Haslam enjoys success at Cheltenham

Trainer Pat Haslam landed a double with King Revo and You're Special at Cheltenham today to achieve the notable feat of sending…

Trainer Pat Haslam landed a double with King Revo and You're Special at Cheltenham today to achieve the notable feat of sending out a winner at all 59 British racecourses.

King Revo, sent off at 9-2, stayed on well under Tony McCoy to defy top weight in the CFR Group (Electrical Services) Handicap Hurdle.

Then You're Special (100-30) gave Alan O'Keeffe a first success at the home of jump racing in the Institute Of Directors Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Chase.

"We had a winner at Taunton last month, then Sandown the other day and now that's the full house," said Haslam's wife Anne. "Patrick is probably at a bit of an advantage to some trainers as he has trained in Lambourn, Newmarket and now in Middleham, which has enabled him to have runners nearly everywhere fairly easily.

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"But I still think it is some feat and I wouldn't think many other trainers have done the same."

Spot Thedifference booked his ticket to the Cheltenham Festival with a fine front-running performance over the cross country course in the Sporting Index Handicap Chase.

Following up a success last month over the unique obstacles, the 4-1 joint-favourite made every yard under regular rider JT McNamara to beat French Executive by four lengths.

"We ran him here last time to see how he handled the fences with an eye to bringing him back in March, but then when we saw this race too we thought we might as well give it a go," said winning trainer Enda Bolger.  "I was particularly pleased to see him to do it the other way, from the front, and John said that he was really enjoying himself out there.

"We'll probably give him a little run over hurdles before coming back here and then look at the La Touche Cup at Punchestown, which he won last year."

Martin Pipe, who landed the big race with Therealbandit, intiated a double with the shock success of Quick, who put his usual front-running tactics to good use in the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle (Qualifier).

Fired into the lead as soon as the starting tapes went up, Quick was soon racing some 25 lengths clear of the chasing pack under Tom Malone and the 50-1 chance had extended his advantage with a mile left to run of the three-mile contest.

Predictably the petrol began to run out in the closing stages, but the four-year-old had already done enough and scored by 17 lengths from Attorney General.

"I turned to someone else at halfway and said `They won't get to him, you know'," said Pipe, who saddled seven runners in the race.   "He wouldn't have been at the top of my list, but Tom was brilliant on him at the start."

With Pipe's winning riders - Timmy Murphy was the other - sharing the same initials, Pipe was able to quip: "It's been two great rides from 'TJM' today!"

Chilling Place maintained his unbeaten record with a gritty performance to take the opener.   Sent off the 2-5 favourite, the Philip Hobbs-trained five-year-old was challenged and headed on the home turn by outsider Good Citizen in the DBS Buy at Tonight's Breeze-Up Sales EBF `NH' Novices' Hurdle (Qualifier).

But Richard Johnson stoked up the winner, who rallied bravely to regain the advantage and score by a length and a quarter from the staying-on Va Vavoom, who denied Good Citizen for second by a short head.

Cornish Rebel (8-11) was the second odds-on favourite to oblige for punters when maintaining his 100 per cent record over fences in the Ian Williams' Owners Novices' Chase.

The Paul Nicholls-trained full-brother to Best Mate never finds much off the bridle, but once brought to the front after the final fence by Ruby Walsh he did enough to hold the persistent challenge of All In The Stars by a neck.