A brilliant ride by the outstanding Derek O’Connor ensured It’s On The Line won today’s Randox Foxhunters’ Chase at Aintree.
Gallant veteran Benny’s King finished runner-up for the second year running for Dan Skelton’s stable, while the Hannah Roach-trained Time Leader finished an honourable fourth, following up a third-place finish in last month’s St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase at Cheltenham.
Huw Edwards, who rode Time Leader, said: “He jumped and travelled great on the whole, only once coming up out of my hands and banking one fence a bit, but considering the ground is against him he’s run a cracker.
“I thought I had a great chance turning for home, but on that softer, tacky ground he can’t quite ping the fences like he does on better ground.”
Time Leader (Huw Edwards) is led back after the race by trainer Hannah Roach
Skelton said of 13-year-old Bennys King: “He is an absolutely fantastic horse. I remember being stood here last year saying I’m not sure he will make it back next year. I am now saying I’m not sure he will make it back next year, but who knows. He has just been a phenomenal horse that loves life.
“He loves it in hunter chase races where they go that bit slower, and he loves those fences. It is a shame he is getting older as I would love him to be around a little longer. I saw him [It’s On The Line] coming across the Melling Road, and when you have got one with Derek O’Connor sneaking away like that he is a pleasure to watch, even when he is beating you.”
Victory for the Emmet Mullins-trained It’s On The Line (pictured top of the page) was the first for an Irish stable since 2018 when O’Connor was in the saddle for Balnaslow’s win. It’s On The Line, who was second in last month’s Festival Hunters’ Chase – and whose success today was a boost for connections of the winner of that race, the Fiona Needham-trained Sine Nomine – was under pressure more or less from the off, but O’Connor nagged him to stay in contention and his partner ran on gamely after the final fence.
O’Connor said: “They went a ferocious gallop and he was really off the bridle, but the one thing he does is run and jump, and he kept jumping his way all the way. He is game; he got a little bit of stick after Cheltenham, and he lacks that bit of class to travel in a race, but he puts it all in when it comes down to it, and he did that today.
“He likes to have company as well and horses to chase, and thankfully - I hope the riders are ok - but thankfully there were two loose horses there and they brought him all the way to the line, which was a help. I was quietly confident [at two fences out]! I thought he had had a good round of jumping, he handles the conditions, and because they’d gone such a strong pace I felt they were going to tire at some stage and that they had to come back to me, as opposed to me going to them, so it worked out perfectly.”