Nicholls on top of the World

The Cheltenham Festival witnessed its second successive failure by a feature hurdles race favourite on Thursday as Paul Nicholls Big Buck's took the race away from short-odds favourite Kasbah Bliss.

Francois Doumen's entry was perfectly poised to reward his backers with 4 furlongs to go, but soon lost ground to Nicky Henderson's Punchestowns and Big Buck's as the two frontrunners began their battle for the lead.

It was Ruby Walsh onboard Big Buck's who eventually prevailed, pulling ahead of Punchestowns over the final furlong to win the race by several lengths. Powerstation ran impressively to take third place, while Kasbah Bliss came home a dismal fourth.

The win handed Ruby Walsh his 5th race win of the 2009 Cheltenham Festival, and the Irish jockey looks virtually certain to walk away with the Top Jockey award at this year's festival.

 “He's a very good horse,” Paul Nicholls told RTE after the race. “I knew he had improved because the ground he won on over Christmas isn't his ground. He just keeps plenty for himself and has won with his ears pricked. I was very confident we had him at his peak and he looked fantastic.”

Nicholls even suggested that greater things may lie in store for Big Buck's, who returned to hurdles after failing to impress in a short stint over fences.

“Probably making a mistake at the last didn't do him any harm and he wasn't in front too soon then - he just digs deep. We bought him to be a Gold Cup horse, and he just might be one day, but it could be in two years' time now.”