Jump racing the biggest winner after two Christmas crackers
Racing fans have enjoyed a veritable feast of jumps action over the Christmas period with the outstanding highlights being the two major Cheltenham Gold Cup trials; the breathtaking King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, and the pulsating Grade 1 Savills Chase at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival two days later, writes Paul Alster.
The upshot of the last-gasp win of The Jukebox Man at Kempton and the big gamble landed by Affordale Fury at Leopardstown, is that bookies and punters alike are struggling to find a clear favourite for the blue riband 3m2f chase at Cheltenham on March 13, current betting seeing many firms offering 6/1 the field.
Boxing Day’s Grade 1 Ladbrokes King George VI Chase, always a major highlight of the holiday period, was run in front of a big, enthusiastic holiday crowd at Kempton and will go down as one of the most dramatic renewals for many a long year. It did plenty to restate the case for not closing this iconic racecourse, one of the jewels in jump racing’s National Hunt crown.
Irish stars Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File, both trained by the maestro Willie Mullins, appeared to hold most of the aces having fought out a tremendous finish to the John Durkan Memorial Chase last time, while Banbridge, trained by Joseph O’Brien in Ireland, was expected to appreciate the decent ground in his bid to win the race for the second year in a row. There was confidence though on this side of the water that Nicky Henderson’s Jango Baie, and The Jukebox Man, trained by Ben Pauling, would both give the Irish stars a run for their money.
Only Fact To File failed to run up to his very best as the other four approached the final fence virtually in line, roared on by an almost delirious crowd whose decibels rose again as the Harry Redknapp-owned The Jukebox Man, given the ride of a lifetime by Ben Jones, somehow managed to get back up on the run-in having been headed at the last, beating the gallant Banbridge and Gaelic Warrior by a nose and the same, with Jango Baie just half a length back in fourth.
As a spectacle this race would take some beating – it is right up there alongside the 1984 Whitbread Gold Cup won by the Queen Mother’s Special Cargo in a four-way finish – but with the first four covered by only half a length, is the form really good enough to produce a Gold Cup winner? Of the four, Jango Baie would be the one I would suggest may do best over the extra two furlongs and stiffer finish at Cheltenham. He is currently an 8/1 shot in the ante-post market for the big race alongside The Jukebox Man. Gaelic Warrior is offered at 10/1, and Banbridge, usually best going right-handed, is as big as 25/1.
The biggest surprise in the current market for the Gold Cup is that last year’s hero, the Gavin Cromwell-trained Inothewayurthinkin, still heads the ante-post lists (at 6/1) despite two poor runs this season, including a distinctly lacklustre effort in the Grade 1 Savills Chase at Leopardstown on December 28, in which he was beaten a long way from home and finished tailed off. Quite how he is still favourite for Cheltenham is beyond me.
The Savills Chase itself looked to be heading the way of dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs, as the Willie Mullins-trained star joined the gambled-on front-runner Affordale Fury on the final turn. It looked as though the star chaser was on his way to yet another course and distance victory, but Affordale Star (backed from 33/1 the day before, down to an SP of just 7/1) rallied under an inspired ride from the red-hot Sam Ewing. The lack of a previous outing this season told on the former champion, and Affordale Fury, trained by the wily Noel Meade, galloped on powerfully under the stands rail to hold the late surge of 2024 Aintree Grand National hero I Am Maximus, who got up to deprive his illustrious stable companion of second place.
Galopin De Champs may have been beaten, but given that was his first run since the spring he did little wrong and will still be a major force to be reckoned with as he attempts to regain his Gold Cup crown. He is 7/1 second-favourite behind Inothewayurthinkin, while the lightly raced Affordale Fury, runner-up in the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Hurdle at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival, is now a 16/1 chance (from 50s) to spring another top level surprise.
Colin Tizzard’s hugely popular Native River was the last British-trained winner of the Gold Cup when landing the crown in 2018, but the Brits will go to Cheltenham more hopeful than for many years that the crown can stay on home soil courtesy of The Jukebox Man, Jango Baie, or possibly the tremendously impressive Coral Welsh National hero, Haiti Couleurs, a thorough stayer with a touch of class who is by no means out of the reckoning in what is expected to be one of the most open renewals of the Festival showcase event for many a long year.
Paul Alster has broadcast and reported on the British racing industry for four decades as a commentator, journalist, TV and radio presenter, betting correspondent, SP Returner, tipster and form analyst, among other things.