It's fifth time lucky for Politologue as a bullish Nicholls is champion again

On Tuesday, for the first time in 25 years, Paul Nicholls was without a runner on a Cheltenham Festival afternoon. Instead he spent the day at home, looked at an old friend called Politologue and became convinced that on his return to the sport's greatest stage he could win the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Following the pause that truly did refresh, and an absence that made the heart still fonder, Nicholls was proved wonderfully right.

It was a race that at one point nobody appeared keen to win. First it was Altior who was ruled out, scratched from the contest 29 hours before he was due to seek a hat-trick of victories. On Wednesday morning it was the turn of Chacun Pour Soi to defect, meaning two of the big three failed to turn up.

In reality, the one who actually did turn up did not, for 2-5 favourite Defi Du Seuil was unrecognisable from the horse who had been so sublime all season, trailing home a distant fourth. Instead, a warrior appearing at his fifth consecutive festival finally had his day in the Cotswolds sun.

Like Nicholls, John Hales has always retained faith in Politologue, who had finished fourth and second to Altior in the previous two Champion Chases. Hales has always had equal faith in the Skelton family. He owned Nick Skelton's exceptional show jumper Arko and has enjoyed numerous wins with horses trained by the Olympian's son Dan.

Most of those winners have been ridden by Harry Skelton, last week selected by Hales to partner a courageous front-runner who jumped and galloped with glee en route to a nine-and-a-half-length defeat of stable companion Dynamite Dollars.

Harry Skelton celebrates Queen Mother Champion Chase victory on PolitologueCredit: Michael Steele (Getty Images)

The duo of two-milers were the first Nicholls-trained runners at the 2020 festival, but Nicholls stressed he had not spent the time twiddling his fingers.

"I had a Diet Coke with Paul Barber, went home to watch a bit of racing and then looked at all today's runners with Clifford Baker," he said, adding: "It was a normal day's work."

So, too, in a sense was this day, given there seems nothing more normal than watching Nicholls win one of the Cheltenham Festival's most glittering prizes. He had won this race five times before, including once with the Hales-owned Azertyuiop. Politologue arguably sits a rung or two below that star of yesteryear, but such is the animal's talent, Nicholls believed it possible he could conquer every one of the big three.

"You can only beat the horses who are running and, who knows, he might have beaten them anyway?" said Nicholls.

"I have been so bullish about him at home because he has been looking fantastic. You have to believe in your own horses and today was his day. He wasn't beaten far by Altior in last year's race, but he was nowhere near as good then as he is now. This time I thought we had had a better preparation, which counts for an awful lot. He was never going to stop today. It's just brilliant."

Nicholls added: "He bled a bit when he was fifth in the Tingle Creek and he was bleeding a bit in January, so we changed the way we train him. I had rung John at Christmas and said: 'I'm not going to run him again until Cheltenham. Just leave it to me.' He has never interfered, even yesterday when I said I wasn't going to run him in a hood because I didn't think he needed one.

"We now never canter him up the hill. He does all his work on the level, lots and lots of it, and when all the others canter up the hill after their work he trots up the road to meet them. I love training them very fit and very fresh for the big day, and that's what we did. Bingo!"

Harry Skelton in fine form after his win in the Queen Mother Champion Chase on grey PolitologueCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

For Nicholls, the full house of festival crown jewels was long since completed. For Skelton, watched proudly by his father and brother, there has never been a day bigger than this one.

He expressed sincere thanks to the Hales family and also to Nicholls, saying: "Dan and I will be forever grateful to Paul for what he has done for our careers. I grafted there for a long time and he told me at the start of the season to come back and ride out for a bit. This is magical and it shows what Paul can do. He trained him to perfection."

For Hales, who first won the Champion Chase with the treasured grey, One Man, 22 years ago, this was a perfect day.

John Hales and Harry Skelton embrace after Politologue's successCredit: Edward Whitaker

"I'm over the moon," he said. "We dictated it from start to finish and Harry got things absolutely right."

Then, more than a little emotional, as is his trait, Hales added: "I love my all horses – and it's a privilege to own a horse like Politologue."

A privilege, indeed – and never more of a pleasure.

Watch Politologue jump his way to victory in the Champion Chase

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