Finian's Oscar eases to debut chase success after Alcala slips up

Finian’s Oscar was an impressive winner on his first start over fences at Chepstow to hand jockey Bryan Cooper a first success since taking on his new role with owner Alan Potts.

The only moment of drama in the race did not involve Finian’s Oscar, with Alcala having slipped and come down on the turn for home under Sam Twiston-Davies. Both got up unscathed.

Alcala departed just as he was serving it up to the long-time leader Aintree My Dream and it would have been fascinating to see how Finian’s Oscar went about the task of picking up his Paul Nicholls-trained rival having been conceding him several lengths.

However, with Alcala gone the race was left at Finian’s Oscar’s mercy, with Aintree My Dream unable to put up any resistance and the Grade 1-winning hurdler went on to score by 11 lengths from Tintern Theatre.

“We’ve not really learned anything new about Finian’s Oscar and although he looked a bit ring-rusty in the early part of the race he was closing up when Alcala unfortunately came down and then he has come home on his own,” said trainer Colin Tizzard.

“It is always nice to start with a win as it will do his confidence a lot of good. I’d not rule out going to Cheltenham with him at the end of the month – if he didn’t go to that meeting he’d be there for the November meeting.

“That’s where we want to end up with him in March so we’ve got to get the match practice into him and then we can pick and choose our races.

“He’s made the best possible start over fences and we can take everything from here.”