Cheltenham Festival 2012: Paul Hayward sees 'The Special One' lights up a dark day opening day Cheltenham is about the throaty roar of defiance rising from the betting ring, the eternal conflict between punters and layers and end-of-the-world drinking, which turns the track into a place of mass disorientation. It is also a place of equine death. When the screens were raised for Educated Evans in the last, the Festival racked up its third fatality of the day, following Scotsirish and Garde Champetre in the Cross Country Chase. The screens conceal the moment of dispatch, but seeing them held by fluorescent-coated stewards offers a picture of the risks taken here by horse and rider. Three in a day is a lot. There is no pretending otherwise. This trio of calamities made it harder to enjoy the spectacle. It also accentuated Sprinter Sacre's gift for clearing obstacles safely. "We called him the Long Dark aeroplane beforehand - and did he fly," Henderson said after equalling Fulke Walwyn's record of 40 Festival winners. One of his problems is that he's a dreadful show off, and wants everyone to watch him by being flash. But that's just his way and we have to let him do it - and boy, is it worth watching. His jumping is quite unreal and there's no way we'd try to put a curb on it. Both trainer and pilot (Barry Geraghty) remarked that this super-agile six-year-old used Cheltenham as a schooling ground. This contradicts everything we know about National Hunt racing at this level. The broad sweep and undulations of the Cotswolds course are not there to be subjugated. At fast two-mile pace, Sprinter Sacre made not even a trace of a mistake as he arrowed over the fences and left his rivals breathless. "Its like [Jose] Mourinho said when he came in - he is the special one," Geraghty said. This crushing of Cue Card by a misleadingly short seven lengths (with Menorah another 22 lengths back in third) evoked Master Minded's spectacular first Queen Mother Champion Chase win over the same distance. The victories that stick longest in the memory are often those secured three or four fences out, when you can see that the contest is over. Then you observe the kill: the gaping superiority of a freshly anointed champion. In this year's Arkle, Geraghty looked over his shoulder three fences out and through his own legs on the run-in, by which time Sprinter Sacre was hacking home. Geraghty is a two-mile specialist. As Moscow Flyer's former partner he knows plenty about the thrill of attacking Cheltenham over the minimum distance and at maximum speed. "I've never before schooled a horse round to win a championship race at the Cheltenham Festival," he said. And that's all it felt like - a schooling session. He's an exuberant horse who wants to get on with it but he'll now come back to you, if you ask him. He's strong and onward-bound, but he's not pig-headed with it, he'll tuck in for you. He's not as good as Moscow Flyer [a dual Queen Mother Champion Chase winner] but he's going that way. Unbeaten over the larger obstacles, Sprinter Sacre will be kept to two-mile races. An echo, from the Flat, was Frankel's brilliance over a mile. When a horse is imperious over one distance there is pressure to try him over a longer (and perhaps more prestigious) trip but also a strong case for not diluting a single outrageous talent. Next season Sprinter Sacre will be expected to leave novice chasing behind and graduate to Queen Mother level. He is already 6-4 favourite for that race. Around the jump racing community there was no doubt a new four-legged luminary has joined the Festival cast. Cue Card's trainer, Colin Tizzard, said: "We ran into a superstar and it's nice to be in the same ring as him." With Sprinter Sacre and Quevega romping home those turf accountants will be pleading for sympathy again this morning, even with Hurricane Fly's defeat. But their laments will not be heard amid the joy surrounding the emergence of a new master of the two-mile game, whose first win over fences, at Doncaster, was described by Henderson as "frightening." To match Walwyn's record in such cinematic style was an extra treat for the trainer. And to think, some doubted the horse's brilliance would last up Cheltenham's lung-ripping hill. Geraghty had a different anxiety: "My only worry about the hill was that it might not be long enough for me to pull him up." The shadow of death fell across the turf. So, in the day's best moment, did this new light.