Collonges bags Guinness repeat
Neptune Collonges put up a tremendous performance to secure back-to-back successes in the Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup at the Irish venue.
Trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Ruby Walsh, the free-striding grey (9-10 favourite) made much of the running and gradually turned the screw on his rivals as the race took shape.
He had a commanding break on his closest pursuers turning for home and jumped the last two well to see off Snowy Morning by seven lengths, with Mossbank back in third.
Beef Or Salmon, making his final racecourse appearance, could never get competitive and finished sixth.
Walsh ushered Neptune Collonges into the lead as soon as the tapes rose and he set a fair pace until Beef Or Salmon's stablemate Hi Cloy briefly took over.
It was not long before Neptune Collonges regained the lead, however, with Mister Top Notch and former Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Kicking King among those also travelling well.
The latter began to feel the pinch with four fences to jump and soon dropped out of contention as Grand National third Snowy Morning emerged as the only potential danger.
But Walsh pressed on at the head of affairs and Neptune Collonges responded gamely to his urgings to record a convincing success.
VC Bet reacted to the triumph by cutting him to 8-1 third-favourite from 14s for next year’s Gold Cup at Cheltenham, in which he finished third behind stablemates Denman and Kauto Star earlier this year.
