Bacchanal wins Gold Cup trial

Bacchanal boosted his claims for the Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup with a smooth victory in the Aon Chase at Newbury today.

Despite jumping to the right throughout the three-mile contest, the well-backed 5-4 favourite showed that he would be a strong contender for next month`s showpiece event. He is now only 5-1 with the sponsors but two points longer with William Hill.

Mick Fitzgerald always had the Nicky Henderson-trained Bacchanal up with the pace and took the lead from last year`s winner Shotgun Willy before the third last.

Bacchanal shrugged off the challenge of his stablemate Marlborough and galloped on strongly to the line to win by 12 lengths.

Marlborough, making a belated seasonal debut, weakened in the closing stages and was run out of second spot by a neck by Shotgun Willy.

Fitzgerald admitted that he had been apprehensive in the early stages.

'He seemed to get uptight today. It took him a while to warm up in the race. His jumping was very sticky early, but once I`ve pulled him out and sent him on he was better. He`s not a horse you can give a loose rein to,' he said.

'He`s a very, very good horse. He`s a had a good blow with me today and he`ll improve a fair bit for the run. He`s a stuffy horse.'

Fitzgerald also had one eye on Marlborough.

'I only looked round when we ran down from the last and knew he would be there, being the type of horse he is as the race was set up for him.

'Nicky will be absolutely delighted with him and you know he`s a better horse round Cheltenham,' he added.

Copeland, second in the Tote Gold Trophy in 2000 and fifth last year, made it third time lucky in the valuable handicap hurdle.

Tony McCoy always had the Martin Pipe-trained seven-year-old on the heels of the leader Benbyas as the 16-strong field went along at a good pace.

As the runners turned for home the champion jockey sent the 13-2 chance into the lead and jumping well Copeland galloped on strongly to land the Stg#63,800 first prize bysix lengths from 12-1 shot Rooster Booster, who was finishing runner-up in the race for the second year running.

Benbyas (25-1) kept on gamely for third nine lengths away with Got One Too (5-1) doing best of Nicky Henderson`s four runners back in fourth.

Pipe won the prestigious contest in 1997 with subsequent Champion Hurdle winner Make A Stand.

'Make A Stand carried the same weight 11st 7lb,' recalled Pipe.

'Copeland won very easily at Cheltenham last time. He had a 4lb penalty but this was always the plan.

'He jumped well and loved the ground.'

The victory was a boost for staring price punters as Copeland drifted out to a generous 13-2 from a morning quote of 7-2.