REPORT FROM CHELTENHAM: IT WAS not exactly breaking news to see the undisputed master of the cross-country races Enda Bolger saddle a one-two in the Glenfarclas-sponsored event at Cheltenham yesterday.

Dual Festival winner Garde Champetre, the 4 to 6 favourite under Nina Carberry, did not let down his fans and is beginning to join Bolger and owner JP McManus’s Spot Thedifference as a legend around this unusual course.

Carberry exuded confidence, only letting him go as they swept for the finish and they cruised to a cosy length and three-quarters victory over Heads Onthe Ground.

“Spot won seven times around here, and that’s this fellow’s fourth,” said Bolger. “Nina is the key to him. Heads did us proud too and he could come back for the race here at the December meeting with L’Ami.

“I don’t know if Garde Champetre would run there under top-weight.”

McManus said: “Nina gave him a great old drive around there and I hoped she would keep holding on to him. The longer you hold on to him the better he is so I hoped she wouldn’t get there too soon as he idles.

“Both him and Spot Thedifference have been great horses for me and I wouldn’t want to compare them. I enjoyed Spot and I am now enjoying him.”

Henry de Bromhead said of the third-placed Sizing Australia: “He got a lovely run around there and really enjoyed himself. I hoped we might have ended Enda’s domination but in the end we couldn’t even split his two runners!

“I think we will keep him to the cross-country races and come back here next month and again in March. There is so much fun to be had at the big Festival meetings with these races.”

De Bromhead had better luck when Loosen My Load repelled the late challenge of fellow Irish raider Some Present to land the Grade Two Sharp Novices’ Hurdle.

The 5 to 2 chance was positioned close to the pace throughout under Andrew Lynch and took up the running from William Hogarth running down the hill.

The five-year-old kicked a couple of lengths clear turning for home and although Some Present came at him hard on the run to the line, Loosen My Load kept up the gallop to score by half a length.

Paddy Power gave the winner a 20 to 1 quote for next year’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle back at Prestbury Park.

De Bromhead said: “I suppose you’d love to come back for the Supreme in the spring. He has been in a while now – he won his bumper on quick ground in June – so it’s likely we might give him a winter break and then bring him back for the spring.

“He might go better in a quicker-run race, he has stacks of stamina. He could be anything – he’s a machine – and the horse he beat is a very good one too.”

Nigel Twiston-Davies enjoyed the perfect start to the Cheltenham Open meeting as he gave his son, Sam, the leg-up aboard opening-race winner Razor Royale. Twiston-Davies jnr gave a most assured ride aboard the 12 to 1 shot in The Irish Times Amateur Riders’ Handicap Chase.

Razor Royale swept into the lead on the long sweep for home and was unchallenged from then on, with The Sawyer finishing 23 lengths adrift in second.

The trainer said: “He’s quite a quirky horse but if you go back to his hurdles form and his rating, he had a very good chance and was definitely right. I am very proud of Sam, who has been placed in the Foxhunter here before.”