Horse racing: Cerium profits as only two finish at Perth Published on Saturday 28 April 2012 04:37 Cerium claimed his first victory in the best part of six years after only two horses finished in the G A Engineering Highland National at Perth. Eleven horses faced the starter in the three-mile-seven-furlong contest, with Tipsy Dara the first to depart, falling at the very first obstacle. The rest of the field continued on their way without incident for a while, but the testing conditions began to take their toll with a circuit to run. Captain Americo, Inverlochy Lad, Overlady and Blazing Diva were all pulled up having cried enough and Vamizi fell at the 15th fence when hopelessly tailed off. The real drama unfolded rounding the home turn. Leading fancy Rockabilly led the remaining runners into the third-last but suffered a fall in the hands of Willy Twiston-Davies. He brought down favourite Nodebateaboutit, while Outlaw Tom unseated Campbell Gillies at the same fence when well beaten. This catalogue of errors left Neil King's 33-1 shot Cerium well clear as he aimed for his first success since winning the Amlin 1965 Chase in 2006 for Paul Nicholls. He almost threw the race away when blundering at the final obstacle, but Trevor Whelan hung on tight and the pair came home 22 lengths ahead of the only other finisher, Dove Hill. At Punchestown, Hurricane Fly put his disappointing run at Cheltenham behind him by claiming his third successive victory in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle at Punchestown. The Willie Mullins-trained star had been so impressive on his belated seasonal reappearance in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown in January he was sent off at odds-on to land his second Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham last month. However, the eight-year-old was never travelling with his customary panache at Prestbury Park and had to make do with an honourable third. Sent off the 4-11 favourite to bounce back, the eight-year-old was settled at the rear of the four-runner field for much of the two-mile journey. He made progress to take closer order rounding the home turn, although for a moment it appeared stable companion Zaidpour was the better of the two. The pair approached the final flight together but Hurricane Fly jumped better and got away quicker to seal a three-and-a-half-length victory. Zaidpour was a clear second, with early front-runner Thousand Stars completing a one-two-three for the champion trainer. There are several reasons why Le Beau Bai heads Sandown with a decent chance in today's Bet365 Gold Cup. The first is the weather, as it is unusual for the nine-year-old to encounter his preferred conditions at this time of the season. The second concerns his owners, the Glass Half Full syndicate. "One of the four people who own him is a man called Will Roseff and he happens to be a director of Bet365," said trainer Richard Lee. Obviously we were very pleased to take Coral's money when we won the Welsh National, but he wouldn't mind winning back some from his company. Victory in the mud of the Welsh National just after Christmas fulfilled a burning ambition for Lee, who trains just inside the border in Herefordshire but has a Welsh postcode. Le Beau Bai was third in the same race in 2009 and runs well in the big staying chases when the going gets tough. "The ground can never be too soft for him and it's been wet enough where I am, so hopefully it will be the same at Sandown," Lee said.