Back-to-back victories for Big Buck's at Cheltenham Festival (From York Press)

Back-to-back victories for Big Buck's at Cheltenham Festival

10:18am Friday 19th March 2010 in

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BIG BUCK’S scored back-to-back victories in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival – and finally eased the pressure on the punters.

After heavy odds-on shots Dunguib and Master Minded were downed on the first two days of the meeting, 5-6 shot Big Buck’s effortlessly cruised to a three-and-a-quarter length win over Time For Rupert.

Jockey Ruby Walsh barely had to expend any energy as Big Buck’s cantered throughout the Grade 1 three-mile contest and was merely pushed out to the finish and an easy success.

Trainer Paul Nicholls said: “He’s a hugely talented horse. He never hit a flat spot. We were keen to get him fresh and you have to get into his head a bit more than anything. He’s very good.”

Cape Tribulation, trained at Norton by Malcolm Jefferson, was last of the 13 finishers.

Albertas Run produced a vintage performance to win the Ryanair Chase.

Piloted by champion jockey Tony McCoy, the 14-1 shot set the pace and kicked on towards the last fence in the two-mile, five-furlong contest to beat the favourite Poquelin by four and a half lengths.

Winning trainer Jonjo O’Neill said: “He’s a super horse. The ground is important to him. He loves good ground. It helps him jump and when he’s like that he’s a real good horse.”

West Witton trainer Ferdy Murphy’s Watch My Back, second favourite at 9-1, in the Byrne Group Plate was nowhere to be seen in a race won by David Pipe’s Great Endeavour.

While in the opening Jewson Novices’ Handicap Chase, another of Murphy’s fancied mounts, The Hollinwell, was also never in the frame as Copper Bleu (12-1) took the spoils.

There was a major pre-race gamble on Murphy’s Galant Nuit in the closing Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup, his price whittled down from 10-1 to 11-2, but the six-year-old, ridden by Nina Carberry, had too much to do in the finish and came home third behind Ballabriggs.