There was still a loud gasp from the stands when the big screen replayed Stage Star’s last-fence mistake in Saturday’s Paddy Power Gold Cup for what felt like at least the 15th time. Such moments of sudden, all-or-nothing peril are a speciality at this track, but it takes a special horse – and rider – to respond as Stage Star and Harry Cobden did, by shifting from a near-walk to a full-out gallop up the hill to ensure that victory did not slip from their grasp.
“Harry said to me beforehand that if he was in front turning in, there was no way he was getting beat,” Paul Nicholls, who trained both Stage Star and Il Ridoto, the third horse home, said.
