Mike Vince can still hear the echo from the shocked grandstand after last year's Charlie Hall - will it be more of the same this year?
It’s perhaps not insignificant that Wetherby’s three biggest races are all Chases - this weekend’s bet365 Charlie Hall, the Rowland Meyrick at Christmas and the Towton Novice in February, with a proven record as a Cheltenham trial.
There are 9 fences in a circuit and with two long straights it’s a fair test. Those who have won it and trainers alike - the Charlie Hall Roll of Honour is impressive - the likes of Wayward Lad and See More Business won it twice and in recent years the knowledgeable West Yorkshire crowd have acclaimed the visits of the likes of Cue Card and Bristol de Mai - one of five successes for Nigel Twiston-Davies, to the winners' enclosure.
But just occasionally somebody forgets to read the script and 12 months ago we got a vintage example.
All eyes were on Paul Nicholls’ French-bred Cyrname, who had done for a class field headed by Vindication in 2020, making his comeback and lining up against a rising star in the shape of Dan Skelton’s Shan Blue. He had won the Novice Chase at the meeting a year earlier, claimed the Grade 1 Novice at Kempton over Christmas and ended his season as runner-up in the Group 1 Mildmay Chase at Aintree.
They dominated the market and as the race got under way rank outsider Top Ville Ben made the early running, with Harry Cobden allowing the keen-running Cyrnme to go into the lead half way down the back straight the first time.
A circuit on not much had changed when five out Cyrname was asked to quicken - and Cobden got no response. Harry Skelton seized his opportunity and in a matter of a furlong sent Shan Bleu 15 or more lengths clear with an awesome burst of speed, with Cyrname, on what was to be his last run, labouring.
That was dramatic enough, but there was even more to come as Shan Blue and Harry Skelton, in a different postcode from their rivals, came to grief 3 out - the gasps from the packed stands still echo
The other riders were so far behind they almost needed binoculars to see what had happened - and it fell to Daryl Jacob, riding Fusil Raffles for Nicky Henderson, to come home ahead of Kitty’s Light and Clondaw Castle as the most unlikely of winners.
It would have been a classic ‘what happened next?’ moment for A Question of Sport.
You wonder what the 2022 renewal on Saturday has in store...
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