RACING: Azertyuiop showed he will be a tough nut to crack in the major two-mile chases this season by defying top weight on his reappearance at Exeter yesterday.
The reigning Queen Mother Champion Chase hero slammed his six rivals in the William Hill Haldon Gold Cup to cement his position as ante-post favourite to record back-to-back victories at Cheltenham next March.
All the leading bookmakers were suitably impressed with Azertyuiop's five-length demolition of Seebald, to whom he was giving fully 18lb. Ladbrokes cut the Paul Nicholls-trained seven-year-old to 6 to 4 from 2 to 1 for Festival glory. He is, however, available at 7 to 4 with Cashmans.
Azertyuiop led at the second-last in the hands of Ruby Walsh and the 6 to 4 favourite went on to win comfortably to erase the memory of last year's race, when he unseated Mick Fitzgerald at the first fence. His stablemate Kadarann was a further six lengths away in third.
Two other former Champion Chase winners, Flagship Uberalles and Edredon Bleu, trailed home fifth and sixth respectively.
It was a performance that had British Horseracing Board jumps handicapper Phil Smith raving and he now puts Azertyuiop ahead of triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate as the best chaser in training in Britain.
"You can crab as much as you like about how poorly some of the others in the race performed today, but I view Seebald as a very good yardstick to judge Azertyuiop by," he said. "Best Mate is on 175, but after today's performance Azertyuiop will go higher, to a rating in the high 170s. After all, if you took him out, Seebald would be getting put up. And to give that horse 18lb was a very special performance."
A delighted Nicholls said: "That was just the job - he'll be hard to beat now. And it wasn't his ground. I'm incredibly happy with the run, especially as everything was against him. With better ground he'll be even more impressive and we're looking forward to the Tingle Creek at Sandown."
The delight was felt by all the Azertyuiop team. Walsh said: "I probably got there there sooner than I would have liked but this horse is so good that you can't go fast enough for him. He was a bit keen in the first half of the race but I was aware that the going was softer than ideal and I did my best to keep him out of trouble."
Owner John Hales added: "That's class, giving away the weight in the ground. It was a fantastic performance and will set him up for the Tingle Creek." Azertyuiop is now only 9 to 2 to be the first winner of the BHB Order Of Merit .and Nicholls is eyeing the potential £250,000 bonus for his stable star.
