Racing: Moscow Flyer can vault over old guard for Champion status

The last two winners of the Queen Mother Champion Chase are among today's 11 contenders for the two-mile crown but the time has come for the baton to be passed. The obvious place to look for a successor is the equivalent contest for novices, the Arkle Trophy, and the last two winners of that, too, will turn out this afternoon for what many consider may be the spectacle of the meeting.

The sight of top-class chasers in full flight over the minimum trip, with quarter neither asked nor given, is not one for those of a nervous disposition. At two-mile pace, one sloppy jump, one second of misjudgement, and there is rarely the luxury of time for recovery. The favourite, Moscow Flyer, has not an impeccable record in the trick of staying upright but his trainer, Jessica Harrington, is stout in his defence.

Moscow Flyer's record in chases reads run 11, won eight, fell or unseated three. In other words, if he stands up he wins. And his win in last year's Arkle Trophy, when he fenced immaculately under Barry Geraghty and galloped right away from his rivals, was just about the most impressive of the meeting.

"People tend to focus on the falls," said Harrington, a former Irish Olympian in the three-day-event, and therefore one whose opinion about leaping technique should be heeded, "but forget about just how good he is the rest of the time. Sure, he fell at Fairyhouse in his first chase, but that was just a typical novices' mistake; he'd been ballooning them extravagantly and discovered that when you get in a bit close to one, you can't do that."

The only thing to blame for Moscow Flyer's mishap on his first run as a senior, in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown, was his extrasensory perception. "Flagship Uberalles went down in front of him," said Harrington, "and he's such an alert horse that he watches everything. He was aware instantly, even before the man on top. He went one way to get out of the way, and Barry went the other."

That instinctive balance was one of the things that attracted Harrington when she saw him as an unbroken four-year-old at the sales. "That, and the fact that he was in my price range," she said pragmatically. "I'd got 20,000 guineas to spend and got him for 17,500." Talk about the luck of the Irish; Moscow Flyer is the first horse to carry the colours of retired businessman Brian Kearney.

The bay nine-year-old, whose wide white star on his forehead and sheepskin noseband make him easy to spot, has warmed up since Sandown with two bloodless wins back home, and today's mix will be his greatest test. "My main concern is not his jumping," added Harrington, "It's 10 other horses."

The chief rival to Moscow Flyer (3.15) may be the 2000 Arkle winner, Tiutchev, who produced a good performance to finish fifth last year in the senior race, soon after having nearly lost his life to colic. He has since changed stables and although it could be argued that Martin Pipe will not necessarily invoke more improvement than could have Nicky Henderson, the horse will not have deteriorated under his care.

The race is spiced by the presence of Florida Pearl, last season's staying champion, but a horse who needs to warm up in his races. He may find the guns blazing too soon. One of them will be another evergreen 11-year-old, Edredon Bleu, but he, like the horse who followed him into the record books a year ago, Flagship Uberalles, may find two miles too sharp now in top company.

It could be a good day for the Irish, topped and tailed by last year's bumper winner, Pizarro, (2.00) in the Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle and Royal Alphabet (5.45), who can carry on the raiders' fine record (eight of the last 10 runnings) in the meeting's only obstacle-free contest (the fight to the bars and betting ring not excluded), and punctuated by Moscow Flyer and Go Roger Go (5.10), warming up for the Grand National in the Mildmay of Flete Handicap Chase.

The home side can strike back with a Pipe pair, It Takes Time (2.35) and Stormez (4.35) and through tough course winner Taming (4.00) in one of the week's most impenetrable puzzles, the Coral Cup. He will find the drying ground in his favour and can thwart Pipe's attempt on the £60,000 bonus open to the Imperial Cup winner Korelo.