Big Buck´s held up, mistakes 3rd, 13th and 14th, not fluent 4 out, headway after next, led last, driven out

Battlecry led, mistake 9th, blundered 2 out, ridden and headed last, stayed on same pace flat

Albertas Run held up in touch, hit 7th, chased leader 15th, ridden and switched left approaching last, soon weakened

Joe Lively prominent, chased leader 4th, not fluent 14th, ridden and weakened approaching last

Roll Along chased leader until mistake 4th, ridden 14th, outpaced from 3 out, hit next

Starzaan chased leaders, blundered 11th, ridden after 4 out, weakened 2 out

Monzon held up, mistake 5th, behind from 8th

Cedrus Libani held up, blundered 9th, headway 15th, hit 3 out, soon weakened, behind when blundered and unseated rider last, remounted

Something of a rematch for several of the chief protagonists in last month's Royal & SunAlliance Chase, although on a very different track and at revised weights under the terms of its Grade 2 status. However, the latest SunAlliance looked far from exceptional, and while three of them finished in the first four, they were all ultimately eclipsed by BIG BUCK'S, whose Cheltenham target had been the same afternoon's Jewson Novices' Handicap, in which he did not have the best of luck, yet stayed on for aclose seventh off a mark of 148.

That bare running gave the unexposed Big Buck's a decent enough chance, and with the promise of better to come over this longer trip he was well fancied. Given a patient ride in a race run at just a sensible pace and in a time around three seconds slower than Our Vic's the previous day, he made mistakes down the far side for the second time and looked in a bit of trouble, but he picked up pretty well in the home straight. The blunder made by front-running Battlecry at the second-last helped, and having joined him at the last, Big Buck's was soon on top. He was given ante-post Gold Cup quotes afterwards, but as a stablemate of Denman, Kauto Star and Neptune Collonges he has a deal of improvement to make before he will come in for serious consideration. The priority is to get his jumping polished up.

The flat track, less testing ground and 7lb pull with Albertas Run were all big pluses for Battlecry, and he ran a blinder. Dictating his own pace without getting hassled, he put in some huge leaps, but the blunder two out, reminiscent of Kauto Star's the previous day, cost him momentum and he was just outrun by Big Buck's on the run-in. It was still a splendid effort after such a busy season, and one suspects he might not have finished yet.

Joe Lively, blinkered for just the second time after finishing a well-beaten sixth in the SunAlliance, finished closer this time after travelling pretty well, but the strong-finishing Cheltenham second Roll Along ran nowhere near so well, ridden handier after getting too far behindthat day. He raced quite keenly early on, made a few mistakes again, and came under strong pressure starting up the home straight, although he did plug on again and finished closer than had looked likely after walking through the second-last.

There was a big gap back to Starzaan, who made a bad mistake with just over a circuit to go and was in trouble at the end of the back straight.

Monzon was out of his depth and made mistakes.

Cedrus Libani, making a massive step up in class and distance after winning his first two chases at 2m, did not jump well enough and had no chance when he unseated his rider two out. [GD]

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