Betfair Tingle Creek Chase (Grade 1)

THE undoubted highlight on Sandown’s card last Saturday was the Tingle Creek win of Greaneteen for Paul Nicholls and Bryony Frost.

They finished over five lengths ahead of stablemate Hitman (Harry Cobden), with that one edging out Captain Guinness (Henry de Bromhead/Rachael Blackmore) for second.

The winner was very easy to back at 12/1, having finished behind the runner-up in the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter. But he and his rider got a tremendous reception in the winners’ enclosure with calls for three cheers for the winning rider, and cries of “we support you, Bryony” bringing into sharp relief the ecstasy of winning a Grade 1 chase against the odds and the agony of Frost’s then-ongoing case against Robbie Dunne.

That case may well end up with no happy ending, given the scope for collateral damage, but winners are grinners, and Bryony’s smile in the aftermath could have cracked her face.

In a way, the story of the race was the underperformance of both market leaders, with Chacun Pour Soi and Nube Negra palpably below form, and it’s hard to rate the race highly as a result, but this was more about the victory and what that meant to all involved than the absolute merit imbued by ratings analysis.

Chacun Pour Soi made the running and was tracked by Nube Negra in a change of tactics for the Shloer winner, but he made a serious error at the first of the Railway fences.

Although he retained his lead into the straight, he was a beaten horse at the penultimate fence, and was all but pulled up by Patrick Mullins on the flat.

Nube Negra is best delivered late, so sitting on the leader’s tail may not have helped, and the rain had softened the ground for Saturday’s card, but it was hardly very testing, and it’s hard to blame conditions for his failure to match an impressive win at Cheltenham last month. Perhaps he needs to be very fresh, but his 12-length defeat still has to go down as a major disappointment.

Regarding Chacun Pour Soi, rider Patrick Mullins stated: “It felt like Chacun Pour Soi might be feeling something. He didn’t fire today but he pulled up perfectly sound so maybe I’m just imagining it. He didn’t jump like he can. I was surprised he wasn’t attacking his fences.”

Willie Mullins later reported him very sore on his return home, backing up that initial assessment. Hopefully, he won’t be long in recovering.