Due to high winds, Wednesday racing was cancelled and the scheduled races were distributed between Thursday and Friday's cards. The first graded stakes race on Thursday was the £170,000 Royal and SunAlliance Chase (G1) for 5-year-olds and up going 3 1/16 miles over 19 fences. 4-1 favorite Albertas Run was held up early but was always in contention close to the pace set by 7-1 Joe Lively, then moved up on the leaders at the 15th fence. Approaching the final fence he took over the lead from the tiring 6-1 Silverburn and opened up in the stretch, winning by 4 1/2 lengths over late-running 20-1 Roll Along in a time of 6:23.50 over the good to soft course. It was another 3 1/2 lengths back to 25-1 Battlecry in third.
Winning trainer Jonjo O'Neill said, "He's a great little horse. I was a little bit nervous about the ground, but when I saw him jumping so well early on I thought the ground couldn't be too bad."
Jockey Tony McCoy added, "It's nice to ride a winner. I won on him here a couple of months ago but he pulled up after the last that day so I didn't learn that much about him. I'm delighted for the trainer. Jonjo always produces the winners come Cheltenham."
Results Chart
