Triumph Trial turns into One Horse affair at Cheltenham

Harry Derham’s prolific One Horse Town bagged his fourth win of the season when making all the running in the JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Following wide-margin victories at Hexham, Stratford and Kempton, he was expected to find things tougher in Grade Two company.

Not many jumpers are sired by a Gimcrack winner, but One Horse Town is a son of one in Threat and his price now ranges from 16-1 to 25s for the Triumph Hurdle.

Paul O’Brien was allowed to do his own thing in front in the testing conditions and his superior jumping helped him to maintain his advantage.

One by one his rivals dropped away but Harry Skelton had been stealthily making ground from the rear on 9-4 favourite Precious Man, and he was still on the bridle approaching the final flight.

While it was arguably One Horse Town’s worst leap of the race, it was still significantly better than the one produced by Precious Man who lost all momentum and in the ground could not get going again, eventually being beaten three and three-quarter lengths by the 100-30 winner.