Just minutes ago one of the biggest shocks of the national season had already been sprung when joint favourite for the Cheltenham festival Champion Hurdle, Samcro was beat for the first time when staying on his feet at Down Royal.
12/1 shot Bedrock trained by Iain Jardine caused a huge upset in the WKD Hurdle but seemed to it with more ease than what he should which makes the loss by Samcro even more surprising.
Samcro was unbeaten in the seven starts he completed last season, taking the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle on Wednesday of the Cheltenham festival. His season was being lined up for a crack at the Champion Hurdle this year and now bookmakers have shipped him out to 9/2 from previously an 11/4 joint favourite with Nicky Henderson's Buveur D'Air.
The Gordon Elliott trained six year old was the 4/9 favourite to take the contest today and even though he was giving away eight pounds to the Galway Hurdle winner Sharjah, who looked to be his stiffest competition, it was in fact Bedrock who got the better of him.
Samcro and Sharjah travelled well into the race and were the first two to charge for home but the 12/1 outsider was also travelling lovely and when they jumped the last he went level with the pairing and eventually went on to stride away and take a convincing victory with Rachael Blackmore on board.
(Credit Racing Post) Trainer of Samcro Gordon Elliott said: "You should never be shocked by results in racing. Samcro was fit enough, jumped well but didn't pick up before staying on towards the finish.
"It's the start of the season so there's no need to panic. We'll go home and talk things over before deciding what happens next."
Winner of the race Bedrock has now gone to 25/1 with some bookmakers for the Champion Hurdle at jumps racing HQ but with no actual idea if he will be entered into the race as yesterday he was sold to America by the Risk Takers partnership.
(Credit Racing Post) Andrew Cork speaking for the Syndicate said: "It was a bit of a surprise, we hoped we could finish second and I can't believe we beat Samcro. He jumped beautifully and won on merit."