A group of city bankers celebrated their second major triumph in the space of 24 hours as their syndicate horse Geos stormed home in the £100,000 Tote Gold Trophy Hurdle at Newbury today.
The 21 members of the 22-strong syndicate - all employees of the Warburg Bank - had the previous day been instrumental in engineering the Royal Bank of Scotland takeover of the National Westminster Bank.
"You could say they are big winners two days in row _ first the takeover and now this," smiled syndicate spokesman James Stafford.
The victory was putting the seal on a great day for jockey Mick Fitzgerald who had earlier steered home the Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite See More Business.
The lucky Geos camp had been lifted by the overnight and morning downpours that made conditions much more testing for Europe's richest handicap hurdle.
There was early drama in the race when the Martin Pipe-trained Mr Lamb, the 7-1 joint-favourite, fell with Tony McCoy at the first flight.
But at the business end of the two-mile handicap it was all about Geos (15-2) who swept clear in fine style.
At the line he was 10 lengths ahead of Pipe's Copeland with a head back to the pacesetter Hit And Run, also trained by Pipe.
Geos' trainer Nicky Henderson - whose other runner Blue Royal finished seventh - had won the event with Sharpical two years ago.
"He's a horse with plenty of experience - he's already run over fences in France - and ran genuine races at Sandown and Leopardstown," said Henderson. "Fortunately the rains came just in time to help him.
"It broke Mick's heart to desert our other runner Blue Royal and he was worried that he might have made the wrong decision when it dried up.
"I'm just pleased that it's worked out in the end and I'm delighted that Blue Royal ran as well as he did."
See More Business put himself bang on course for the Gold Cup as he easily dismissed his five rivals in the Aon Chase.
The 1-3 chance, an impressive winner of the King George VI Chase on his last outing gave Fitzgerald an armchair ride coasting home 18 lengths clear of Macgeorge.
The victory strengthened See More Business's chances of following up his win in last year's Gold Cup.
See More Business remains a best-priced 2-1 (Coral) for chasing's blue riband but is as short as 6-4 with the Tote and Ladbrokes.
"All I can say is See More Business is going to be some horse when he's fit. He should improve a bit for this outing," said trainer Paul Nicholls.
"He seems a different horse this year and maybe part of the improvement is down to the fact that he works with Flagship Uberalles. He'd got lazy and needed something decent to wake him up."
Flagship Uberalles had earlier cemented his position as favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase as he gained an expected victory in the Mitsubishi Shogun Game Spirit Chase.
His task had been made easier by the morning withdrawal of stablemate Irbee then Nipper Reed refused to race, leaving Flagship Uberalles with just Upgrade to beat.
He accomplished the victory in some style, coming home 22 lengths clear of his only remaining rival.
Flagship Uberalles' odds for the Queen Mother Champion Chase were left unchanged at prices ranging between 5-4 and 6-4.
"He's had a nice blow out today on ground that he didn't really like," said Nicholls.
"I had been thinking about taking him to Ascot next week but that isn't in our plans now - I will run Rockforce there instead.
"Flagship will go straight to Cheltenham and then all being well he will be going to Aintree."
Pipe and McCoy may have suffered disappointment in the feature race but they still managed wins with Deano's Beeno and Seebald.
Deano's Beeno, who did not impress with his jumping on his chasing debut, is entered in both the Gold Cup and Royal & SunAlliance Chase but Pipe was typically non-committal about Cheltenham plans.
Seebald, making it two out of two over hurdles, is owned by the past and present Liverpool footballers Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler.
