Christmas racing preview: Joe Chambers on the Susannah and Rich Ricci team

Gaelic Warrior v Fact To File the rematch.

Throw in two rising British stars in Jango Baie and The Jukebox Man, last year’s winner Banbridge, the tearaway Kempton specialist Il Est Francais and you have the recipe for a classic renewal of the great race.

So, imagine having a ringside seat for the build-up. Joe Chambers has. And the representative to Susannah and Rich Ricci is encouraged by how stress-free it’s been for team Gaelic Warrior after that epic duel with his stablemate at Punchestown last month.

“Patrick (Mullins) has been riding him out the last four or five weeks and has been very happy with him. I know the immediate reaction after the John Durkan was that he ate up well and there were no adverse signs,” Chambers said.

“You never know until they turn up again and that applies to Fact To File as well, I guess, but the vibes and the feedback from both trainer and his assistant have been very positive, certainly in the last ten days and have done nothing to dissuade us from thinking this is a very good idea.”

And the King George is a race that matters – to team Ricci and the sport in general. They came agonisingly close to winning it with Vautour in 2015, only to see the brilliant chaser run down by Cue Card in a finish that still defies belief, no matter how many times you watch it on YouTube.

So, is there a sense of unfinished business when it comes to this particular race?

“Probably not as much as there is for JP McManus who said on Saturday, he’s been trying to win it since 1978. Champagne Fever was fifth for us and Vautour was our only other runner in the race,” Chambers continues.

“He’s probably one that got away as opposed to the King George being one that got away but it is in my mind one of the majors of the National Hunt season and in terms of the history of the game too. It has a huge provenance, not quite the day the country goes racing as Des Lynam used to say about the Grand National on Grandstand, but it’s a day the country watches racing and pretty much any other sport as well.

“So, it’s something anybody would love to win and it’s no less a case for Susannah and Rich.”

What are his memories of that remarkable finish a decade ago?

“I watched it in a part of Kempton that I never watch races from – and never have since – about 50 yards after last. I vividly recall Cue Card’s head being down and not being sure who’d won but all the way back to the parade ring people were patting Rich on the back and congratulating him.

“In 30 seconds I saw a man who thinks he’s won a King George turn into one who finds out he hasn’t… in hindsight it was mildly entertaining but at the time anything but.

“That was a strange year if you think about it. It was one where Willie nearly won the championship and Vautour ran through the story. He wasn’t that impressive at Ascot in the 1965 Chase before being chinned in the King George.

“Then he had the switcheroo moment into the Ryanair before tipping up in the Melling Chase. He was probably the difference between Willie winning the championship or not that time.”

Gaelic Warrior played a significant role in his trainer retaining the crown in the spring of this year with his victories at Aintree and Sandown. On those occasions he was ridden with restraint but was back to his old trailblazing ways in the Durkan.

Are team Ricci expecting him to be ridden with more patience on Boxing Day?

“We’re the receiver of instructions when it comes to that,” Chambers smiles, “But I don’t think Paul had much of a choice at Punchestown and a lot of that was freshness. We saw at Aintree last year that he’s a lot more tractable and can be ridden quietly.

“That was under Patrick, but it was the same at Sandown where against lesser opposition than he had at Aintree he was very tractable again. I’m not too concerned about that for all you don’t want to see the jockey get into a fight with the horse or the horse get into a fight with another horse either.

“It will be quite interesting to see how forward Harry Cobden is on Il Est Francais. The Jukebox Man’s jumping will probably take him prominent, but he’ll never have gone as fast over the first few as he will here.

“I think it’s going to be quite a test of stamina all told even with the forecast decent ground given the amount of pace there is in the race and there probably won’t be much of a let-up.”

Irish raiders feared most at Kempton

So who are the dangers to the current favourite?

“I think it’s the Irish horses really. Il Est Francais in my opinion, and this is meant in no way with any disrespect to connections, but I think he’s quite a binary outcome. He’ll either do something like he did last year, or he has a history of bursting.

“I hope he doesn’t do that and runs his race as he will obviously add to it. Clearly, he’s not the most reliable horse but perhaps he’ll be on a going day.

“I think the nature of the race will suit Banbridge for all he has six or seven pounds to find on official ratings, and I think Fact To File has to be bang there if he gets the trip.”

And for the Ricci’s Christmas is no one-horse show.

Lossiemouth, currently favourite for the Unibet Champion Hurdle, will continue to try and prove she has the speed to be a top-notcher at the minimum trip in the December Hurdle at Leopardstown.

She passed her first pace test in the Morgiana on her seasonal return.

“Good horses can get away with it sometimes against lesser opposition, but she won’t have that opportunity here,” Chambers says.

“Brighterdaysaheasd doesn’t have the recognised King Of Kingsfield replacement to drag the race into a darker place, for all that could actually suit Lossiemouth.

“If Wodhooh turns up as well she’s a stamina driven horse or at least her best form has been over further than two miles to me.

“Anzadam is probably a fly in the ointment as he didn’t run that badly in the Fighting Fifth but everybody has been very happy with our mare. And they were all really happy with her back in August, September and October. That’s kind of where I go back to for the first half of the season and touch wood she’s had a clear run.

“We managed to make a balls of the juvenile race here when it was one of our rank outsiders who got in the way and whether it was the seagulls or not that distracted her at Leopardstown last year against State Man, she certainly didn’t hate the track for the first mile-and-a-quarter of that race either.

“They were going a fair lick up front and I’m not too worried about the course for her. It will be interesting to see who lines up but it would be nice to see her put two runs together back-to-back over two miles.

“I thought Paul asked her a big question the Morgiana at the pace he set off at, and it probably looks a bigger question in hindsight with the form of Willie’s horses ever since.

