Pipe Lands Paddy Power Gold Cup With Great Endeavour

The Pipe family tradition of success in the Paddy Power Gold Cup continued at Cheltenham on Saturday when son, David, saddled Great Endeavour to victory in the competitive Grade Three event to add to his father Martin’s eight other wins in the race.

The Paddy Power Gold Cup of course is the feature race of the three day Cheltenham Open Meeting which has gained a reputation of consistently produced top quality winners. Those winners include 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Imperial Commander as well as multiple Grade One winners, Old Vic and Exotic Dancer. Then of course there is Long Run, who although he only came third in this race 12 months ago, went on to win the King George Chase at Kempton and the Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

It is unlikely that Great Endeavour could deliver such prestigious prizes but he certainly looks capable of winning another top race this season. He always travelled well in this race in the hands of Timmy Murphy, tracking the front running 7/2 favourite Wishfull Thinking throughout the 2½ mile race before bringing the race under control three fences form home. A quick shake of the reins by Murphy over the third last saw the grey quicken smartly before going on to win by an impressive seven lengths.

It was the second big pay day that the seven year old has given his owner, David Johnson, his first being the Grade Three Byrne Plate at the 2010 Cheltenham Festival. It was also Johnson’s seventh triumph in the race and he will now be hoping that Great Endeavour can go on to Newbury at the end of the month and win the Hennessy Gold Cup, for which he a best price 8/1 second favourite.

Wishfull Thinking, who had been heavily supported in the market beforehand, ran very disappointingly. The attempt by jockey, Richard Johnson to make all, failed miserably and he was a spent force a long way from home. Trainer, Phillip Hobbs said after the race that the eight year old had undergone a breathing operation over the summer which caused him to be “thick in his wind” post race suggesting that he may need a run or two before he is back to his best.

There were many that thought and possibly still do that this horse was a genuine contender for Cheltenham Gold Cup honours this season after impressively winning the Grade 2 Manifesto Chase at the Punchestown Festival back in April. However, based on this performance alone then he looks a long way off target for that race, but the ‘jury should remain out’ until he reappears again, which could be in the Hennessy Gold Cup at the end of the month.

The other entry that was backed consistently all week was the Paul Nicholls trained Mon Parrain, who, despite tracking the leaders ‘early doors’ never really threatened to win. In a similar manner to that he showed when almost stopping in the Topham Chase at Aintree back in April, Mon Parrain weakened a long way from home finishing in seventh place. Jockey Ruby Walsh said that he “lacked the tactical early pace of the race” which meant that Walsh was ‘flat to the boards’ in the early stages and like Wishfull Thinking was a ‘spent force’ by the time they reached the ‘business end’.

Second place in fact went to the Nicky Henderson trained 20/1 shot, Quantitativeeasing, but mistakes at the third and second last fences put paid to any outside chance his late surge had given him. Third place went to Divers from the Ferdy Murphy yard who also went off with odds of 20/1, who stayed on well enough, but clearly did not have enough class to mount a serious challenge. Nonetheless both Quantitativeeasing and Divers will be worth following in some of the lesser handicap chases later this season. Indeed it should not be forgotten that Divers won the Listed Centenary Novices Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March and given that he should improve from this performance, he will be more than capable of repeating that success