'I felt I was getting the upper hand but we'll never know' - final-fence blunder hands victory to Petrastar at Perth

Petrastar got off the mark over fences in a drama-packed 3m novice handicap chase, where four runners went to post but only two finished the race.

Dragon Rock unseated at the eighth and 6-4 favourite Cardamon Hill started to weaken from four out, leaving 100-30 shots Petrastar and Gladiatorial locked in battle in a match race. In a final twist, Gladiatorial blundered and fell at the last, leaving Petrastar to cross the line 30 lengths clear of Cardamon Hill.

"It's always difficult to say when things like that happen, and if I was on the one that had fallen I'd have said I was going to win, but I did feel like I was getting the upper hand at the time. We'll never know," winning jockey Tom Bellamy said on Racing TV.

It was a reversal of fortune from Petrastar's chase debut at Huntingdon last month, when he was in contention at the last but made a bad mistake and unseated.

"He had a bad experience first time up over fences," Bellamy added. "Today was all about having a safe run round. It's great to win but the primary target was to give him a good experience."

Petrastar won his first three starts over hurdles in 2020 but failed to progress after that, leading to a switch to fences.

Bellamy said: "Ultimately he ended up quite disappointing over hurdles. Chasing was never the plan but we just felt we had to do something different. Thankfully he seems to really enjoy jumping fences, so it has worked out well."

Title charge

Sean Bowen went further clear in the jump jockeys' championship after a double with Gortmillish in the 2m maiden hurdle and Themanintheboots, who easily defied top weight in the 2m4f handicap hurdle. 

Do you want £200+ of free bets? Racing Post have got the best offers, all in one place. Visit racingpost.com/freebets to find out more.