Wahiba Sands waved goodbye to hurdling with a victory in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Ascot Hurdle yesterday and in doing so completed yet another century of winners for jockey Tony McCoy.
Setting off at surprisingly charitable odds of 5 to 4, the Pharly gelding responded to McCoy when it looked for just a moment as though the stride was beginning to shorten towards the end of the two-and-a-half mile event.
In the end, the six-length success over Count Campioni delighted trainer Martin Pipe who now looks forward to the next stage of the six-year-old's career.
"We schooled him over fences two days ago and I was a bit worried about putting him back over hurdles," admitted the trainer. "The plan is to go chasing now although we'll see how he comes out of this race before we decide where."
Pipe paid tribute to his stable jockey who was completing his fifth century. "He's absolutely brilliant, isn't he?" he added. "I just asked him just to go out in second or third early on but I don't really need to instruct him, I can just leave it up to him." McCoy himself paid tribute to Wahiba Sands, who received a 6 to 1 quote for the Arkle Chase from Coral. "It was great to get a 100 on such a good horse," he said, as he prepared to launch his bid to become only the fifth jumps jockey in history behind Stan Mellor, John Francome, Peter Scudamore and Richard Dunwoody to reach the 1,000winner total. McCoy needs just 23 winners to achieve the feat.
Mick Fitzgerald was another jockey to shine yesterday with a superb 39 to 1 hat-trick completed by Get Real, the popular 4 to 6 favourite of the LG Electronics Handicap Chase.
Fitzgerald took the giant eight-year-old into the front rank early and powered to a five-length verdict over Dantes Cavalier.
"He's as big as you'll ever see and as big as any we've ever trained," said winning trainer Nicky Henderson. "He uses his weight well too but he is unable to jump left handed."
With that in mind Henderson issued a warning to Cheltenham Festival backers. "I see one of the bookmakers still has him in the list for the Queen Mother Champion Chase but I can quite categorically state he will never race left handed again. There is no way he will be entered for the Queen Mother."
Fitzgerald's treble was initiated by Galapiat Du Mesnil who gained a thrilling three-quarter length verdict over Brushfire.
Winning trainer Paul Nicholls admitted he fancied the five-year-old in the extended three-mile event. "I gave him a squeak as I thought he ran well at Worcester on ground which would have been soft enough," Nicholls said.
The well-backed Pembroke Square (4 to 1 to 3 to 1) was a seven-length winner of the Betterware `National Hunt' Novices' Hurdle for Fitzgerald. The Tenby gelding got the better of the odds-on Antique Gold, ridden by McCoy.
