Carberry warms up with dream outing

In a race which saw a fair number of casualties, an ice-cool Carberry delivered the well-supported 5-2 favourite with a perfectly-timed run to become the first horse since Double Silk back in 1993 to win both the Cheltenham and Aintree hunter chases in the same season.

Any chance of a repeat victory for Warne and Sam Waley-Cohen ended early on with the pair coming to grief at the first, while a fence later Tartan Snow departed.

The field were taken along early on by Bound For Glory, with both Ockey De Neulliac and Pacha Du Polder kept close to the leader’s heels.

With little change through the majority of the race, it was not until the run to the penultimate fence where Pacha Du Polder moved into a clear lead.

Although in the driving seat, the Paul Nicholls-trained eight-year-old was merely a sitting duck for Enda Bolger’s strong-travelling On The Fringe, who in a matter of strides after the last moved up on his shoulders before going on to score by three and three-quarter lengths.

Carberry, who will ride First Lieutenant in the National tomorrow, said: “I was just a passenger, he was loving it. It’s a great training performance again to get him back here in the same type of form and he travelled like a dream.

“I had loads of room on the 
outside because I knew if I could get him round I’d be good enough.”

The win came 40 years after Carberry’s father Tommy won the National on L’Escargot, and 16 years after her older brother Paul won the race on Bobbyjo.

Bolger said: “I’m pleased another Carberry has won over these fences after Tommy and Paul.”