ITV's Ed Chamberlin reflects on the Boxing Day action
ITV Racing’s main man Ed Chamberlin reflects on King George VI Chase day at Kempton as Paul Nicholls race won the race for the 10th time.
We might well have seen the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Champion Hurdle winner and RSA Chase winner at Kempton on Boxing Day – but none of the trio won their Christmas assignments.
Native River ran a blinder in third in the King George despite needing a stiffer test of stamina. The same sentiment applies to Santini who did not dent his reputation one bit when third in the Kauto Star. And then Buveur D’Air had a rare off day when going down to stablemate Verdana Blue in the Christmas Hurdle.
Plenty of drama, then, on ITV, as the equine stars delivered some real Christmas crackers.
But we’ll start chronologically with the first race to go on air, the 32Red.com Chase for the novice handicappers, as, for a Southampton fan like me, it was great to see Mick Channon striking just like he always did on Boxing Day.
Glen Forsa put in a terrific round of jumping – you can tell he’s benefitted from the coaching of Henrietta Knight – and in the colours of Tim Radford he looks another Mister Whitaker type who might just go on and win more races like that horse.
Mick has promised me he’ll do his famous windmill celebration if he gets a winner live on ITV, but sadly he wasn’t at Kempton as he recovers from back problems. Let’s hope he’s recovering well enough to have done the windmill in his own living room.
After that it was quality all the way with three Grade Ones and La Bague Au Roi kicked things off with victory in the 32Red Kauto Star Novices’ Chase.
She has supermodel looks and an attitude to match, her tough and talented attributes helping her overcome the challenge from Topofthegame.
Sir AP McCoy and Mick Fitzgerald both said afterwards that if Harry Cobden could ride the race again he’d ride Topofthegame differently and wait a bit later… well, later on he certainly had the last laugh.
But take nothing away from La Bague Au Roi. She was brilliant and she became the first mare since Fiddling The Facts in 1997 to win this race, although whether she can break the RSA hoodoo for winners of this contest is another thing… Cheltenham really doesn’t look like her track.
It does look Santini’s, though. He’s all about stamina. This test will not have suited him one bit and he ran fantastically well to get as close as he did in third. You can see why he remains the 4/1 favourite with Sky Bet.
Along with Tiger Roll retaining his Cross Country crown, Santini for the RSA remains my bet of the Festival.
That was a minor blow for Nicky Henderson and while defeat for Buveur D’Air in the Unibet Christmas Hurdle was more of a shock, he at least still won the race with stablemate Verdana Blue.
McCoy was wincing three out as Buveur D’Air battered his hurdle and, to be fair to Fitzgerald, he did say before the race that the champion hurdler would get caught out one day because of his daring hurdling technique.
His mistake at the third last really knocked the Christmas stuffing out of him and, though he didn’t lose an awful lot of ground, that certainly told in the closing stages as Verdana Blue got on top to prevail by a short head.
Lengthened to 5/4 by Sky Bet for the Champion Hurdle, I’m more and more excited about seeing Laurina now even though we still don’t really know when that will be.
And so to the King George, always a Christmas treat, and so it proved again even if it was a bit of a headscratcher both before and after the race.
I backed Clan Des Obeaux for the Betfair Chase but put a line through him for this after that performance, but he was superb under Cobden, who waited late until asking for his effort, ensuring a remarkable 10th win in the race for the brilliant Paul Nicholls.
I said after Frodon won he’s a trainer that’s been at the peak of his powers for two decades and that point is worth underlining again after another tremendous King George success.
It’s also worth pointing out his Politologue ruined his race before they even went off. They all got to post about five minutes early and he boiled over, getting very warm before the race.
Others had excuses, too. It appears Might Bite bled during the race so fingers crossed Nicky Henderson can nurse him back to health, while Waiting Patiently was so unlucky in being brought down by the fall of Bristol De Mai.
This test was never going to be enough for Native River, either. Stablemate Thistlecrack ran a great race in second, but it’s Native River who ran the best Gold Cup trial and he’s most certainly the one I’d take out of the race for Cheltenham.
But today was about Kempton. It was about Clan Des Obeaux, a young horse on the up, owned by a beaming Paul Barber and Ged Mason who give so much to the game.
One of the owners was missing – a certain Sir Alex Ferguson – but hopefully this gave him a great lift wherever he was watching, loving every second of his horse winning this prestigious Christmas highlight.
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