Windbeneathmywings takes flight for bumper demolition at Ascot

Windbeneathmywings produced a spectacular front-running display to land the King Edward VII Membership Open National Hunt Flat Race at Ascot.

A dual winner from three starts in Ireland for Pat Flynn, the four-year-old was stepping up to Listed class on his first start for .

Sent straight to the lead by Jack Tudor, the son of Free Eagle was still full of running rounding the home turn, with a whole host of previous winners struggling to lay a glove on him in behind.

The further Windbeneathmywings (7-1) went the better he looked as he just went further and further clear in the home straight, with Tudor nudging him out to the line to score by a widening 14 lengths from Dan Skelton’s 9-4 favourite Moneygarrow.

Pipe said: “We’re very excited with our boy. We’ll go for one of the big spring bumpers now, it was a very good performance.

“We thought he’d run a big race, but there were plenty of other winners in the race. He’s taken us back a bit!

“He’d always been a good work horse, but he just eats and sleeps at home and then wakes up on the gallops.

“He’s quite keen, he likes to race out in front and get on with it and that’s what he’s like at home, but in his stable he’s so quiet.”

Paddy Power initially cut the winner to 14-1 from 50-1 for the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival in March, but soon trimmed his odds further to 8-1.

The runner-up had previously won a point-to-point before making a winning debut for the Skelton team at Chepstow in October.

Skelton was magnanimous in defeat, saying: “I thought it was a very good performance by the winner, so fair play to him.

“I think the Pipes have every right to be very, very impressed and he settled in front.

“We’ve won the race for second, but the winner had just gone – we couldn’t even get into a race with the winner, so fair play.”