Thomas Crapper eases to Greatwood success at Newbury

Robin Dickin’s horse had only won once in his previous 19 starts over fences but that was also at Newbury and he thrived on his return to the track under Charlie Poste.

Well-handicapped on that previous win, Thomas Crapper jumped and galloped his rivals into the ground with a mistake-free run and he was 20 lengths clear at the line.

Venetia Williams’ Vic De Touzaine chased him home in second with long-time leader Hollywoodien third. O Maonlai, who was travelling well when making a bad blunder at the cross fence, was fourth.

Dan Skelton's 4-1 favourite Oldgrangewood and the Paul Nicholls-trained pair of Vibrato Valtat and More Buck's were all disappointing. 

Dickin was delighted to see his charge land a big prize and could now look to Aintree with Thomas Crapper.

He said: "He has run so many big races. I was worried about the ground today. We decided to go very wide as going out wide, he did find the better ground.

"I don't think he would have run and won like that if he didn't. There are not many jockeys who like that wide route here on the chase course.

"I'm sure he will go up a bit and the Topham would not be out of the question.

"He had a wind op after Ascot as he cut out very rapidly. Horses don't always realise it can happen straight away, it can sometimes take them a few runs before they think 'hey, I can go now'.

"He is such a good horse, how can I be frustrated with him? When my horses run bad races I'm frustrated with myself. It's me letting them down, not them letting me down."