Paul Nicholls’ Pic D’Orhy was a brilliant winner of the Betfair Ascot Chase on Saturday.
1
Harry Cobden made all on the nine-year-old in fantastic fashion, scooping the £100,000 prize for beaming owner and City trader Johnny de la Hey.
L’Homme Presse, ridden by Charlie Deutsch, and Ahoy Senor, ridden by Grand National hero Derek Fox, never got close enough to challenge over the 2m5f contest.
But, speaking on ITV Racing, 20-time champion jockey McCoy noticed an incident at the start of the race that made all the difference.
McCoy questioned why Deutsch, Fox and Harry Skelton on 18-1 Sail Away, allowed shrewd Cobden an easy lead.
Pic D’Orhy was always going to jump out and try to lead from start to finish.
So McCoy could not for the life of him work out why the other jockeys let Cobden carry out his Plan A with ease.
And he said he never would have given a front-running rival an easy lead in such a valuable Grade 1.
Highlighting the crucial few seconds at the start, McCoy said: “If I was riding L’Homme Presse and Ahoy Senor, two really good stayers, I’d hate a horse that has the pace Pic D’Orhy does to jump out in front and get an easy lead and dictate to them the way he did.”
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Grand National-winning jockey and fellow ITV pundit Mick Fitzgerald – who recently got bitten by a horse live on-air – asked McCoy if he would have allowed it in his riding days.
To which McCoy replied: “I wouldn’t let anyone.
“I was always told by Martin Pipe, ‘you can’t win your race at the start but you can lose it’.
“Harry Cobden definitely didn’t lose his race at the start, he won it.
“The other two might have lost it.”
The Gold Cup is the ultimate aim for L’Homme Presse, who was running over too short a trip.
Deutsch admitted ‘I knew my fate early’ as he still bagged a shade over £37,000 for second.
But this race belonged to Pic D’Orhy and Cobden’s genius quick-thinking at the start which left his rivals flat-footed.
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