Smad Place dazzled under forceful Wayne Hutchinson tactics to win the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.
Smad Place dazzled under forceful Wayne Hutchinson tactics to win the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.
Alan King's eight-year-old grey jumped beautifully from the outset and was 12 lengths to the good over Theatre Guide at the line, with First Lieutenant another neck away in third.
Smad Place was at the head of affairs for a long way but the 7-1 chance never really came under any semblance of pressure, whereas many of the big guns faltered.
"That was brilliant," said Hutchinson.
"I'm absolutely thrilled to bits - he was fab.
"It's all come together this year. He certainly enjoyed himself and so did I.
"He never missed a beat."
King said: "We hoped for a good run but that's taken my breath away.
"He (Hutchinson) was very brave, but I'm not sure that were the tactics we discussed.
"We thought he had a great chance last year but I was trying to be very clever and we came here without a run.
"This year we went to Kempton first and he was a different horse.
"He loves to be up there and h e deserved to win a big race as he'd been knocking on the door."