RACING: Edredon Bleu rolled back the years to give one of his most exhilarating jumping displays and ran out an easy winner of the William Hill Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter yesterday.
Deputising for his stablemate Best Mate in the limited handicap chase, the 10-year-old - sent off at 10 to 1 - was soon dictating affairs under Jim Culloty and sealed victory with a terrific jump at the third-last fence, a leap which effectively ended any hopes that the well-backed evens favourite Seebald had of catching him.
Trainer Henrietta Knight admitted that the performance had brought tears to her eyes and is now set to pursue her plan of stepping Edredon Bleu up in trip with a possible visit to Kempton for the King George VI Chase on St Stephen's Day on the cards.
After Culloty and Edredon Bleu had returned to a hero's welcome, Knight enthused: "I was really moved by that and while Terry is the one who normally cries I confess I was the one who produced the tears today.
"We decided to make sure Edredon Bleu was ready just in case things weren't right for Best Mate and of course we decided to wait for Huntingdon with him. I honestly didn't think he would be able to beat the younger horses like Seebald and Armaturk but Jim said he couldn't remember him jumping as well."
Knight, who was also on the mark with Robber Baron in the novice hurdle, insisted Edredon Bleu and Best Mate would never clash on the racecourse and added: "If the ground came up fast for the King George, Edredon could take over there from Best Mate.
"I thought he might be difficult to win with unless we went further and I was surprised he was able to lead as decisively as he did as nowadays he can get headed early on.
"He had some hard races last season and when I was saddling him up he was sweating and shaking which he doesn't normally do so I was a bit worried he might be thinking about his hard races. I thought we might have come to the end of the road with him. But he loved every moment out there and Jim said he was a pleasure to ride. Don't forget he was giving a lot of weight away today."
Tony McCoy, who had suffered a heavy fall on Sammy Samba in the previous race from which he suffered bruising, looked stunned as he came back after the race and reported to David Pipe, son of Seebald's trainer Martin.
Pipe jnr put forward no excuses for his seven-year-old, who was beaten 10 lengths, saying only: "He ran a fine race in defeat but the winner was exceptional. Seebald made one mistake down the far side but he was bang there turning in only to find Edredon Bleu keeping going when we should have been closing."
Paul Nicholls may now run Armaturk - who was a well-beaten third - in a handicap chase at Cheltenham in a fortnight.
He said: "I was a little disappointed but then again he improved on his comeback outing last season and when you meet Edredon Bleu in this kind of form he can soon have any horse stone cold."
Robber Baron smoothly landed odds of 4 to 6 in the novices' hurdle with Culloty hardly having to move a muscle to shake off newcomer Whispering John.
Knight believes Robber Baron was a sick horse for much of last season and commented: "After he got the cough he was never right and it took a long time to bring him back. We'll stay over hurdles to begin with but he'll get further than this and will go chasing in due course."
McCoy bounced back from his reverse on Seebald to land the two-and-a-half-mile handicap chase on Montreal. Shrugging aside the pain he was obviously in, McCoy sent the Pipe-trained Montreal to the front throughout and the combination scored by three and a half lengths from Shareef.
