Cheltenham Festival: Dame De Compagnie storms to Coral Cup success
Wednesday 11 March 2020 15:23, UK
Dame De Compagnie justified favouritism to land the Coral Cup as the red-hot Nicky Henderson/Barry Geraghty/JP McManus combination continued to dominate the Cheltenham Festival.
The mare, who stayed on too strongly for Black Tears (12/1) after the last, was giving Henderson a fourth winner of the week already, with Geraghty and owner McManus claiming their third.
They had teamed up to win Tuesday's Champion Hurdle with Epatante and were also victorious in the race before the Coral Cup when Champ came from way off the pace to land the RSA Chase.
Sent off the 5/1 favourite, Dame De Compagnie travelled well into the home straight but appeared for a while to be playing second fiddle to the eventual runner-up.
But it was Geraghty's mount who found much more after jumping the final hurdle and they were two-and-a-quarter lengths clear by the line.
Thosedaysaregone (10/1) stayed on strongly to claim third with 33/1 shot Cracking Smart back in fourth.
Geraghty said: "She won well. We didn't go much of a gallop, and I was happy to be just behind the pace once she was relaxed.
"She picked up from the back of the last. It was a good performance."
