The Jukebox Man and Handstands

Betfair Chase preview: Ben Pauling on Handstands and The Jukebox Man

By David Ord

Horse Racing

Tue November 18, 2025 · 1M ago

Saturday promises to be a big day for trainer Ben Pauling.

For it's off to Haydock he goes with his two Grade One-winning novice chasers from the last campaign, Handstands and The Jukebox Man.

The former is Betfair Chase-bound for one of the biggest days on his calendar, The Jukebox Man to a graduation chase on the same card for a crucial stepping-stone towards his own acid test.

Handstands has the benefit of a previous run this term, chasing home Resplendent Glory at Carlisle just over two weeks ago.

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Satisfactory was the word doing the round afterwards, and in terms of performance only five pounds shy of the level he produced to win the Scilly Isles last season on Timeform ratings.

But Pauling is convinced he's ready to go higher at the weekend.

“I was very happy with the result we ended up with in terms of a fitness run. At home he’s just been brilliant and he looked proper ring-rusty at Carlisle, looking about in the race," he says on the steps of the Cheltenham weighing room.

“He didn’t jump badly but was very ponderous and in hindsight when we fell in the Rising Stars last year I thought that was because of the ground but he ran a very, very similar race there.

“But just like last year he’s come home looking great, and he turned up at Sandown after the Rising Stars and was electric and I dare say, hopefully, this weekend will be a similar thing.

“It’s only the second season we’ve had him and we’re learning about him all the time. He came to life really last week and we’ll school him this week before the Betfair and I’m hopeful we’ll get a bit of a lead at Haydock, I’m certainly not planning on making it (the running) because I don’t think we looked like we had a lot of tactical speed last weekend in a funny old race, really.

“I don’t think he’s slow at all but what with ours coming for a run and Sean Bowen putting his horses on hovercrafts after the last, we didn’t really have time to react. Ben (Jones) couldn’t pull him up, he went halfway down the back straight at Carlisle before he could get him to stop.

“I just think we came away from it with a sound, healthy, horse. Was I overwhelmed? No. Was I gutted? No. It’s done its job. He's going to be a lot sharper for it and it was always going to be a stepping stone to his next race, whichever way we decided to go.”

Handstands, ridden by Ben Jones, on his way to victory at Sandown

And that’s Haydock - where the ground on Monday morning was described as 'good to soft, soft in places' ahead of potential rain on Tuesday.

“Everybody knows he’s pretty dangerous on proper soft ground but I believe he's just a very good horse at handling those conditions better than others. I don’t think he’s out of his way on good to soft, soft. I’d be half delighted if the weather forecast is accurate and it doesn’t become a very searching test because my biggest concern for the Betfair was I was going to leave his season there.

“If it's going to be nice ground it might be not to our best but we’d end up with a horse for the rest of the season which to me is the most important thing.

“I’d expect to run very well. I have more faith in this horse than you could ever imagine. I know the twice he’s been to festivals he hasn’t performed but he’s been wrong both times.

“I just think he has a huge engine. The Scilly Iles he won, I think we’ll look back in years to come to that being a very good Scilly Isles. We were cribbed for the fact Jango Baie didn’t handle the ground but he went fairly well through the race and didn’t look like a horse who wasn’t enjoying the ground.

“And that’s obviously his trip. He won the Arkle but was all out to do so and I think he’s a two-and-a-half miler and our lad is in really good form, I couldn’t be happier with him. It’s the first time we’ve had a Betfair runner and fingers crossed we can get off to a nice start.

"I'm a realist and think this is his best chance of a Grade One this season. In our wildest dreams he might be a Gold Cup horse but let’s be honest, that gets a bit hotter again. This is our best chance of a Grade One with him this year and we’ll try and take it."

And he'll be joined in the horsebox for the trip up the M6 by The Jukebox Man who looked a staying chasing of abundant potential when winning his two starts last term. But he met with a setback after landing the Kauto Star at Kempton on Boxing Day and missed the rest of the campaign.

The Betfair Exchange Graduation Chase is the race currently earmarked for the return, a clash with the titans waiting for another day.

