Iroko cruises to victory on chasing debut at Warwick

Jonjo O’Neill Jnr enjoyed an armchair ride on Cheltenham Festival scorer.

Cheltenham Festival hero Iroko made a spectacular debut over fences in the Stan Mellor Memorial Novices’ Chase at Warwick.

The JP McManus-owned five-year-old won his first three starts last season after joining the Cheshire-based training partnership of Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, with successive victories at Wetherby followed by his Festival triumph in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle.

He rounded off his campaign by finishing third in the Grade One Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree’s Grand National meeting and was the 11-10 favourite to make a successful reappearance and chasing bow in a race won 12 months ago by a subsequent Festival winner in the Paul Nicholls-trained Stage Star.

This season, the champion trainer saddled a 142-rated French recruit in Golden Son, who set out to make every yard of the running under Harry Cobden and jumped well throughout.

But while Golden Son still led the way rounding the home turn, Iroko soon moved powerfully into his slipstream under Jonjo O’Neill Jnr and the ultra-confident rider barely had to move a muscle on the run-in as his mount took full command and eased to a three-and-a-quarter-length success.

“That was absolutely perfect. Jonjo was thrilled with him, he said he jumped absolutely perfectly and travelled like a dream,” said Greenall.

“We thought he might be a bit outpaced over two-and-a-half (miles), but Jonjo said it was perfect, so we’ll probably stick to two-and-a-half I’d say.

“Warwick is a good test for a horse first time over fences and I was worried about the trip, but we couldn’t have asked any more from him really.”

Iroko leads the way at Cheltenham
Iroko leads the way at Cheltenham (David Davies/The Jockey Club)

Paddy Power cut Iroko to 10-1 from 20-1 to double his Festival tally in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at Prestbury Park in March, while Coral offer slightly more generous odds of 14-1.

While hesitant to commit to future plans, Greenall revealed options will be considered over a variety of different trips.

He added: “We’ve not really made any plans, we’ll just speak to AP (McCoy) and JP and see, but I think it will be ground dependent whether we go up or down in trip.

“AP was just saying if it was soft ground at Sandown, you could even go back to two miles for the Henry VIII, you could go two-and-a-half in the Dipper (at Cheltenham), or if Kempton on Boxing Day was nice ground, you could go back up to three miles for the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase.

“There’s a few races for him, so we’ll just see how he is and what the ground is like nearer the time.”

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