Blast from the Past: Betfair Chase

Imperial Commander had met Kauto Star three times before, in the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November and in the last two editions of the King George VI Chase. Kauto Star and Imperial Commander both reappeared in the Betfair after a break - the latter running his first race since being pulled up in rain-softened conditions in the Punchestown Gold Cup in late-April - and the perceived race-fitness of the pair became a matter for somewhat heated debate afterwards. A good field also included the Punchestown Gold Cup winner Notre Pere (a faller on his autumn reappearance) and the David Pipe-trained Madison du Berlais, winner the previous season of the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury and two other good races - the Levy Board Chase and the totesport Bowl - in which most attention beforehand had been on Denman.

Dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kauto Star started odds-on in the Betfair and Imperial Commander, whose most recent success had come in the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, was fourth favourite at 9/1. Imperial Commander had run respectably at three miles in his hurdling days but his victories over fences - he had also won the previous season's Paddy Power Gold Cup - had come at distances around two and a half miles (he had run three times at three miles plus without reaching a place).

It must, therefore, have come as a surprise to many to see Imperial Commander ridden so boldly at Haydock, jockey Paddy Brennan apparently not given any orders and using his initiative to stretch the field on the second circuit, taking over six from home. Kauto Star was hard at work, two lengths down, when Imperial Commander surrendered his advantage by getting in too close to the third last, the pair having by then left the others behind. In a pulsating duel up the home straight, Imperial Commander was upsides Kauto Star two out and again at the last and looked as if he was just going to shade the verdict until collared again right on the line.

Most racegoers - and presumably TV viewers - were surprised when Kauto Star, after a lengthy delay, was announced as the winner (he had traded at odds against on the exchanges in the photo). The winning margin was a nose - the minimum - and showed up as a fiftieth of a second on the timescale displayed with the photo-finish print, the clarity of which left something to be desired.

“It's very frustrating, the print I've seen proves nothing,” said Twiston-Davies on the day, even Kauto Star's jockey Ruby Walsh having been among the majority who felt at first that Kauto Star had been beaten. Connections of Imperial Commander were not shown conclusive evidence on the day but were later supplied by post with a copy of the official higher-quality print of the photo-finish. The claim of Kauto Star's trainer – “That will just put him right, sharpen everything up” - seemed to hit a nerve with Twiston-Davies. “Whatever Mr Nicholls says, Imperial Commander will come on enormously for the run. He says his horse will improve, but ours will improve even more . . . he's a great big burly horse and needed the race every bit as much as Kauto Star did.”

Kauto Star's victory saw Nicholls replace Twiston-Davies at the head of the trainers' table. “It was a whisker worth a great deal of money. I was leading trainer but I'm not any more . . . I'm very proud of Imperial Commander, we were going there with a horse who cost €19,000 as a store taking on one who cost umpteen hundreds of thousands, and we beat Master Minded [same connections as Kauto Star] last week with Mahogany Blaze who cost 15,000 guineas as a store. I'm chuffed to bits to be going along with them and doing all right.”

Notwithstanding speculation about the state of readiness of the two principals, and how much their respective trainers might have left to work on, the Betfair Chase undoubtedly represented top-class form. Third-placed Madison du Berlais finished twenty-four lengths adrift (Notre Pere was only fifth) in a race run at championship pace, and Imperial Commander's performance set him up for a season which would ultimately include victory in the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup.