I’ve never had one jump like him, he is simply thrilling to watch. We will have to see how he comes out of this race, and discuss the situation, but perhaps we will go for the proper race, go for glory with Gloria. I think I can say that the Gold Cup is certainly a possibility.”Gloria Victis has been slashed to clear or joint second favourite behind See More Business at 6-1 by the leading bookmaking firms, making the 33-1 taken by Neill yesterday morning look a fairly shrewd move. And such is the spell that Pipe weaves, his horse is as short as 7-1 for the Grand National with the Tote.

Most bookmakers offer 12-1.Seldom can a jockey have had as breathtaking a ride round the flat Sunbury acres as did Johnson. Although this was only Gloria Victis’s fourth run in a chase in Britain, he was already an old hand round the fearsome fences at Auteuil before he joined Pipe last year, and that experience was perhaps evident in his cleverness and scope; short and long at his obstacles came alike.He was particularly extravagant at the final open ditch six fences from home, putting in a leap from outside the wings worthy of that great Kempton exponent Desert Orchid himself. By then, he had burned most of his rivals off the bridle; Brother Of Iris, down from Yorkshire with Gold Cup pretensions, was pulled up seven out and the gallant Macgeorge, who had chased him vainly throughout, came down a fence later. The only one to threaten thereafter was Marlborough but, once Gloria Victis had the final three fences in the home straight in his sights, he found another gear and stopped the clock at six minutes dead, surely an exceptional time for the sticky conditions. Marlborough, receiving 15lb, was ten lengths adrift, with Bouchasson the same distance away third, followed by The Land Agent , last year’s runner-up, and the French raider Djeddah.Johnson’s only regret is that McCoy, whose ultra-competitive spirit would not let him be here yesterday (he spent his unwanted holiday at Steve McManaman’s villa in Spain), will be back in the saddle at Cheltenham. “This horse is very, very good,” he said, “even when he’s long, like he was at that ditch, he loses no time in the air. He’s the sort of horse who does it himself, you’d only upset him by trying to organise him.

The only time he felt novicey was between the fences, he was dossing a bit coming round the home turn. But as soon as he saw the fences he woke up again and was off at them.”Pipe has not yet won a Cheltenham Gold Cup; the best chaser he had trained thus far, Carvill’s Hill, was favourite in 1991, but suffered career-ending injuries in the race.Riding a young chaser on a sharp track is an art form in itself and Mick Fitzgerald produced another masterclass on Serenus in the Pendil Novices’ Chase. The little Flat-bred seven-year-old will never have the scope over the bigger obstacles of some of his specialist jumping cousins, like Gloria Victis, but Fitzgerald drove him at the black birch as if he was on Arkle himself.His tactics kept Serenus in touch and paid particular dividends as he and Richard Johnson, on the favourite Young Spartacus, duelled to the last. As his rival paddled, Johnson sat tight and aimed and Serenus kept going to score a narrow victory to add to his Flat and hurdles successes on the course.

“To ride a small horse so positively and to fire him like he did – you will simply never see better riding in a novice chase than that,” said the trainer Nick Henderson.At Haydock The Last Fling’s front-running demolition of some tough staying chasers in the De Vere Gold Cup took him a few steps up the ante-post betting ladder for both the Gold Cup and the Grand National. He is still one of the Cheltenham outsiders at a top-priced 33-1 with William Hill, but the Sue Smith-trained chestnut’s Aintree claims – for which William Hill offer a best-priced 20-1 – are taken more seriously.. It is appropriate that Steve McNamara cannot seem to get away from the Bradford Bulls, because he never wanted to leave in the first place. It is appropriate that Steve McNamara cannot seem to get away from the Bradford Bulls, because he never wanted to leave in the first place.
McNamara, who captains Wakefield Trinity against the Bulls in the pick of today’s Silk Cut Challenge Cup ties, had four highly successful years at Odsal and admits to having been sorry to pack his bags this winter “I was very disappointed,” he says. “They are the flagship club of Super League – what everyone is aspiring to, on and off the field – and it was great to be part of that set-up.”McNamara bridles at suggestions that it was his demands that forced the parting of the ways.