“If you view the context of what’s gone on from that weekend to now, it’s only been the seasoned horses or the novice chasers who’ve turned up. I think Willie has been taking his time quite considerably with his novice hurdlers and younger horses, at least that what it appears to me on paper.”

Is quiet spell for the yard a cause for concern?

Does the quiet spell the champion trainer is currently going through play on connections’ minds at all when they’re taking aim at major prizes with two of their big guns?

“If they hadn’t had a run, it might do an awfully lot more than it does. But they’ve both had a run, both won and you take a good bit of comfort and encouragement from that plus the trainer is happy with them,” Chambers says.

“They’re a few years older than a lot of these other horses and it’s not massively dissimilar to last year when I think Willie was 18 from 137 over the month of December and seven from 74 between the 26th and the 29th.

“In that window Lossiemouth got beat at Kempton, State Man got beat at Leopardstown. All for different reasons and we’re tackling a differing race this year and didn’t go to the Hatton’s Grace before it and State Man unfortunately isn’t around.

“But it’s happened before is all I’m saying and I’m more intrigued as to how the seasonal debutants, the novices, go from the point of view of the current stable form.”

And that brings in Laurets d’Estruval who makes his first start in the Pink and Green in a maiden hurdle at Limerick on the same afternoon as Gaelic Warrior bids for King George glory.

“We bought him at the end of January last year. He’s a Saint Des Saints horse out of a Nickname mare and has only had the one run behind Lovely Guy who ran up a sequence and nearly went off favourite for a Grade One at Auteuil at their big meeting in May.

“He’s a fine big horse, a nice horse, and has had a couple of entries over the last few weeks so I’m hoping he’s ready to rock.

“Usually, you look at starting off at Limerick as not necessarily being a sign of encouragement, but such has been the change in dynamic at Willie’s yard, I think he’s just trying to run horses wherever he can get them into at the moment, regardless of trip, track and race-fitness.”

And there are two others waiting in the wings, ready to step out over the next week or so too.

“Madness D’Elle is a juvenile hurdler and has done a couple of nice bits of work. He had a run around Auteuil and might be kept for Punchestown on the 31st,” Chambers reveals.

“Look there have been so many juveniles bought from France and off the Flat this time, I think we’ve got seven this year, where they all rank in terms of ability is TBD but he’s by a new sire in Moises Has who has a very good strike-rate in France.

“We’d be hoping he’ll come on and mature through the season, but I can’t see there being a weak three-year-old hurdle any time soon based on the purchasing activity of various owners and trainers on both sides of the Irish Sea over the last six to nine months.

“Love Sign D’Anou is a very good-looking bumper horse. Again, he goes well and could run at Leopardstown on the 28th. I think he’s quite nice. Whether he’s a bumper horse I don’t know but everyone has been pleased with him so far.”

And handicappers – there are handicappers too.

Sainte Lucie looked anything but one when making a winning debut for the team on New Year’s Eve at Punchestown but wasn’t the same mare in the big tests she went on to sit.

But she’s back with another summer on her back and a handicap mark of 127. Does she have a few pounds in hand?

“I’d be disappointed if she didn’t, but I do think she’ll be better again over further. She starts off at two miles, and I know David Casey had been doing a lot of work with her before he went to Melbourne in November,” Chambers says.

“I’d like to think we’ll have a productive season with her, and it looks a good starting point.”

Then there’s O’Moore Park who ran well for much of the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury before tiring going to the last.

He made a shuddering mistake at the 14th that day but looks the sort to win a race like the Paddy Power Chase somewhere down the line, doesn’t he?

“I think so but don’t ask me when it will be. Chasing is his game, and I think the decent ground at Leopardstown will suit him, he’s an outlier among our horses with regards to that,” says Chambers.

“He does need to put his jumping together, but I would say he should learn a lot from Newbury. A big field, going a good lick and you don’t get a breather in either so hopefully he’ll have learned a lot and if he can sharpen up his jumping and be more akin to how he was at Cheltenham last year behind Caldwell Potter, then he can run a big race.

“That’s providing he gets the trip though There’s still a little question mark at the back of my mind about that.”

For the festive beginners’ chases there are two horses who need to come forward from their chasing debuts last month.

“I think Joystick needed it very badly at Fairyhouse and jumped great. I think we’ll have the confidence to ride him a lot more prominently now and he’ll probably go back to that track again.

“Dr Eggman needs to come forward an awful lot, otherwise handicaps are going to be his future. He’s a horse who’s always promised plenty but hasn’t done it on the racecourse yet. He’s very much in the needs-to-do-better grade at school at the moment.”

And then there’s Kara Sacre at Leicester for Venetia Williams.

He will be making his first start to the team after switching from Paul Nolan in Ireland.

“Paul and Rich would know each other a long time and he was one that it was felt might be suited to the programme in the UK. He had a mark over hurdles, so we thought we’d give it a whirl and see how we get on.

“Venetia has been very pleased with him. He didn’t look simple with Paul and had his issues but has adapted well to life in Aramstone from what I hear, and the English handicapper only gave him two extra pounds from his Irish mark which I’d like to think was lenient.

“I think Venetia wants to start off and get out in trip sooner rather than later, but you usually get a bit of softer ground at Leicester and we’re happy enough to start him out over two miles there. I’d like to think there’s a good bit of improvement to come.”

From Limerick to Leicester, Leopardstown to Kempton, Fairyhouse to Punchestown, it’s a hectic Christmas for the Pink and Green.

Leading owners wouldn’t want it any other way. Not when you’ve got big runners in the big races too.

And they don’t come any bigger than Gaelic Warrior in this year’s King George.

Don’t expect to see Joe Chambers watching it from 50 yards after the final fence, or Rich Ricci watching it all.

But ten years on from Vautour, they might just get their Kempton Christmas celebration after all.

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