Racing: Moscow Flyer crowned as the Irish champion

There was sharply contrasting body language here yesterday after a Queen Mother Champion Chase that provided action replays both agonising and ecstatic. Going into the winner's circle on Moscow Flyer, Barry Geraghty raised both fists aloft before performing the first flying dismount of the Festival. Kneeling on the ground by the penultimate fence, Vinnie Keane, whose mount Latalomne had rolled over when upsides the victor in the lead, beat his whip, then his fists into the cold, unforgiving turf before slamming himself full length.

Keane's frustration was entirely understandable, for the horse had done precisely the same thing at the same fence under the same chance-holding circumstances in the race a year ago. But if his removal from the game had been signposted in the cruellest way, the precursor to Moscow Flyer's success was all glory.

The nine-year-old, trained by Jessica Harrington at Moone, Co Kildare, had won the meeting's novice two-mile championship, the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy, in scintillating style 12 months previously and yesterday confirmed his accession to the senior title with absolute authority.

Any winning Irish favourite here is guaranteed an ovation and the cheering started as Geraghty guided Moscow Flyer to the front rank after the third-last obstacle and stepped up in volume as the subsidence of Latalomne and the independently-tumbling Seebald left him clear. The crescendo continued as the distinctive white-starred, white-nosebanded bay flew over the last and gathered a soaring-trilbies accompaniment as he scampered up the hill seven lengths clear of compatriot Native Upmanship, runner-up for the second successive year. The climax was the delirious approbation of the massed tricolour-waving ranks who had backed him from 11-4 to 7-4.

Moscow Flyer's status as best Euro-funded bet of the week increased Harrington's apprehension as post-time approached. "We've been dreaming of this all year, thinking about it all week and the hour before the race was the longest of my life," she said. "The horse has become a real Irish hero, but in a way it's an awful burden, to be the Irish banker."

The sole blip in Moscow Flyer's round came four out, where he rather paddled the fence but did not lose any real momentum. "I was swinging off him all the way," said Geraghty, "almost going too well on top of the leaders and perhaps he was a little short of room when he made the mistake. But I was only ever concerned about luck in running, not his jumping and three out I had it in my head that he would not be beaten."

Moscow Flyer, who has won all nine of the chases he has completed, is favourite to retain his new crown next year, ahead of Tuesday's wide-margin Arkle winner Azertyuiop. The division is now firmly in the hands of the new generation. Two previous winners, Flagship Uberalles and trail-blazing Edredon Bleu, came in fifth and sixth with Florida Pearl, unable to cope with the switch to the minimum trip, last of the eight finishers. The best of the home side was third-placed Cenkos.

The new champion is the first horse owned by the Co Dublin-based Brian and Patricia Kearney, who paid 17,500 punts for him at auction as an unbroken four-year-old. Yesterday's £145,000 prize brought his earnings to more than £425,000.

The rewarding week for the connections of Tuesday's Champion Hurdle winner, Rooster Booster – the trainer, Philip Hobbs, the jockey, Richard Johnson, and the lass, Carol Burnett – continued when One Knight beat Jair Du Cochet in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase, leading all the way and winning despite, rather than because of, his jumping. The disappointment was the dull effort by the favourite, Keen Leader, which followed the disqualification of his stablemate Coolnagorna from second place in the opening Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle for impeding Lord Sam two flights out, an offence that earned Tony Dobbin a seven-day suspension.

The revised result gave Ireland a one-two with Hardy Eustace and Pizarro but there was some consolation for the Jonjo O'Neill team when the 25-1 shot Sudden Shock outlasted the favourite, Stormez, in the four-mile National Hunt Chase. Johnson drew level with Geraghty on three winners when galvanising Young Spartacus to take the Mildmay of Flete, but paid for his efforts with the whip with a five-day ban.