Victorious Big Zeb targets Champion Chase at Cheltenham Festival

When So You Think beat Snow Fairy in the Champion Stakes here in September there were scarcely 8,000 people to watch but it is jumping that brings this historic track to life and the only racecourse in Dublin was jammed to capacity on Tuesday for the second afternoon of the four-day Christmas meeting. Leopardstown at Christmas is not an occasion for corporate hospitality or fashion parades. It is all about the horses and the racing and a celebration of a sport that is still woven tightly into Ireland's national identity. Ruby Walsh, the hero of the King George VI Chase on Kauto Star on Boxing Day, was back home to join the party and rewarded his backers with an 8-1 success on Cass Bligh in a handicap hurdle while Big Zeb, who took the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival for Ireland in 2010, landed some big bets in the Grade One Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase. Big Zeb was one of four Irish horses who were the first four home in last season's Champion Chase, when he was five lengths second to Sizing Europe. He will be an 11-year-old if he returns to this year's Festival in March but showed plenty of spirit to get past Noble Prince, the second-favourite, on the run-in and is now top-priced at 11-2 to reclaim the two-mile championship. "He still has loads of pace," Colm Murphy, Big Zeb's trainer, said. "He still seems to have plenty of his old spark, so I'd imagine we'll go back to the Tied Cottage [at Punchestown next month] and see where we go after that but he seems to be a long way from retirement yet anyway. "He deserves a chance at [the Champion Chase]. He's a different horse this year, seeing him in the parade ring before, he even looks better, his coat is better. He's just a healthier horse, full stop, this year so, if we can get him there in the same shape again, he'll have to trouble the principals over there." Noble Prince's trainer, Paul Nolan, said: "We were beaten by a better horse on the day. The Ryanair Chase is definitely his race at Cheltenham. He probably won't have a run before then." This was a race that stressed the highs and lows of National Hunt racing, as Golden Silver, whose two Grade One victories at Leopardstown included this race two years ago, was killed instantly when he fell at the fifth fence. Paul Townend, his jockey, was stood down for the rest of the day and taken to hospital for x-rays. Townend, who became Ireland's champion jump jockey for the first time last season, had only recently returned to action after a two-week absence with an injured collarbone. Townend's latest injury cost him a Grade One winner half an hour later as Andrew Lynch stepped in to partner Cash And Go for Eddie O'Grady in the Future Champions Novice Hurdle. Cash And Go beat Dylan Ross with Sous Les Cieux, who started the odds-on favourite at 4-9 for Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh, only third after running freely in the early stages. "It's not a big surprise, we were very hopeful," O'Grady said. "It worked out a little bit like we'd hoped and he probably won't run between now and Cheltenham. I suppose I'll put him in both [the Festival's novice hurdles] but the Supreme Novice Hurdle is the one I'd like to go for. You get the easier ground on the Tuesday and I'd say that it would help him. He would go on the fast but I don't think he'd be as effective." Cash And Go is top-priced at 25-1 for the Supreme Novice Hurdle, in a market that is still taking shape, while Sous Les Cieux, who was Mullins's second odds-on loser in a row in this race after the defeat of Zaidpour last year, has been pushed out to the same price having been as short as 8-1 on Tuesday morning. Mullins, who trained Golden Silver, had a miserable afternoon, and also saw Walsh brought down on his runner On His Own, the 7-2 favourite, in the Paddy Power Handicap Chase, the card's most valuable race. The victory went to Cross Appeal, trained by Noel Meade and ridden by Paul Carberry, who kept on well to hold off Treacle in the closing stages and take the first prize of ¤106,000, nearly £95,000.