Blast from the Past: 2004 Tingle Creek

Moscow Flyer and Azertyuiop, each an outstanding winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, had met twice the previous season, Moscow Flyer beating Azertyuiop convincingly in the Tingle Creek but parting company with his rider at Cheltenham and leaving Azertyuiop to come home a nine-length winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, giving one of the best performances in the race in recent times. The question of which was the better looked likely to be settled in the latest William Hill-Tingle Creek, the mid-season championship for the two-milers. Azertyuiop was said by his trainer to have been `12 kilos heavy' when beaten in the race by Moscow Flyer twelve months earlier, but there could be no excuses on the score of fitness this time. Azertyuiop had warmed up for Sandown with a tip-top performance - winning by five lengths under top weight - in the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter (a limited handicap in which he had slipped and unseated his rider at the first the year before).

Moscow Flyer arrived at Sandown, as he had twelve months earlier, with a straightforward victory under his belt at odds on in the Ballymore Properties Fortria Chase at Navan in November (he won by twenty-five lengths after the last-fence departure of closest challenger Rathgar Beau). The betting public sided with the younger Azertyuiop at Sandown, the market going 6/5-on Azertyuiop, 2/1 Moscow Flyer, with the previous year's Arkle winner Well Chief at 6/1, Azertyuiop's stable-companion Cenkos (winner of the race in 2002 when a hampered Moscow Flyer unseated his rider) at 25/1 and 80/1 bar in a field of seven. The race, which carried prize money down to sixth, was reopened after only the four named were originally entered. In a concession to Channel 4's schedule, Sandown dropped the parade stipulated in the conditions, a spectacle popular with racegoers involving the runners being led past the stands before being allowed to canter down.

And so to a race that will live long in the memory of the crowd, at 16,300 one of the biggest in Sandown's history and said to be larger than for any all-jumping card at the course. What was billed as a `head-to-head' in the Tingle Creek turned into a three-way battle, Well Chief managing to bridge the considerable gap from leading novice to championship contender with a much improved performance which saw him right in contention turning for home. Azertyuiop's jockey had made the first move in the Champion Chase, but he decided to stalk Moscow Flyer in the Tingle Creek, the latter taking over from the front-running Cenkos four out. As in the previous year, Moscow Flyer was never going to be beaten once he established himself in front, especially after being much more fluent than Azertyuiop at the third last. Moscow Flyer produced excellent jumps at the last two fences for good measure and went on to win by a length and a half and a short head, giving the impression he could have found more had it been required. Azertyuiop briefly lost second to Well Chief at the last before rallying on the flat, the first three twenty-five lengths clear of fourth-placed Cenkos in a race that wasn't run at a particularly searching gallop.

There was some criticism of Azertyuiop's rider for not harrying Moscow Flyer earlier, but there was no doubt that the best horse on the day had won. Moscow Flyer was simply superb, the first three all putting up performances of outstanding merit in an epic encounter that proved to be the race of the season. A challenge for the King George VI Chase at Kempton was thought to be on the cards for Moscow Flyer, but prospects receded in the aftermath of the Tingle Creek. Though said to have returned completely unscathed from Sandown (`as if he had never had a race'), a second visit to Britain for a big event in the space of three weeks was considered, on reflection, possibly too much.