Ed Chamberlin: Saturday Verdict | Solo, Frankie Dettori, Leighton Aspell and more

What a few weeks it has been for Johnny de la Hey.

I’ve enjoyed bringing owners to the forefront of our coverage on ITV and Johnny de la Hey seems like a good guy. He’s very honest and the Cheltenham Festival isn’t the be all and end all for him.

However, his Solo is Cheltenham-bound for the Triumph. He was the star of the show this afternoon. He looked pure class in the Adonis Hurdle and it was refreshing to hear connections say ‘absolutely, next stop Triumph Hurdle’ straight after the race to give everyone some clarity.

No wonder the 5s and 6s quickly disappeared after that interview was aired. He’s 3/1 favourite with Sky Bet, non runner no bet, and the words that stuck with me were when Paul Nicholls compared him to Master Minded.

High. Praise. Indeed. And the late money told you confidence was oozing out of Ditcheat.

However, I cannot forget another conversation I had with Gary Moore earlier in the season at Cheltenham. I was teasing him about Arsenal and I slipped into the conversation the question – ‘how good is Goshen?’

He said, ‘Ed, he’s a complete freak.’ And at the Cheltenham Festival I want to see the love shared around. So my heart remains with Goshen, although Solo’s arrival on the scene means the Triumph is shaping up to be a cracker.

It’s not the only race like that, is it? The novice hurdles have really got me gripped and the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ is pie hot. I’m fully on board the Shishkin express although I won’t be backing him until the day. He’s quite a buzzy character and I want to see how he handles the preliminaries.

And then Wednesday. Wednesday! It promises to be one of the great racing days of recent times. Envoi Allen, the Irish banker, kicks us off in the Ballymore, then we have one of the best Champion Chases for many a year before Tiger Roll goes for history.

Talking of which, I had a chance meeting with my old pal on Friday. I was at Cheltenham for a talk and spotted the Gordon Elliott horsebox. My immediate thought was ‘Tiger’ before I said to myself ‘it couldn’t be’, so I sought out Simon Claisse to get the inside info.

He said ‘yes it is, but keep it to yourself’ and I went and had a look at the old warrior. Elliott had him jumping over four hedges and the thing that struck was the attention to detail, that he’s prepared to travel the Tiger across to Cheltenham to jump four hedges just over two weeks before his big race.

It’s those fine margins that get you to the top.

Frankie back with a bang

Two weighing room warriors then hogged the headlines on ITV.

First a 49-year-old called Frankie Dettori kicked off 2020 like he finished 2019, having travelled all over the globe this winter it was great to see his smile light up a damp and grey afternoon at Lingfield as Dubai Warrior won the Winter Derby.

Sorry to use a Dave Ord cliché but he rode them to sleep. It was a great ride.

Then the 43-year-old Leighton Aspell broke the news he was retiring for a second and final time. Of his 900-odd winners he’ll be remembered for two; the back-to-back Grand National wins and particularly that incredible day on Many Clouds.

Many Clouds’ Grand National was just fantastic. But he gave me my saddest day on ITV when he passed away during just our fourth ever show in 2017. His trainer Oliver Sherwood did the sport a massive turn that day with the interview he gave us and this has been a big week for welfare in the sport.

Full marks to the BHA here. The welfare report, the release of those videos explaining all the care these wonderful horses get, it’s so important in getting these messages across and being on the front foot.

It’s so much better to be proactive than reactive with this sort of thing.

Johnson almost back in the groove

The one person who was gutted more than any other by the news of Leighton’s retirement was our studio guest Richard Johnson, as he’s now the senior citizen in the weighing room.

He was generally in great spirits, though, ahead of his imminent return and it was interesting to hear that he’s far from given up on retaining his jockeys’ title. He’s 19 behind Brian Hughes as things stand and I believe he was off to meet Dave Roberts in a secret bunker to formulate a plan for another championship assault.

It’s far from beyond the realms and you wouldn’t put it past the pair.

Finally, I’ve had a busy few days doing talks at Leicester City and Cheltenham racecourse and on Sunday I’m lucky enough to be going to Twickenham to see England v Ireland.

But the one thing that I’m looking forward to the most is hosting one of my favourite events of the year – the Godolphin Stud And Stable Staff Awards for 2020 in London on Monday.

Oisin Murphy will be joining me to recognise the heroes of our sport and I’d like to take the chance to wish all 18 finalists the very best of luck.

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