Our Vic Edges Out Kauto Star in Bowl Chase

Timmy Murphy brought Our Vic home with a renewed effort at the last to beat Kauto Star in the Totesport Bowl Chase.

The David Pipe-trained 9-1 chance, winner of the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, looked in trouble when Kauto Star, ridden by Ruby Walsh, jumped into a clear lead at the third-to-last fence. But an error at the penultimate jump knocked the stuffing out of the 4-7 favorite and Our Vic came with a sustained drive to close home.

Kauto Star's trainer, Paul Nicholls, said: "Ruby's not happy with me. I told him to be positive with Kauto - probably he should have just got a lead and not have been so positive. We get it right more times than we get it wrong. I'll take the blame.

"All credit to Our Vic, he's run a good race today and the best horse on the day won."

Our Vic and Kauto Star took each other on early in the race and had Gungadu and Monet's Garden in trouble with a circuit to run. An error down the back led to Walsh riding Kauto Star along for a couple of strides before the Gold Cup runner-up came back on the bridle. Exotic Dancer tracked them into the straight but he was soon left behind as a flying jump propelled Kauto Star into what seemed an unassailable lead.

However, he then made a mistake characteristic of his earlier chasing victories, taking off too soon and putting his front legs through the birch at the second-last. He did not appear to lose too much momentum but his stride was patently shortening before the last and Our Vic was running on stoutly. Pipe's charge still looked booked for second for much of the short run-in, but a final thrust saw him get on top by a nose.