Aidan Coleman was delighted with the performance of Gold Cup hopeful Native River in winning Newbury‘s Denman Chase.
Just three horses contested the race and Coleman stepped in to ride Native River after a bout of ‘flu put paid to Richard Johnson’s chances of glory in the Grade Two encounter.
Paul Nicholl’s Le Mercurey was second ahead of Bristol De Mai as Colin Tizzard‘s charge claimed the spoils by three and a quarter lengths.
The seven-year-old was not perfect at the fences and may have to improve that side of his performance at the Festival, but he looked a classy animal in getting the job done.
Coleman revealed that he spoke to the ailing Johnson to discuss tactics and got everything he wanted from the son of Indian River.
“I talked to Dickie and he told me what his plan was going to be and what I needed to do and that made things easy,” he said.
“Things can get a bit tactical in a three-runner race like that but it always helps when you’re on the best horse and he did everything I asked him to do.”
