Graham Clark gets the lowdown from Alan King on his team of jumpers for the season ahead.
In recent seasons you are just as likely to catch a glimpse of Alan King at Royal Ascot as you are at the Cheltenham Festival given the recent growth of his Flat string.
However, while his numbers to go to war with over jumps might be down in seasons gone by the Barbury Castle Stables, the handler still remains passionate about the winter game.
The days of Katchit, My Way de Solzen and the likes ruling the roost are long gone, but King still has plenty of smart individuals capable of making their mark at a good level.
While the admirable Edwardstone is back for one last campaign following in behind him are the likes of talented bumper scorers Baron Noir and Charisma Cat to ensure King still has enough talent to get excited about during the 2025/26 National Hunt campaign.
He said: “We need one or two of the young horses to come through the grades this season, but I think we have got one or two nice ones. We are lacking the old stars and we really only have Edwardstone left in that department and this will be his last season as well. We need to try and make another good one out of them. There is definitely one or two with potential among them, but they need to come forward and deliver the results for us.”
BABY SAGE
She will hopefully go chasing this season. She did well to win last season, but fractured a fetlock and that is why she didn’t run again. She is back in work now and has got the make up to be good over a fence. She would be one for those mares handicap chases over two-and-a-half miles plus.
BARON NOIR
He is one of the nicest bumper horses that we have had come through for a while. He won well at Punchestown and looks a good horse. He won at Plumpton first time out then finished third in the Listed race at Newbury and we decided there and then to put him away for Punchestown for the winners-of-one race. It looked a hotter race than the championship bumper there, but he got away with it. The second was probably a little bit unlucky, but it was still a very good performance.
He is a big fine horse and will now go straight over hurdles. He will stay, but we might start him over a stiff two miles. He probably is a two-and-a-half mile horse. I think he is one of the most exciting young horses I’ve had for a few years so let’s hope we are lucky with him.
BELIEVITANDUCAN
He didn’t quite make it to the first Chepstow meeting as he was only just ready to start, but hopefully it won’t be long before he comes out. He was progressive last season, but I think stepping up in trip beyond two miles will suit this season. I think the further he goes the better. He was a proper stayer on the flat, but not the quickest.
We pitched him in a Grade Two last season as we had to find out how good he was, but it turned out to be quite a good race. When he goes over two-and-a-half miles I think you will see further improvement. I think we will have a bit of fun with him.
BETTERFOREVERYONE
It was good to see him win at Bangor on his return, but we went there to get a run into him before going up to Hexham on November 19th for a four-mile handicap chase. He was very good when he won that marathon race at Hexham and those sorts of races suit him.
I don’t think he would quite get high enough the ratings for something like a Midlands National. He is more one for those regional nationals, but the plan is to go back to Hexham next provided he is okay.
BLUE SKY DREAMING
He had one run in a bumper last season. The ground was too quick at Doncaster that day, but he ran nicely. We won’t mess about in any more bumpers and we will go straight over hurdles with him. We do like him. I think he is one of my better novice hurdlers and he starts off at Strafford on Thursday.
BLUES SINGER
I like him, but he has had a little bit of a setback. It has been a bit of an ongoing issue with him. I think we will get there, but he will take a bit of training and a bit of minding. We ran him in the Dovecote in the second half of the season as we didn’t want him winning a novice unless it was a valuable one. I still think he is very good, it is just a case of managing his hind joints. We would start at two miles with him as he is not a slow horse.
CASTLE CARROCK
I probably made a mistake running him in the Grade One at Aintree at the end of the season and they put him up six pounds for that. He will stay down the handicap hurdle route for the time being, but I do think he will jump a fence in time. Handicap hurdles over two-and-a-half miles will be the route we go down with him. He ran very well at Aintree, but he just got hammered for it and before that stayed on well at Kelso where it would have been sharp enough for him.
CHARISMA CAT
She is a lovely mare. She had a setback before Aintree and we shouldn’t have really run her as she got her black-type at Sandown and was unlucky not to win at Market Rasen. We had a hold up a few weeks ago so she is a little bit behind. She will start off in mares novice hurdles, but we probably won’t see her until the end of November.
We will start low-key and work our way up. She qualifies for those Great British Bonus prizes so we will try and win a few of them if we can. Hopefully, we can look towards the mares novices’ hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, but she is just a little bit behind the others at the moment. She is a lovely big filly with a lot of scope and a good attitude. She is pretty smart.
DON’T MIND IF I DO
He is a lovely big horse and is working away grand. He is another that we are going to stay over hurdles with for the time being. He has only had a handful of runs over hurdles. It went from one extreme to another last season as it went from too heavy in the middle of the season to being too quick by the end of the year so we didn’t risk him as he is a horse we like. I think he has strengthened again and we like him. You would hope his mark of 120 should be within his grasp. He could head to Wetherby this weekend.
EDWARDSTONE
He is back again and he did a smashing bit of work recently. His enthusiasm is still there and he attacks that hill every morning. He looks in great form. There is a strong possibility we will step him up to two-and-a-half miles this season as at his age he is not getting any quicker.
