Sire de Grugy stars as Sprinter Sacre pulls up

A racecourse which has often produced magical moments of sublime superiority, Kempton Park had become set to welcome back the crown jewel of British steeplechasing on Friday as his fans and followers came in their dozens to cheer on Nicky Henderson's Sprinter Sacre in his seasonal reappearance. 

Sidelined by a minor injury hindrance in early December, Sprinter Sacre (pictured above) had been returning to the track later than planned, and his trainer Nicky Henderson had been open and honest in stating that he had been dreading his champion's return to action this week. However, there can be no doubting that despite the nervousness of his trainer, there was no real sense of belief that Sprinter Sacre could comprehensively be turned over in his seasonal reappearance - how wrong we were.

Seemingly struggling to jump with the exuberance that we have become accustomed to expect, Sprinter Sacre provided his thousands of followers with a visual shock as he began to drift back through the pack before a vocal confirmation shortly followed to detail that the heavily-favoured 2/9 favourite was indeed being pulled up.

With Sprinter Sacre sidelined on the back straight, Sire de Grugy and his jockey Jamie Moore were entrusted with the ultimate chance to continue their exceptional progression and fill the cavernous void that had been created in this race by taking up the mantle and claiming this race as his own. A strong and hardy performer that has taken up every opportunity this season and shirked away from no battle at all, Gary Moore's Sire de Grugy powered over the remaining fences with exuberance as he bounded to his third victory of this campaign in what has rapidly become a sensational year for the Moore family which begun with the exceptional international win haul created by Ryan in months gone by. 

"I'm over the moon for the horse, but it's a shame we had to do it that way," said winning trainer, Gary Moore. "They went off fast, then the pacemaker dropped out, and he'd be better in a bigger field covered up - then you'd see his true potential. As far as I'm concerned Cheltenham [Festival] is not the be-all-and-end-all."

 

A vision of perfection in his ten previous starts over these obstacles, this was not the way that we had expected to see the stature of Sprinter Sacre relinquish his undefeated record, with the prospect of an eleventh consecutive victory seemingly inevitable.