Road impresses in Down Royal feature Road To Respect justified plenty of market support, as he ran out an an impressive winner of the Grade 1 jnwine.com Champion Chase. Second in this race twelve months ago, the Noel Meade trained seven-year-old since won the Leopardstown Christmas Chase, before finishing fourth in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. He was last seen taking third in the Punchestown Gold Cup in April, and having opened on-course at 15/8 this afternoon, he eventually went off the clear 6/4 favourite. Settled in rear by Sean Flanagan, the son of Gamut made good progress before five out and soon improved into second. He jumped to the front at the third last and went clear from the next, going on to score easily by sixteen lengths. The front-running Woodland Opera ran a fine race to take second under Robbie Power for Jessica Harrington at 13/2 (20s in early shows), while last year's winner Outlander was another length and three parts back in third. Meade said afterwards: "I was sort of wondering what was going to go wrong because he was going so easy. "When he took that enormous leap at the fourth last or fifth last he just jumped onto the bridle. He (Flanagan) said he was off the bridle just doing nothing behind and only jumping ordinary but he said when he picked him up he just went onto it straight away and he latched on and he was just cantering from there to the line really. "We knew he was in tremendous form but we have never brought him to the races as heavy - he's about 20 kilos heavier than he was at his best over the summer. "The guys that were looking after him were fully confident that he was 100 percent, I was a little bit shaky because he was that bit heavy. "We felt last year in this race that we lost it because the race in Punchestown sort of half killed him because it was only two weeks before it. He was a little tired. "He jumped a lot straighter today and was very uncomplicated and was very good. Its onward and upwards. I presume it will be Christmas, I would imagine it would be Leopardstown and then all roads lead to Cheltenham for the Gold Cup I would presume. Whether he would run in the Irish Gold Cup we will see." Flanagan added: "He has been so good at home. He has always been one of those gassy lads at home, but today he was really settled early, probably even a bit too much. "He absolutely winged the fifth last and the minute I landed at the back of it I was home and hosed. He done it really well and hasn't done a stroke up the straight. "He is a stronger horse that he was last year to be fair. It's onward and upward for him now." Meade and Flanagan were completing a double on the card having earlier scored with Brace Yourself, while owners Gigginstown House Stud were recording their sixth straight win in the race. Additional reporting by Michael Graham
