'You never have quite enough to repel the closer' - Ruby Walsh and company at their best in unpicking frantic feature

You will watch five-act Shakespearean tragedies with less to unpick than a furious running of the December Gold Cup and, going out into the country for the final time, Luke Harvey and Mick Fitzgerald were forced to draw on years of riding experience when getting the call from ITV's lead commentator, Richard Hoiles. 

With Il Ridoto and Frero Banbou blazing away ten lengths or more in front and the chasing pack labouring, the inevitable question came: "Can they keep this up?"

Both sounded certain when saying they couldn't possibly and that they were setting things up for a closer, but were it not for Fugitif's bravely outstretched neck on the line, both might still be scratching their heads now to explain how Bryony Frost and Il Ridoto had timed it just right.

Credit: Racing TV

It was not quite racing punditry's equivalent of Brian Moore asking Kevin Keegan whether David Batty would score a penalty in England's World Cup shootout loss to Argentina, but a gut-check nonetheless, had it gone the other way. 

Ruby Walsh had the 'luxury' of until after the next race from Doncaster to assemble his thoughts, along with the telling VT to match. 

Thunder Rock didn't jump well enough; easy to spot. Fugitif losing ground with a mistake in front of the stands; tick. A gorgeous long shot back up the Cheltenham hill then told the story of just how hopeless Gavin Sheehan's task looked after three out.

Credit: Racing TV

Here is where Walsh got down into the analysis equivalent of the drive position. 

"Bryony goes here on Il Ridoto, off the bend. Will she look at this tonight and think, ‘If I wait another five strides, would I have had enough energy to hold off Fugitif when he comes to me?’"

Two lines. Harsh as they may have sounded, Walsh had distilled a chaotic six minutes into the six seconds that may have been the winning and losing of the race. 

His closing line was a gem as well: "When you’re on the front, off a very strong gallop, you never have quite enough left to repel the closer."

Hindsight may be a wonderful thing but that employed by Walsh, Fitzgerald and Harvey is not that of knowing the result of what happened ten minutes earlier. It is the accumulated wisdom of thousands of races ridden in and countless more watched.

Credit: Racing TV

Harvey may like to play the clown but there was value in his frank admission after the race that he had been convinced the front two had gone too hard, that his 'muscle memory' would tell him the same in a future identical situation.  

And Fitzgerald summed up what Frost would have been feeling from the soles of her boots as she and Il Ridoto winged around the New course. 

"When you ride round here , it’s like a beating heart when you get a horse into that rhythm. Once they feel those fences come at them, it’s boom, boom, boom."

The interviews with the beaten jockeys, Walsh's analysis booth turn and the wash-up with Fitzgerald, Harvey and Ed Chamberlin; boom, boom, boom, delivered almost in real time.

Game of inches: the photo finish which gave Fugitif the verdict over Il RidotoCredit: Racetech

Read more:

'I was lucky to escape' - fortune favours Fugitif as local trainer Richard Hobson ends his Cheltenham curse 

'Racing can be cruel' - Bryony Frost rues narrow miss aboard Il Ridoto in December Gold Cup 

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