King Turgeon surges up the Cheltenham hill for Pipe and Tudor

King Turgeon bagged his second big prize of the season when rallying gamely in the Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Coming Soon Handicap Chase at Cheltenham.

The David Pipe-trained grey already had a victory over the Grand National fences to his name this season in the Grand Sefton.

Just like at Aintree, Jack Tudor made most of the running but with three furlongs to go he was headed, this time by both Our Power and the favourite, Chianti Classico.

It was Kim Bailey’s Festival winner who led into the straight under his new jockey Ciaran Gethings, but Our Power was pestering him and a few lengths down Tudor had pulled King Turgeon (9-4) wide for another crack.

He began to stay on powerfully up the hill and he ended up running out a convincing three-length winner, with Our Power edging top-weight Chianti Classico for second.

Connections of the winner may not now be too concerned that their initial target, the Becher Chase at Aintree last weekend, was abandoned due to Storm Darragh.

Paddy Power and Betfair cut the winner to 33-1 from 50s for the Grand National.

Pipe said: “That was fantastic, horse and jockey were very good. He’s put in a career-best there. He’s only six, he’s by Turgeon and they’re slow to come to hand. It’s fantastic for the owners and our yard.

“The couple of mistakes he made we probably didn’t expect, but it probably helped him a bit. We let the others get on with it, it’s a galloping track and I thought the ground was riding slow enough.

“He’s battled on, he’s obviously matured again through the summer. He’s improving at a rate of knots.

“He’s always been a very good jumper and my plan was to win the Grand Sefton at Aintree, which he did, and everything after that was a bonus.

“We’re going to have to look at different plans again, he’s going to go up in the weights. He could be a Grand National horse one day.

“It’s great for Pond House, that’s the bottom line. It’s difficult to win here.

“It’s lovely to have some young horses come through, the hard work is done by the team back at the yard and this is for everyone.”

There was a moment of worry for Chianti Classico after the race when Gethings dismounted and walked back to the weighing room on his own.

Bailey said: “I haven’t spoken to anybody yet, my travelling head girl is in the stables.

“He’s lame behind and is not weight bearing, so we have to wait and see.”

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