Matt Brocklebank looks ahead to the William Hill Hurdle and Great Yorkshire Chase following the unveiling of the entries this week.
Vol burrowing his way to Richards rematch?
A new year and some very good handicaps to look forward to in the coming weeks, but before all that we’ll kick off with another brief mention of the horse who headlined an earlier column pre-Christmas: Regent’s Stroll.
The suggestion straight after his fairly wild chasing debut at Newbury was that trainer Paul Nicholls might look to target the Jack Richards at the Cheltenham Festival in March, and things appear to have slotted into place magnificently.
With hood reapplied, Regent’s Stroll won a two-runner beginners’ event at Wincanton, before last week’s New Year’s Day second on his first taste of the Prestbury Park atmosphere and undulations, conceding winner Miami Magic 5lb in the process.
“Delighted with him,” Harry Cobden said on Racing TV after riding a winner later on the card. “We’ve lost nothing… he’s learnt loads… we could get him better… he’s got bigger days ahead of him in the spring…”
It’s seemingly a case of job done with him, especially after being dropped a pound to a mark of 145 (although it’s an open handicap these days so hardly critical he came down), but the next one to keep tabs on is Nicky Henderson’s Cheltenham third Califet En Vol, who shaped quite nicely for the second time over fences and now needs a final qualifying run to get him teed up for the same Festival race.
You could certainly see Califet En Vol completing the December-January set and returning later this month for the often informative Timeform Novices’ Handicap Chase on Trials Day, a race won by Jagwar en route to Festival Plate success last year.
The latter, who was a real eyecatcher on his belated return in the December Gold Cup, is also heading back to Cheltenham on January 24 for the Betfair Exchange Handicap Chase, with a view to either the Ryanair Chase (for which he was given an entry this week) or stepping up to three miles in the Ultima which could unlock any amount of further improvement as far as I’m concerned.
Saint sliding to workable rating
Sticking with supposed handicappers entered for Festival Grade 1s, how about the Gold Cup engagement for Konfusion, winner of all three completed starts this season and up 9lb (to 145) for his straightforward success in the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby on Boxing Day.
Trained by Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith, Konfusion took full advantage in a field of four in West Yorkshire but, in fairness to the horse, he was defying a 10lb rise for his 15-length Rehearsal Chase triumph and that rate of progression on flat, left-handed tracks this autumn/winter, connections might be best off skipping Cheltenham altogether and giving Aintree some serious consideration.
He might just make the cut for the National off that revised rating.
Konfusion’s name was a slightly surprising omission from the list of entries for Doncaster’s VirginBet Great Yorkshire Chase which hit the inbox this week but that’s maybe in part due to the same trainer(s) having Tommy Whittle winner Grand Geste front and centre for that staying prize.
One potential Doncaster contender creeping down the handicap this term and starting to look dangerously well treated is Imperial Saint.
Winners-wise, things have gone a little cooler for Philip Hobbs and Johnson White in recent weeks but it’s another training team whose horses continue to run consistently well even in defeat, and Imperial Saint hasn’t exactly let the side down with his Old Roan fifth and subsequent sixth at Cheltenham.
He’s another whose best form has come on the relatively less undulating tracks and, having been eased 3lb in total this season, off 141 he’s now only 4lb higher than when last successful. It’s not hard to envisage the step up to three miles on Town Moor suiting him down to the ground and the early 20/1 with a couple of firms might be of interest.
Novices cramming in their homework
The other big race to first come to light this week saw 38 entries made for the William Hill Hurdle.
Henderson and JP McManus has combined to win the race for the past two seasons and 2025 victor Joyeuse may look to double up although she’s 15lb higher in the weights this time and was beaten 23 lengths by Wilful and a bunch of other Newbury possibles at Ascot last month.
Khrisma looks the likelier type for the same connections this year but she’ll need to leave her Huntingdon form well behind on her first go in a handicap in a race quite as hot as this, for all that a BHA mark of 127 may ultimately underestimate her in time.
Dan Skelton only ended up with unplaced 50/1 shot Williethebuilder (now trained by Christian Williams) here 12 months ago and is out to put that right and win his first William Hill Hurdle, having put in five at this point. They include Ascot also-ran Live Conti (down 1lb to 142) and the lightly-raced mare Let It Rain, up 4lb for her smooth-travelling seasonal/handicap debut third in a lower-grade contest at the same Ascot meeting in December - replay below.
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Let It Rain, the sponsors' antepost 5/1 favourite, has only had three runs over hurdles but will be able to run here regardless as it's her second season over jumps and she’s not technically a novice.
It’s worth underlining that, unlike the Cheltenham Festival handicap hurdles which now require five qualifying runs, novices (or juveniles) still only need to have made a minimum of four starts over timber to be able to run in the valuable Newbury event and that brings us to the Skelton-trained Great Fleet, who was tailed off behind No Drama This End at Cheltenham’s November meeting before bouncing straight back to break his maiden at Kelso a month ago.
An even more obvious novice with a promising-looking profile for this race is the Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies-trained Un Sens A La Vie (12/1). He went up just 5lb for winning as he liked at Ludlow last time and his earlier Kempton form behind Old Park Star may turn out to be really classy, the first and third winning impressively since.
I was all for talking up Ben Pauling’s Lanesborough after he blew a Doncaster handicap apart on December 13 but he’s among the favourites for this weekend’s Lanzarote at Kempton so they’re presumably thinking about stepping him up in trip.
He’s definitely a name to note regardless, and so too is 33/1 shot General Briar, who is from another yard enjoying a really good season and looked different class to his rivals down in trip at Plumpton at the start of December.
Given a mark of just 116 on the back of it, he’ll need to go up a bit to be considered a realistic candidate and potentially sneak into the William Hill and presumably that’s the idea behind this Sunday’s Fontwell outing, which will also represent the progressive seven-year-old’s fourth run just in the nick of time. It’s the final day from which to get properly reassessed, with the weights published next Wednesday and any further success after this weekend incurring the flat-rate 5lb penalty.
Published at 16:00 GMT on 07/01/26
