Results Cheltenham Wed, 11th Mar, 2026

King Rasko Grey powers to Turners glory for Mullins

I looked at the big screen after the race and I couldn’t believe he was 11-1. I thought he was one of ours coming here with a really good chance. You never have a banker coming to Cheltenham, but I thought he would be 2-1 or 3-1 max after his run at the Dublin Racing Festival. I wasn’t tipping him to my friends as I thought he’d be too short for them – they’re all very poor!. I said after the Leopardstown that he would step forward. I thought he was a little short going into that and I expected him to improve. I think Paul chose to ride this horse straight away, there was no debate, and I thought the same – to me this fellow was head and shoulders above a lot of the horses here. It’s great for the Turleys after the disappointment (with Galopin Des Champs) earlier in the week, it’s fantastic for them to have a winner here.

Kitzbuhel climbs to the top of Brown Advisory mountain

It was a very brave performance from Kitzbuhel to jump out and make all. Heading to the last and looking at Paul (Townend, on Final Demand) I thought he had him covered, but by the line Kitzbuhel was going away again. When you have a grey horse who loves to make the running, there’s been some brilliant ones down the years and they build up a big following. It’s been a lucky colour for me, my first winner as a trainer was a grey and as an owner. It’s great for Joe and Marie (Donnelly) given the bad luck they’ve had with State Man and Sir Gino this year, to have a third one up to winning Grade Ones is great. At least he was back to himself as his previous run at Sandown he didn’t jump out and he didn’t look himself in the parade ring, but Harry said he knew going to the start he was in great form. Given what he did at Kempton, which is right-handed and flat, to come here and down left on a left-handed undulating course speaks volumes. You’d have to be looking at the Gold Cup, but given how he whizzed around Kempton at Christmas the King George will definitely be on his agenda.

Jingko Blue puts James Bowen and Nicky Henderson in front again

Final Orders makes it a Cheltenham first for Conor Stone-Walsh

Il Etait Temps dazzles in Queen Mother Champion Chase

It took him 24 hours to recover when he came home. He was a bit shaken and then he had to get on the ferry and come home and that’s not how you’d like to do it, but it was a case of what we did and once he got home he settled into his routine and recovered quite quickly. We just had to get the spark back into him. We took the hood off and tweaked a few things at home and galloped him a bit differently, a bit like Lossiemouth (Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle winner), and it’s worked. I thought Paul was very brave on him today as obviously he couldn’t go the pace they were setting for the first mile, but I could see coming down the hill Paul was happy and he had his position coming to the final bend. I think the better ground maybe helped him. I was wondering whether he was a horse who didn’t like this place, but when went through his form at Cheltenham we found excuses for every day. We took the hood off him as we had to do something different. From when he was a young horse he was very keen and always wore the hood, but when he disappointed we said he had to change something. Paul was very good on him today. I had a bit of a heart attack at the last, but it looked he had plenty of horse underneath him.

‘It’s up there with my career highlights’ – Colin Keane shines in Champion Bumper

It’s marvellous and we’ve only got around 15 jumpers so it’s great to be back in this winner’s enclosure. It’s probably about a third of what we used to have and we have around 45 Flat horses, but this is just great. I have had all his family and he was bred by a very good friend of mine from my childhood, Christopher McKeever. This fellow is the best of him and I had a feeling he would handle the ground as he is light. I’d say he has plenty of speed so if he’s back here next year it would be over two miles. His jumping needs some ironing out but we can work on that now.