Blackmore pulls off shock Champion Chase win with Captain Guinness

Strongly-fancied favourite El Fabiolo was pulled up after a bad mistake jumping the fifth fence as bookmakers breathed a sigh of relief

A fifth-fence capitulation by odds-on favourite El Fabiolo allowed Captain Guinness to steal victory in the Betway Champion Chase and give Henry de Bromhead a fourth win in the race and Rachael Blackmore a first triumph in steeplechasing’s sprint division championship.
The nine-year-old Captain Guinness was running in his 13th Grade One but winning his first. He was diagnosed with heart problems after an appalling run at Leopardstown at Christmas, has been nursed back to health by de Bromhead and, after chasing home El Fabiolo at the Dublin Racing Festival, has been kept fresh by the trainer who previously won this race with Sizing Europe in 2011, Specials Tiara in 2017, Put The Kettle On in 2021.
All four of those winners – none of them shorter than 17-2 – have made the most of short-priced favourites, three of them (Douvan, Chacun Pour Sio and now El Fabiolo) trained by Willie Mullins so, maybe, still in some ways Closutton’s bogey race..
This year’s Champion Chase may have already fallen apart with the defection of a sick Jonbon and the failure of El Fabiolo meant Mullins, in the runner-up spot with second-string Gentleman de Mee, was, for once, congratulating rather than being congratulated.
El Fabiolo never jumped a fence. He nearly fell over looking at the practice fence, walking all over the guard rail, and his jumping was similarly distracted over the first four. At the fifth, his confidence perhaps at a low ebb, he stepped at it, sprawled on his belly and Paul Townend did well to sit on him but immediately pulled him up.
A stunner in the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase! 😲An early mistake from El Fabiolo sees Captain Guinness and @rachaelblackmor take full advantage for @HenrydeBromhead #ITVRacing | #CheltenhamFestival pic.twitter.com/TG6gEt5VQg
“He travelled incredibly and jumped really well,” said Blackmore after her 16th Festival winner. “The hill felt like a long hill today. It’s just incredible. I’m so pleased for his owner, Declan Landy. He’s been knocking on the door in these big races, but this is the biggest of his division, so…oh man, it’s unbelievable.
“Henry’s incredible, all of his team, it’s a pleasure to be riding them. That’s some race to win. I’m so happy to do it on this horse. He always runs his race and he is a really enjoyable horse to ride, enthusiastic. Too enthusiastic here in the Arkle one year and that didn’t go to plan, but his style of running now is a lot more reserved. It’s magic.”
“I knew El Fabiolo was out of the equation but there was still quite a long way to go. It does change your brain a little bit, but you are still just trying to ride from fence to fence. The horse in front (Edwardstone) is such a good jumper, but I’m a good jumper as well and I didn’t want him to have it too easy in front.
“It was a long way up the hill after the last and I was glad when we got to the line. I’m not shocked, because I thought his day would come but at the same time I can’t believe it came today.
“I love this race,” said De Bromhead. “Horses make mistakes because of the speed and you have to jump. Once his heart specialist was happy we took him to Leopardstown and we thought we’d not train him (hard) between then and now and that we’d try and keep him fresh and bullish. He’s been trying to buck Sam, his lad, off for the last two weeks so I’m not so sure Sam was quite so happy with the plan! I thought the horse really deserved a Grade One and of all of them for it to be this one, fantastic.”
Coming here this week De Bromhead described his team as ‘rebuilding’ so to have collected two Grade Ones (he and Blackmore won the Supreme with Slade Steel) before the half time whistle will be better than he expected.