Key Race: Aon Chase - Newbury Sat 13th February- winner Tricky Trickster

[bowles10]

The Aon Chase is a Grade 2 National Hunt chase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Newbury over a distance of 3 miles (4,828 metres), and during its running there are eighteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year in February.
The event is named after its sponsors Aon Group Ltd, and it was first run in 2000. It was promoted to Listed status in 2002, and to Grade 2 level in 2003. The planned running in 2009 was abandoned at Newbury because of snow, and so the race was switched to an alternative venue, Kempton Park. The rearranged event was titled the Levy Board Chase.
The race serves as a principal trial for the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March. Two horses have won both events in the same year – Kauto Star (2007) and Denman (2008).
[edit] Winners

Year	Winner	Age	Jockey	Trainer
2000	See More Business	10	Mick Fitzgerald	Paul Nicholls
2001	Shotgun Willy	7	Joe Tizzard	Paul Nicholls
2002	Bacchanal	8	Mick Fitzgerald	Nicky Henderson
2003	Valley Henry	8	Barry Geraghty	Paul Nicholls
2004	Shooting Light	11	Richard Johnson	Martin Pipe
2005	Farmer Jack	9	Richard Johnson	Philip Hobbs
2006	no race 2006 [1]
2007	Kauto Star	7	Ruby Walsh	Paul Nicholls
2008	Denman	8	Sam Thomas	Paul Nicholls
2009	Madison du Berlais [2]	8	Tom Scudamore	David Pipe

Last year race run at Kempton

[bowles10]

Saturday February 13 2010
Newbury 14:30 - Result
Aon Chase (grade 2)
£50000 added, 5yo plus, 3m, Class 1, £28505 penalty, 6 ran
Going: Good to Soft
Race Report »

Winning Time: 5m 56.s

• 13:30
• 14:00
• 14:30
• 15:05
• 15:40
• 16:15
• 16:45

Pos.	Dr.	Dist.	Horse	Wt	Jockey	Trainer	Age	SP
1			Tricky Trickster (IRE)	11-3	R Walsh	P F Nicholls	7	8/1
		tracked leading pair, pushed along approaching 14th, left 8 lengths down in 2nd 3 out, still plenty to do last, rallied on inner as leader idled towards finish, driven to lead final strides opened 12/1
2		s.h	Niche Market (IRE)	11-6	A Glassonbury	R H Buckler	9	25/1
		slight lead until headed 7th, chased leader, pushed along approaching 4 out, left in clear lead 4 out, still clear last, idled badly towards finish, headed final strides
3		18	Air Force One (GER)	11-0	Paul Moloney	C J Mann	8	14/1
		held up, hit 4th, pushed along after 13th, struggling 4 out, left poor 3rd next touched 16/1 £10000-£600 £4200-£300 Each Way
4		9	Ollie Magern	11-0	T Molloy	N A Twiston-Davies	12	33/1
		in touch, jumped slowly 10th, in last place next, struggling 13th
5		5	Wee Robbie	11-0	L Treadwell	N J Gifford	10	66/1
		raced wide, close up, not fluent 6th, weakened 4 out
UR			Denman (IRE)	11-6	A P McCoy	P F Nicholls	10	1/6 f
		with leader, took narrow lead 7th, going strongly and 3 lengths clear when blundered 4 out, blundered and unseated rider 3 out opened 1/8 £500-£3000 £100-£700

[NewPunter]

What did everyone make of Denman then? No chance for the Gold Cup?