SONNING resident Max McNeill roared with delight after seeing Masaccio race to a surprise victory at Newbury, writes Dave Wright.
The nine-year-old grey, an unfancied 33/1 chance, won the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle on his return to track action after a 572-day break. And he could return to Newbury for the Coral-sponsored Gold Cup on November 28.
McNeill part-owns the winner with the executors of Niall Farrell, who died in February at the age of 55. Max rated Masaccio as the best horse the two friends had owned.
Another they owned together, Insanity, finished fourth in the CSP Maiden Hurdle on the Newbury card.
Even trainer Alan King wasn't expecting Masaccio, ridden by Tom Bellamy, to run so well in the extended three-mile contest in what was his first run since winning at Ayr in April last year.
Following last Tuesday's race, King said: “I’m blown away, and I thought he would really need it, but I wanted to get a run into him this week somewhere because he’s in the Coral Gold Cup and it had to really be this week before you are getting too close.
“A lot of mine (horses) have been needing the run, and then he goes and does that, and it’s terrific.
“He was given the winter off and then did three months around the roads in the spring and early summer, and there’s a lot of hard work gone into getting him back.
“We’ll see about the Coral Gold Cup. The chase course (at Newbury) will need an awful lot of rain between now and then, but at least I’ve got half a chance of getting him there now he’s had the run.”
The big race sponsors cut his Gold Cup odds to 20-1 from 40-1.
But McNeill was disappointed at Aintree on Friday when odds-on favourite No Drama This End, who he owns with Chris and Giles Barber, finished last of the four runners after leading for much of the two-and-a-half-mile chase. The six-year-old, trained by Paul Nicholls, had won five of his previous seven outings.
The race was won by the Ben Pauling-trained Taurus Bay, half-owned by football personality Harry Redknapp.
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