Top Team Shine Despite Master Eclipse Paul Nicholls and Ruby Walsh combined for a 179-1 treble on the second day of Aintree?s Grand National meeting but crucially their winning spree was minus Champion Chase winner Master Minded. The five-year-old was the 2-5 favourite for the John Smith?s Melling Chase following his imperious display at Cheltenham, only to find the two-and-a-half-mile trip a step too far. Ruby Walsh?s mount clouted to the second-last and gifted a lead to Voy Por Ustedes (5-1) who pulled further and further away to collect by 18 lengths under Robert Thornton. Winning trainer Alan King said: ?I was not confident but when we got in a scrap, I knew Master Minded didn?t get two and a half (miles) in France. ?We?ll be looking at two and a half miles now and the King George is very much in the equation.? Nicholls added: ?He has run a good race but Ruby said he didn?t stay ? it is as simple as that. ?We will rough him off now and come back for the Tingle Creek.? Nicholls and Walsh did strike with Big Buck?s, Gwanako and Pierrot Lunaire though, and the latter was the final leg of their winning run when earning a 14-1 quote from Cashmans for the Champion Hurdle. The 5-1 shot had finished behind subsequent Grade One winner Binocular on his most recent outing and built on that to take the Littlewoods Direct Imagine Appeal Novices? Hurdle by 14 lengths from Blue Bajan. Nicholls said: ?We can dream about next season now and he could be a Champion Hurdle horse ? there would be nothing between him and our Triumph Hurdle winner Celestial Halo.? Gwanako defied his inexperience to give Nicholls a first victory in the John Smith?s Topham Chase. With only 12 of the 29 starters completing the course and two losing their lives, it was no place for the faint-hearted and not obviously one for a horse having just his third start over fences in Britain. But Gwanako (7-1 joint-favourite) jumped like an old hand for Walsh and had just enough to repel the renewed challenge of Irish Raptor by a neck. Nicholls said: ?He?s only tiny, barely 16 hands but he jumped absolutely brilliantly. It was like he was on springs.? Big Buck?s started the bandwagon rolling when the trainer?s decision to step him up to three miles plus in the John Smith?s Mildmay Novices? Chase paid off. He was produced to join Battlecry at the final fence and stuck to his task in good style to pass the post with two and a quarter lengths to spare. There was no disguising Nicholls?s delight and he enthused of the 11-4 winner: ?He is a hugely talented horse and if he gets his jumping together he will be a very good horse.? Battlecry?s trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies went one better 35 minutes later when 16-1 chance Pettifour put up a game performance under Paddy Brennan to get the better of Gone To Lunch in the Citroen C5 Sefton Novices? Hurdle. Twiston-Davies said: ?I am not sure what we will do with Pettifour now, that was brilliant for a (potential) novice chaser and Paddy said he could be another Inglis Drever, the world is our oyster.? Andrew Tinkler travelled to Aintree seeking his first success at the Grand National meeting and with a little luck on his side he broke the ice in double style on Nicky Henderson?s pair Oedipe (20-1) in the totepool Handicap Chase and Carole?s Legacy (25-1) in the concluding bumper. Oedipe was a chance ride for Tinkler as stable jockey Mick Fitzgerald was ?sore? after a fall in the Topham. (C) PA Sport
