Casey dropped his hands on what had looked a stone-cold winner one afternoon at Kempton and he returned home to "a few good offers. And I'm bloody glad I did now," he added.

What the future holds for Casey, and indeed Be My Royal, is in the lap of the National Hunt gods, but Mullins for one was not getting carried away at seeing the colours of his stable favourite, Florida Pearl, passing the winning post yesterday. The scarlet red silks of Violet O'Leary may adorn both but the similarity stops there. "This is just a good handicapper and it's a whole ball different game to Florida Pearl," said Mullins. "I hope that maybe he has got an Irish National in him and, who knows, maybe one at Aintree as well."

However, it may be that the runner-up, Gingembre, will be most at home over the Grand National fences. Lavinia Taylor's eight-year-old was conceding the winner a stone and his jockey, Andrew Thornton, enthused: "Now we know that we've got a serious horse to work with." Corals agreed, cutting Gingembre to 16-1 for the Liverpool showpiece.

The bookies were also forced to get their rubbers out to alter the price of Bacchanal to 7-1 for the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day. Nicky Henderson had only intended to give Bacchanal a spin over hurdles in the Grade Two contest to freshen him up, but so easily did Mick Fitzgerald's mount account for some of the best stayers around that the 10-1 for the King George was cut rather sharpish.