He has been placed over hurdles over that trip and his pedigree would suggest he is all stamina, but when he was winning at two miles we decided to stick at it. He is rated 157 so he has to go down the graded race route, but there is a lot of prize money to be picked up even getting placed. You have races like the Peterborough Chase and the race at Ascot for him. He is in great form.
EMITOM
The old boy is back cantering away. He is not the easiest to train, but has had a long break and a fair bit of TLC and medication. It is one day at a time with him. We will have a go at a Pertemps qualifier with him and he loves Newbury. He was only just beaten in one there last year. He is still a way off fast work, but is moving well. It is just a case of holding everything together.
ES PERFECTO
He is back with us again. He is in good form and my wife Rachel has been riding him a lot at home. He did very well at the Cheltenham Festival and only just lost out on second late on that day. We hoped he would run very well and Tom gave him a great ride from the front. He will go down that two-and-a-half mile route this season once the rain comes. There are no particular plans with him. He could be a Paddy Power Gold Cup or December Gold Cup type. I need the rain to come though as he has had leg trouble in the past.
FAVOUR AND FORTUNE
It has always been the plan to go novice chasing with him this season. I wanted to school him in the spring, but the ground went against him and I didn’t want to risk him before he went home. Stepping up to two-and-a-half miles seemed to help him, so provided he schools well, he will start over that trip over fences.
He ran some very good races last season. I got him wrong running around Kelso as that was a sharp track, but he ran really well up at Aintree and he stayed on well that day. I hope he can make into a decent novice chaser.
GRANDEUR D’AME
He is in good form. He won at the Chepstow meeting at the start of this month a year ago, but was not quite ready for that this time around. He is a good, consistent horse, but is probably crying out for three miles these days. He is probably more of an autumn horse and we have to mind him a bit, but he doesn’t want a lot of racing.
He has to go left handed as when he won around Huntingdon he nearly ended up in the stands. He has run around the likes of Cheltenham now so there should be plenty of races for him. He too runs at Stratford on Thursday.
HARBOUR LAKE
He will stay hurdling this season. It was a tough performance when he won at Haydock Park. It won’t be easy off his mark of 145. He hated fences before so for the time being I think we will stay down the hurdles route with him. Those big three-mile handicap hurdles, like the one on Betfair Chase day at Haydock, are the route we will go down. He doesn’t want a lot of racing, but does have a good record fresh. It is always possible that he could sneak into a better staying hurdle, but it will depend on the opposition. We might look at the Grade Two at the Coral Gold Cup meeting at Newbury as usually there aren’t too many in that.
HELNWEIN
We will go chasing at some stage again with him, but the plan, at the moment, is to head to the Greatwood at Cheltenham. Whether he has run beforehand I don’t know, but he has got a good record fresh. We will go to Cheltenham and then we will decide if we go chasing again.
I made a mistake sending him to Windsor last season as he couldn’t get into any rhythm, but he ran very well in the Swinton on his last start. I think he will take to fences, but he is an early and late season horse as we lose him through the winter. He doesn’t want soft, or heavy ground, even though he has form on it. He is a much better horse in the spring.
INSANITY
We tried going hurdling with him a couple of years ago and he didn’t take to it, but he is a much better horse now. He ran well at York on his last start to finish second and he is now rated 100 on the Flat. He schools great at home and I don’t know why he didn’t fire twice when we previously ran him over hurdles, but I’m certainly going to try again. We used to have awful trouble with his feet, but we have sorted that out and I think that was probably holding him back a bit as well.
I’M A LUMBERJACK
He is another one that is probably going to go down the handicap hurdle route. We had a little blip mid-season with him back wise, but he had treatment and came back and won well at Bangor. He was just a big weak horse when he was younger but is in great form and I think there is more to come from him.
KITTYS GLANCE
I’m very happy with her and I just gave her the one run at Huntingdon last season when she finished third. She will continue down the bumper route for the time being and we'll take it from there.
SEVEN STARS
She is a nice filly that only had one start last season, but she showed plenty of promise to finish third. She is a little bit further back than some as she has had a wind operation and won’t be out until at least December time. She is a lovely filly but we had to tidy her wind up. Hopefully she can build on the promise of debut when we see her out again.
SKI LODGE
He hasn’t got a mark as of yet, but I’d imagine he will go down the novice handicap chase route. We made too much use of him on his first start over hurdles, but he came forward for the run and won well at Haydock Park. He pulled muscles very badly afterwards, but I had him ready to run in the spring, however the ground dried up so we didn’t risk him. When he sees a fence I think he could be very exciting.
THE DOYEN CHIEF
Originally he had to go right-handed, but we changed the bridle and other things and he ended up winning well around Warwick. I would like to get one run into him then I hope he might be a horse for the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury. I tried once to win that race with Smad Place without having a run beforehand and I learnt my lesson after a bit of advice from Mr Sherwood!
He was always pretty promising last season and just got better as the season went on. We just had to iron out the fact that he always wanted to go right. He might always be slightly better going right handed, but the way he won around Warwick I think we can get away with it around Newbury. He has got a very good win to run ratio, but is not the quickest so I think going up in trip has helped him. He could start out at Ascot on Saturday.
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