Meade pays tribute to "fabulous horse" Falcon after Champion Chase win

Snow Falcon has quite the array of big race wins to his name and he today added another in the Grade Two PWC Champion Chase at Gowran.

The 2016 Boyne Hurdle, the 2016 Lismullen Hurdle, the 2017 Kingdom Gold Cup at Killarney, the 2018 Kerry National and the 2018 Grade Two novice at Down Royal are already in Snow Falcon’s locker.

He never has any issue coming back to win off a break. This time the son of Presenting was reappearing 109 days since an Ascot Stakes outing at the Royal meeting in June. Us And Them tried to get it done from the front in the two and a half miler but the Sean Flanagan-ridden Snow Falcon had him beaten when Joseph O’Brien’s runner made a bad mistake at the last. Peregrine Run eventually got the silver medal close home, six and a half lengths off Noel Meade’s Snow Falcon.

Us And Them was a head back in third.

“He’s very good when he’s fresh. The ground was too quick for him in Ascot and we let him out and I didn’t think there was any possibility he could be ready for this," said Meade.

“But Emma (Connolly) who rides him out and loves him more than anyone kept saying he’s there. We worked him over a mile on Tuesday and he worked brilliant, so we said we’d have to go ahead and run him.

“You would imagine the obvious place to go with him now is Down Royal as it’s the big chase and his owner is from Belfast and I’d say would love him to run there.

“He’s had a few little issues here and there. Last year when he won in the north he cracked a bone behind and that’s why we didn’t see him for the rest of the season.

“He’s been some servant and is a fabulous horse for us to have.”

D.N. Russell, rider of The Storyteller trained by Gordon Elliott, reported to the Stewards' Secretaries that his mount slipped going into a few of the fences.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board Veterinary Officer examined Shattered Love trained by Gordon Elliott, at the request of the Stewards and reported the animal to be post race normal.

(AM & EM)