L’Eau Du Sud retained his unbeaten record over fences in the Unibet Kingmaker Novices' Chase at Warwick but it wasn’t entirely plain sailing for the 1/5 favourite.
Carrying the silks of the late John Hales, Dan Skelton’s charge looked set for a routine success having seemingly mastered his only serious rival Rubaud jumping the last down the back straight and moving five lengths clear.
However the runner-up, in receipt of five pounds, rallied in the home straight and with his mount having shortened up into the last, Harry Skelton had to get serious with the grey to hold off the renewed challenge by a length.
Sky Bet, Betfair and Paddy Power left L’Eau Du Sud unchanged at 10/1 for the My Pension Expert Arkle at Cheltenham.
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Dan Skelton said: “His jumping is really good, this is an important race and it was even more important today because he was running in John’s colours and that is the Hales first winner since John passed.
“It’s a pretty poignant success given what John meant to our family. They are unbelievable supporters of all horse sports. I’m sure we’ll hear about his life history in the build-up to his funeral.
“He is a really good two-miler. He’s got the speed to jump at that pace and I thought those two went really quick there. He was superior from the back of three out to the last and then he probably got a bit tired and had a bit of a blow, which made it look a bit harder work than it really was.
“That will put him spot on and I’m just really happy with him. He was fit today, there’s room for improvement but I couldn’t have blamed fitness had he got beat.”
Hales’ daughter Lisa shared his love of racing and felt her father would have thoroughly enjoyed L’Eau Du Sud’s game victory.
She said: “The big man is definitely up there watching. Harry gave him a great ride, it’s not been a great week but he’d be very proud.
“I’m so glad we took him to Windsor when Protektorat won (in the Fleur De Lys Chase last month), he was absolutely buzzing all the way home. I’m so glad went for one big last day, you’d have thought we’d won at Cheltenham.
“He’d have loved this today, he loved all the big days, he’s loved having horses with (Sir) Alex (Ferguson) and Ged (Mason) and with Dan, Paul (Nicholls) and Olly (Murphy). He was living his dream.
“He loved all animals, he used to train RAF dogs and we’ve always had dogs, he loved all the horses and I used to have to tell him to be careful all the time but he said they wouldn’t hurt him and they never did!”
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