Finian’s Rainbow ridden by Barry Geraghty and trained by Nicky Henderson won the 2012 Queen Mother Champion Chase in a dramatic result, beating odds-on favourite Sizing Europe.
When Wishfull Thinking crashed over a fence early in the contest concerns were raised, as the runners would have to avoid the last ditch, something which nearly caused Sizing Europe to run into the final obstacle.
Luckily Andrew Lynch managed to steer the race favourite to safety, setting up a battle royale over the last couple of furlongs in which both Sizing Europe and Finian’s Rainbow edged ahead at different times.
The pair battled courageously up the hill, but it was Finian’s Rainbow who showed the greater turn of pace to secure the top honour by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
The eventual third place finisher Big Zeb was 15 lengths off the pace.
After the race the winning jockey Barry Geraghty said, “It’s a brilliant day – you dream of days like this. “I’m genuinely so delighted for Michael Buckley (owner), he has a good team of horses and he’s been unfortunate with Spirit Son getting injured.
“He’s had a good few disappointments this season, but he’s had patience with this fellow and I really am delighted for him.
“I thought he had it to do to be honest, but he has turned the corner since Ascot. His work has been much better.
“We were hoping he was closing the gap but you couldn’t say for certain that he was there. We know now he was.”