“We’re very good novices from last year, they were the two stand-outs from the UK, but we’ve got to find another 10 to 15 pounds to be mixing it with the big boys here in March," he says, pointing towards the racecourse through the grandstands.

“I hope they’ll find it. I know Jukebox is very well-handicapped but it’s a lovely position to be in. I hope at least one of them will fill that void.

The Jukebox Man goes on to win the Kauto Star

“The Jukebox Man is in serious form. I was toying with the idea of going to the Coral Gold Trophy but his game is the King George and I was worried about going and probably giving him a hard race there, then a month later expecting him to be spot-on for Kempton after not running since Christmas last year.

“Some have alluded to it being a bit of a cop-out, but I think it’s the polar opposite. We’re setting him up for Kempton. With this graduation chase you can have won two chases so it's tailormade for him really and we’ve all been hearing the grumbling about not having good horses in the chasing excellence series, so here’s one.

“It means Ben can ride them both, too. He will have an entry at Ascot as well just in case for whatever reason we don’t run Handstands at Haydock and Ben can switch to Ascot if we thought it was a winnable race, but I would say it’s Haydock for both.

“There'll be a lot of nice horses turn up in the graduation chase and rightly so, they should. The Jukebox Man was a lot of people’s idea of a horse we don’t know where the ceiling was last year. But all that said, he’s going to be most vulnerable first time back after a long time off having picked up an injury.

“I’d like it to be a proper race. We want him to be fit for the King George. There’s quite a bit left to work on with him. It’s been a relatively smooth preparation, but not without little bumps in the road. Nothing with the old injury at all but I had a very bad puss in the foot two weeks ago that took us five or six days to clear up just at the wrong time.

“I took him to Lambourn for a gallop and he had a proper blow aftwrards but that will put him where I need him for his first run."

So how good does Pauling feel his young guys are ahead of the weekend?

“When you get these good horses they’re only as good as they are. We want to run them in these good races, and so it will be what it will be on the day but I’ve never had a horse I’d rather run it in the King George than The Jukebox Man, and I haven’t had one better. I’ll do what I can.

“They’re very, very different. The Jukebox is a bang average work horse and just gets to the course and comes alive. He has electric speed on the course which Handstands probably hasn’t so they’re very, very different. In my eyes, Handstands, unless you got a very heavy-ground King George, would be lost before the fourth fence, especially with an Il Est Francais or something like that taking them along.

“But The Jukebox will just love that. The faster they go, he’ll travel and jump and if something has gone a million up front and you’re there three-out, then it’s game on. They’re very different horses but very similar in ability from different angles."

And you just sense the trainer's excitement.

“We have never to date in the 13 years I’ve been training had a proper, open graded horse. Barters Hill went by the wayside in his novice year, Bright Forecast got a fibrillating heart, Willoughby Court sadly died of an infection in a hind leg," he radds.

“We haven’t had a lot of luck with the Grade One winners early in their careers so it’s great to have these two. But I also realise it’s not easy to keep them on the straight and narrow. They are very good horses and regardless of where they end up in the pecking order, it’s nice to have something to challenge the battalions from the other side.

“I’m super proud of the fact they’re with us and they weren’t mega-expensive horses. They were just well bought and are going in the right way. That makes us all feel brilliant.

“It’s a huge team effort and the team at home are in great spirits because the horses are running well and we seem to be finding a lot more nice horses. It’s a good position to be in, we’re by no means where we want to be. We want to get stronger and stronger, we don’t want to be happy with where we are. Sod that, we want to try and be up there with Dan and whoever else might be up there in the table.

“But this year it feels like there’s a much bigger depth of trainers producing proper horses from our side of the water and that has got to help. We can’t just rely on Paul (Nicholls) and Nicky (Henderson) anymore. It’s time for the rest of us to crack on."

Leaving Haydock on Saturday with a Betfair Chase winner and leading King George fancy would see Pauling heading up that particular charge.

It's hard not to share his enthusiasm about the stable's Super Saturday.

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