Game winner Opera has Champion Chase option

The Nicky Henderson trained French Opera ran on well to readily land the Grade Two totepool Game Spirit Chase at Newbury this afternoon by six lengths from Tchico Polos.

The eight year old made a mistake at the first but jumped well after that and was always placed towards the head of affairs under Barry Geraghty.

He ceded the advantage to Take The Breeze on the back straight but was back in a share of the lead as Paul Nicholls' grey made a bad mistake at the cross-fence.

Tchico Polos, also trained by Nicholls, was still travelling well on the outside at that stage and tried hard to keep tabs with French Opera all the way up the home straight.

However, Geraghty always appeared to have things under control and had a couple of lengths in hand as they jumped the last and French Opera stretched out all the way to the line to extend his lead to six lengths as Tchico Polos tired in the closing stages.

Geraghty said: "We thought he'd come on for his last run and the ground wasn't as soft today.

"He jumped beautifully. He was outpaced a little bit going down the back but he came alive at the cross-fence.

"They went a good gallop and it rode a good race. He battled well and he's definitely decent."

Henderson added: "He's just been really well in himself for the last couple of weeks.

"It was quite hard work on his last run at Sandown with top-weight in a competitive handicap. He just never got to where he wanted to be.

"I was fairly happy today, apart from the ground. He was so good last year as a novice.

"He's going to have top-weight in the Grand Annual again this year, that's almost certain.

"He's in the Champion Chase, so we might just have a look at it."