THE FESTIVAL 2017 MEDIA GUIDE

The only horse since to have won
three different races at successive
Cheltenham Festivals has been Bob’s
Worth (Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle,
RSA Chase, Timico Cheltenham
Gold Cup).
Badsworth Boy came to his first
Champion Chase under the radar; he
had won all four of his lead-up races,
but they had been lesser contests and
his stablemate Rathgorman (1982), the
reigning two-mile champion, started
favourite to do the double.
And despite a spectacular victory by
the widest margin recorded in the race
– a distance – Badsworth Boy left the
1983 meeting rather under the radar as
well, for the following day five other of
Michael Dickinson’s charges took the
first five places in the Gold Cup.
Badsworth Boy’s second victory was
not quite as spectacular as his first,
in which he engaged overdrive at
half-way and cruised home on the
bridle, but he still won unchallenged
by 10 lengths. By the time of his third,
he was feeling the effects of the
arthritis and muscular problems that
eventually ended his career and his
presence in the field at all was a tribute
to the team at Poplar House, where
Dickinson’s mother Monica had taken
over as trainer from her son Michael.
He again won by 10 lengths but he may
have been lucky, for the 4/6 favourite
Bobsline was travelling easily when he
came down three out.
The Jessica Harrington-trained Moscow
Flyer was fast and brave through the
air – sometimes too brave; even at
his peak he would regularly unseat
Barry Geraghty - with an indomitable
competitive spirit and it is tribute to
him that his rider took some time to
acknowledge that Sprinter Sacre might
be better.
Moscow Flyer was 11 when he saw off
Well Chief in 2005 (only Skymas, 12 for
his second victory, was older), the last
of his 26 victories. In retirement, he had
a success in the show ring in Racehorse
To Riding Horse Classes.
Master Minded, trained by Paul
Nicholls, became the first five-yearold
to win when he made the previous
year’s winner Voy Por Ustedes look
ordinary on only his fourth chase in
Britain after his transfer from France.
He powered clear from two out and the
gap between them on the run-in kept
extending, despite his being allowed
to coast the last few strides and the
runner-up being strongly ridden.
Master Minded won by 19 lengths in
2008, and by a more workmanlike
seven the following year.
Sprinter Sacre produced an
extraordinary 19-length romp in
2013 as he ran away from previous
champion Sizing Europe, part of a
sequence of 10 victories that included
seven Grade Ones (he won the Racing
Post Arkle Trophy with what Barry
Geraghty described as a schooling
round) and earned a Timeform rating
of 192, the highest ever recorded by
the annual since the first publication
of its Jumping edition in 1975-76. An
intermittent cardiac problem brought
the imposing gelding’s progress to a
halt and he missed the 2014 renewal.
Jockey Barry Geraghty on Moscow
Flyer after winning the Queen Mother
Champion Chase
Others to have taken the breath away
include Flyingbolt’s predecessor in the
race, Dunkirk (1965), Moscow Fyler
(2003 & 2005), Master Minded (2008-
09) and Sprinter Sacre (2013 & 2016).
Dunkirk was a bold-jumping trailblazer
and a two-miler pure and simple, and
treated his rivals with usual contempt
in the Champion Chase, winning
unchallenged by 20 lengths.
Cheltenham Media Guide 2017
Moscow Flyer, whose victories in 2003
and 2005 came either side of one for
the Paul Nicholls-trained Azertyuiop,
one of his great rivals in a vintage twomile
era that also included Well Chief
and Flagship Uberalles.
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