It takes a special horse to impress now retired 20-time champion jump jockey Sir Anthony McCoy, but Iroko achieved exactly that when receiving plenty of praise from the legendary rider after making a winning debut over fences at Warwick on Tuesday.
After rising through the ranks to win the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival before finishing third on his Grade One debut in the Winners Wear Cavani Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree plenty was expected of the five-year-old on his chasing bow.
And the Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero-trained Cokoriko gelding did not disappoint with a near flawless round of jumping in the feature Stan Mellor Memorial Novices’ Chase under an ultra-confident Jonjo O’Neill.
Jumping smartly throughout the two and a half mile test the 11-10 favourite breezed up onto the shoulders of chief market rival Golden Son, who was bidding to give trainer Paul Nicholls back-to-back wins in the race after claiming it last year with Stage Star, on the run to the second last.
Barely needing to get out of second gear Iroko moved past Golden Son with the minimum of fuss before securing victory by a comfortable three and a quarter lengths.
McCoy said: “He was good and sure footed. It was a good place to start off as it takes a bit of jumping around here. It looked a decent enough novice chase as Paul Nicholls horse (Golden Son) had some decent form so you would have to be impressed and like what you saw."
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