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Your support makes all the difference.David Mansell, the 39-year-old landscape gardener who got the better of Tony McCoy in a tight finish at Sandown this month on his first ride against professionals, again had the champion jockey in his wake when powering the same horse, Eskleybrook, home at Kempton yesterday. Self-preservation is now foremost in his mind as he prepares to ride Eskleybrook at the Cheltenham Festival.
The amateur again shone against professionals, steering the 7-1 chance to success over Russ Garritty on Turgeonev, with McCoy in third on the 6-4 favourite, Wahiba Sands.
Victor Gethin, the owner, breeder and trainer of Eskleybrook, who had been a 50-1 winner at Sandown, said that he had failed to enter the horse for the Queen Mother Champion Chase – for which he would have been a live outsider – as he had failed to apply for his trainer's permit in time. Instead, it will be the Grand Annual Chase for Eskleybrook, although the handicapper, who has yet to frame weights for the race, is sure to be impressed by this performance.
"Maybe I should put him away for the Queen Mother next year," Gethin said. "He proved he can do it again. Dave said he pulled himself to the front at the first fence and that was that."
Mansell will be riding in point-to-points today and said: "The main thing is staying in one piece now. It felt like much more of a race today. I couldn't use my 7lb claim because of the conditions of the race and they were after me all the way.
"I felt a bit more pressure today because people wanted to see if it was a fluke last time and they were waiting for me to make a mistake. But the horse jumps fantastically and kept digging for me.
"I'm so excited just to be a part of this whole thing. I keep joking to the lads at work that I go to heaven at the races and then back to hell when I'm back in the digger on Monday."
Tony McCoy rode five favourites and managed a treble on Puntal, Deano's Beeno and Stormez, despite bruising a shoulder in a first-race fall.
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