Canvas runs cracker as Par claims Gold Vics Canvas ran a cracker to fill the runner-up berth in the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown. Dermot McLoughlin's veteran was one of the first-fence fallers in the Irish Grand National, but banished that to the memory with a brilliant effort at Sandown to beat all bar Just A Par. The winner topped an already memorable day for Sean Bowen, who had sealed his UK champion conditionals' title by winning the first race of the afternoon but really underlined his potential in the saddle as he produced Just A Par to challenge at the last before kicking away up the hill. It looked as though Paint The Clouds, Le Reve and Guess Again might battle out the finish but a clutch of horses fought their way back into contention by the last, with Just A Par proving strongest of all. Bowen pushed on after jumping the final obstacle and the 14-1 chance responded for pressure to run out a length-and-a-quarter winner for the rider's boss Paul Nicholls. Le Reve was third, with Paint The Clouds fourth. Seventeen-year-old Bowen said: "All he needed was that trip. All he does is keep galloping. I thought at the third-last I'd been waiting too long, but I thought they'd come back to me and thankfully they did." Nicholls said: "He gave him a peach of a ride. I had no doubts he'd stay. "He ran at Chepstow the other week with the blinkers off. I put them back on and the idea was to ride him like Tidal Bay (who won this race in 2012) a couple of years ago. "He's a horse who works really well, but on the track he has not always performed to his best ability. The way to ride him was to start him last and pass them one by one and ride him with balls of steel. "Sean gave him a peach of ride. He had the right weight and it was the right trip. I always thought there was a good race in this horse." Paul Barber part-owns the eight-year-old with Graham Roach and admitted he had been eager to move the horse on at one point in his career. He said: "Graham is part-owner of the horse and he's been very good, I would have got rid of him but he's been keeping him. He has the patience of a saint. "Paul said if we could drop him in, he would start picking horses up and he came through with it. Sean is a different class to a lot of the youngsters these days and it's wonderful to see." There was controversy at the start as leading fancy Grand Jesture was to one side and due to be led in when the rest of the field jumped off.
