Saturday was all about some significant performances from British-trained horses in the King George VI Chase betting.
Sunday might be different when Willie Mullins runs Fact To File and Gaelic Warrior and five more in the Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase, but that is for another day.
For now let’s reflect on Jango Baie and The Jukebox Man and Grey Dawning who lit up Saturday afternoon at Ascot and Haydock with some superb performances.
Jango Baie is 4/1 from 14s for the Boxing Day highlight, The Jukebox Man is into 6/1 and Grey Dawning was cut to 10s, generally, after his Haydock redemption.
Jango unchained in 1965 Chase
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How good was last season’s Arkle?
Runner-up Only By Night and fourth home L’eau Du Sud have already come out and won this season, the latter in emphatic fashion against Jonbon at Cheltenham, and now it was the winner’s turn to show us what he has got.
Nicky Henderson’s Jango Baie did not disappoint in the Grade 2 Ladbrokes 1965 Chase at Ascot, on his first start of the season and since wind surgery, delivering a statement performance under Nico De Boinville.
The statement wasn’t ‘I’m not a two-miler’, he’d already made that obvious last season - even when winning the Arkle. It was more ‘I’m ready for the King George’ and you wouldn’t bet against the three-mile trip extracting further improvement from this spritely six-year-old.
He looks a massive Kempton player on this evidence, a nine-length verdict over Gidleigh Park, who ran well, not over-egging what he achieved at a time when several of his stablemates have been looking to need their runs.
It makes you wonder how the Arkle’s role might develop now the Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Chase is extinct. It has been a breeding ground for Gold Cup horses in the past – the likes of War Of Attrition and Kicking King ran in the Arkle pre-Turners – and it could be again now the intermediate option is no more.
The Gold Cup trip might be stretching it as far as Jango Baie is concerned. But three miles at Kempton could be right up his street.
Jukebox has the big hits for Pauling
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Over at Haydock The Jukebox Man returned from 331 days off the track with a most pleasing performance in the Betfair Exchange Graduation Chase.
This was also over a trip short of three miles, but we know The Jukebox Man stays well – indeed, we know he loves three miles at Kempton after his Kauto Star victory – so Ben Pauling will have been delighted with how he coped with 2m5f at Haydock against good opposition.
Sterner tasks await, but the fantastic drone shots showed you how well he jumped, particularly when the screw was turned in the straight, and such fencing will stand him in good stead when he returns to Grade 1 company.
No Kempton return for Dawning
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“He can’t go right-handed,” said Dan Skelton after the Betfair Chase, ruling out a return to Sunbury on Boxing Day for Grey Dawning who fluffed his lines last year.
Still, two British-trained King George contenders emerging on an otherwise gloomy November afternoon was a welcome development, even if a certain Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File, the two horses still atop the Kempton betting, will be strutting their stuff in the John Durkan on Sunday.
Mullins isn’t always represented in the King George – he’s had four runners in it since Vautour’s near miss in 2015 – but given his strength in depth in the staying chase division you would think he’ll route at least one Kempton’s way this year to go for a third victory in the race.
As for which one, perhaps we’ll find out more on Sunday. But at least the emergence of Jango Baie and The Jukebox Man means the King George is unlikely to be handed to Mullins on a plate.
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