Rachael Blackmore became the first female rider to win the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup as A Plus Tard ran away with the 2022 renewal.
Always travelling strongly, there was a moment of concern turning in as she was caught in behind horses as stablemate and last year's winner Minella Indo set sail for home.
However between the final two fences it was clear she had him covered, alongside jumping the last and powering clear to score by 15 lengths.
It was a victory that meant trainer Henry De Bromhead completed the Champion Hurdle - Gold Cup double for the second successive season.
Protektorat (10/1) fared best of the British when edging out Galvin for third.
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Blackmore told ITV Racing: “I just can’t believe it. I’m so lucky to be getting to ride all these kind of horses. You can’t do this without the horses and being attached to Henry’s yard is just absolutely phenomenal. To give me this horse is unbelievable I don’t know what to say. I’ve had so many special days. I wouldn’t swap the Grand National for anything but this is the Gold Cup. I wish I had something better to say right now. I just can’t.
“You have all these plans about how things are going to work out. Racing doesn’t let that happen all the time and for some reason it’s happened to me today. I just can’t explain how lucky I feel.”
Richard Thompson, of winningowners Cheveley Park Stud, said: “We’ve been talking about this moment, and it’s happened. It’s absolutely fantastic to win the Gold Cup. Incredible. My father would have loved it, he watched the Gold Cup for many years and to actually win it is incredible. I can’t even speak. I did feel she was a bit far back, but I knew she had a gameplan – she has totally delivered. What a day for racing.”
De Bromhead said: “The class of him there – he was so impressive and Indo ran an absolute blinder as well, he really did. He was brilliant as well. It’s incredible stuff. Rachael was brilliant on him. Rachael was so brave, the way she went about it, it was brilliant.
“She was really brave. I’ve kind of got to that stage that if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. They both got a lovely passage. Robbie (Power) was brilliant on Indo and Rachael amazing on A Plus Tard. It definitely does (feel different this year), just the crowds looking here at the stand – it’s just incredible. This is what it’s all about. It was amazing to win it last year, but it’s triple amazing this year with all the people here.”
🏆 The history-maker returns to the Coliseum as a Gold Cup champion!
— Sporting Life Racing (@SportingLife) March 18, 2022
👏 @rachaelblackmor pic.twitter.com/qnAUFibQco
🏆🏆 Rachael Blackmore is the first jockey - male or female - to get her hands on the Champion Hurdle trophy and Gold Cup at the same Cheltenham Festival since Sir AP McCoy back in 1997!
— Sporting Life Racing (@SportingLife) March 18, 2022
Only two other jockeys have achieved this feat: Fred Winter in 1961 & Norman Williamson 1995 pic.twitter.com/OxKcNYhRh4
Timeform view: David Cleary
First thought – how on earth did A Plus Tard win the Cheltenham Gold Cup by 15 lengths, the widest winning margin since Master Oats ploughed through the mud to win in the 'nineties?
Had A Plus Tard fallen three out, you wouldn't have thought he would win; two out, in with a chance as he went second after getting held up in traffic; but even at the last, as he went to the front, such a margin seemed scarcely credible.
Abundant stamina was clearly a factor, but in an open race on paper and one that saw the majority still in with a chance at the third-last, a runaway scorer wasn't in the script. A Plus Tard had won the Betfair Chase by even further in the autumn, again strong at the finish.
Clearly that form can be rated more highly than it has been and this suggests there is, after all, a clear leader among the staying chasers, this probably the best performance in the race since Don Cossack in 2016.
Of the rest, Minella Indo looked to have made a race-winning move turning in and kept on for second but he had no answer to his stable-companion up the run-in. He's run creditably, as has Protektorat, a length better for a blunder at the last.
Galvin lacked pace when it mattered. Disappointments were Chantry House, who was never going and pulled up after a blunder six out, and Tornado Flyer, who turned in a sloppy round of jumping and was always out the back.
