REPORTS of Shishkin’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Nicky Henderson’s nine-year-old was back to his brilliant best in the Betfair Ascot Chase.
GettyShishkin bounced back to his best with victory at Ascot[/caption]
Every man and his dog had written off Hendo’s heavyweight, but he boxed them silly with a display of raw pace and power.
The six-time champion trainer has pulled more than the odd rabbit out of a hat in the past, most memorably when Sprinter Sacre regained his Champion Chase crown in 2016.
This wasn’t quite a comeback on that level, but it was still a humdinger of a training performance to get the nine-year-old firing on all cylinders again.
Mind you, it was a million years ago that Shishkin was the most reliable jumper since Jonathan Edwards.
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He rattled off ten straight wins over hurdles and fences, bagging the Supreme and Arkle at the Cheltenham Festival along the way.
But the wheels came off in spectacular fashion last year after a gruelling defeat of Energumene in the Clarence House.
The horse barely made it to halfway when pulled up in the Champion Chase and his disappointing third in the Tingle Creek in December raised plenty of eyebrows.
But this was much more like it. His jumping was as sharp as a tack and he pulled right away from Paul Nicholls’ Pic D’Orhy after the last.
There were shades of the clash between Cyrname and Altior in this very race as the pair of them went head-to-head around the home bend.
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This time Hendo’s star won out, and in emphatic fashion, with Joseph O’Brien’s Fakir D’Oudairies put firmly in his place back in third.
He was slashed into 5-4 from 7-2 with Coral for the Ryanair at Cheltenham and a relieved Hendo said: “Today was everything.
“If he didn’t show today, we had to say ‘look, we were very lucky, we had a good horse but we haven’t got one anymore’.
“Now, we can say we still have a very good horse. There was a lot riding on that race today.
“Good horses are good horses, class will out and that’s what it did. Bless him, he did it.
“He was on the bridle the whole way which is what I wanted to see.
“The first fence was going to tell us everything, the second fence told us a lot and by the third, I was a happy man.
“The news came through on Monday morning that Allaho was out, but that didn’t change what we were going to do anyway.
“The Ryanair looks the obvious race. I think the trip is absolutely perfect.”
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Henderson had been involved in some playful banter with Sunracing’s Matt Chapman, who had been campaigning for Shishkin to run in the Champion Chase.
He had the last laugh and joked: “Thank goodness it looks like I was right, I wouldn’t have been able to live it down if I wasn’t!”
Earlier on the card, outsider of three Oscar Elite caused a mini upset in the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Chase.
Joe Tizzard’s -year-old out-jumped the 4-9 favourite Bold Endeavour at the last and quickened away under Harry Cobden.
He was a fine third in the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last season and he will head back for another crack at that race.
Tizzard said: “He has plenty of ability but he is just a horse who comes alive on decent ground and in the spring, so I’m over the moon with that.
“He ran a really good race in the Ultima last year and he will just be a little more streetwise this time around. I’d say he goes there with a good chance.”
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