Lydia Hislop Road to Cheltenham Champion Chase archive

February 2 2017

With the Clarence House principals now set for the Ryanair, the only horse to report on from this division is fifth-placed Special Tiara. The overnight rain was clearly to his detriment but he did show perhaps a little more sparkle than has been the case even in victory this term when refusing to drop away after being headed by Un De Sceaux.Yet the fact is he was ultimately beaten 33 lengths. Very sadly I'm still working on the basis that Special Tiara is on the downgrade.Odds-on favourite Douvan returns to the track against inferior opposition in the Grade Two Tied Cottage Chase at Punchestown this Sunday.

 It will be interesting to see whether Nicky Henderson starts favouring the old racecourse gallop for novice Altior when he realises both Fox Norton and Sire De Grugy could pitch up against him in Newbury's Game Spirit later this month.

January 25 2017

The abandonment of Ascot due to a hard frost last Saturday means the Clarence House has been transferred to Cheltenham and will be sponsored by Spectra Group. Un De Sceaux is set to be present and correct but trainer Gary Moore is not a happy camper.You can sympathise with his thinking in the short term: it probably would have been more equitable to transfer this race to another right-handed track by waiting a further week for Sandown's fixture. It's unlikely a good horse would run this weekend and a fortnight later in the Game Spirit anyway, so staging the races seven days apart would probably have made no material difference.However Moore's choice of vocabulary was revealing, not to say alarming if you've backed Ar Mad for either the Champion Chase or the Ryanair. "It's not a fair track, nor a conventional racecourse," he protested to the British Horseracing Authority when consulted on their plan to reschedule the race at Cheltenham. That's gotta put you off, hasn't it?

January 19 2017

An entry of 28 for this race is the fourth largest in 11 years, suggesting Douvan hasn't frightened everyone off - yet. As promised, Nicky Henderson has entered his star novice Altior but I'd still be surprised if this circumspect trainer rolled the big dice.The numbers include Just Cameron, who has been raised just 2lbs to 149 for success in a two-mile Wetherby handicap chase last Saturday and just isn't in this league, and the mercurial L'Ami Serge, who faces The New One in Haydock's Champion Hurdle Trial this Saturday.On Tuesday, Pricewise tipped easily the most interesting potential contender in Tell Us More, who beat The Game Changer under suitable conditions for the runner-up - albeit he was conceding 9lbs to the winner - in a Naas Grade Three last November. Both were match-fit.Tell Us More jumped violently left - not atypically - on that occasion, his first start for Elliott since leaving Mullins under the terms of The Great Divorce and hasn't been seen since.

January 11 2017

To continue the air of surreality, Nicky Henderson has entered Altior in the Champion Chase. However, he also entered him in next week's Clarence House, only to backtrack when the reality of actually running him outside of novice company actually started to loom.That said, the original target of the Game Spirit would require the same leap and the message behind all of these signals is best interpreted as evidence of the regard in which Henderson holds this horse. He's treating him like Sprinter Sacre. Favourite next step is still "racecourse gallop" in my book, mind."I had all sorts of people telling me I had to put him in, so we thought about it and we've put him in," Henderson commented, after admitting on At The Races's On The Line show that he'd penciled in the Champion Chase entry."I had so many messages last night telling me to take out the rubber, get rid of the pencil and put it in ink, so it's in ink now."The idea this might actually come to pass is as likely as voting Brexit, electing Trump and closing Kempton. But at least Altior v. Douvan would be worth seeing. That prospect will tempt us when the Champion Chase entries are revealed later this week.January 4 2017Josh Moore's fall at Huntingdon on Boxing Day resulted in a dislocated shoulder, meaning he won't be fit to ride Ar Mad in Ascot's Clarence House Chase later this month.The current plan is for elder brother Jamie to take over, which might indicate stablemate Sire De Grugy is no longer being aimed at that race. At the very least, if he did line up it would mean the 11-year-old would be ridden by a brand new jockey because only Jamie or Josh have ever ridden him in public.January 1, 2017It was all too easy for Douvan in Leopardstown's Grade One Paddy Power Cashcard Chase last Tuesday. He didn't have to mine any unseen reservoirs of ability in order to dispense with four solid but unspectacular rivals with clinical ease.It panned out like this: Alisier D'Irlande careered off in front while Douvan shadowed him at a distance in his own sweet rhythm but then the leader's jumping started to go raggedly out to the left and by the second last the winner simply glided into the lead with the rest of the field under varying degrees of pressure.No rival looked likely to challenge him in the straight and none did. If you must, you can deduct 0.1 from Douvan's score for artistic impression for getting in slightly close to the last but this was another utterly dominant display from the 1/2 favourite for the Champion Chase.Afterwards Mullins was all for the perfect 10, even suggesting Douvan could come to rival Hurricane Fly's place at the head of his personal ranking of all the great horses he has trained."My heart skips a beat every time he goes down to a fence and gets a bit close to it," he admitted to the Racing Post. "Potentially he must be the best steeplechaser - or horse - we've had. It's hard to see we might have one better than Hurricane Fly but he never jumped a fence. I'm keeping my fingers crossed he just stays sound."Walsh was also impressed, citing the clock that testified to the best time by far on the day. "I thought Douvan was very good," he said. "He clocked four minutes and two seconds - that's proper speed here."There will be tougher tasks ahead, you know, but not much more. Not much more. Mullins has his sights trained - as much as he ever does - on the Tied Cottage Chase at Punchestown in February as Douvan's next stop on his procession to Cheltenham."I don't plan these things," he said. "Hopefully he'll be sound when we get home and then we'll have a look. The Tied Cottage might be the race for him. We'll look nearer to home rather than have to travel."Runner-up Sizing John was banging his head against a dementingly familiar wall. That's now seven times he's chased home Douvan in second or third over fences and hurdles. However, now under the care of Jessica Harrington, he produced perhaps his best performance yet but without ever remotely threatening the winner.Perhaps he should be given another chance up in trip after a below par effort in Aintree's Manifesto Chase in April on his sole previous try at 2m4f. The Ryanair could yet come under consideration.In-form Simply Ned ran below his best, however, as is most often the case when he has contested the highest grade.An uncharacteristic mistake from Sire De Grugy that caught Jamie Moore by surprise and unseated him at the second diminished an already-muted edition of Kempton's Grade Two 32Red Desert Orchid Chase last Tuesday into a match between Special Tiara and Sir Valentino.Once Sire De Grugy had departed, everything was even more in Special Tiara's favour: the opportunity to dominate in good ground on a flat track, receiving weight from the supposedly inferior runner-up. In that context, he was far from impressive. In fact it was only the steadfastness of his jumping under pressure that made the difference between victory and defeat.Although this was clearly better than his last two efforts, Special Tiara is currently cutting a much lesser dash than during his bravura 12-month period that culminated in his excellent third to Sprinter Sacre in the Champion Chase. The top drawer of this division looks beyond his reach this season - and I say that as an ardent fan of the horse.Sir Valentino, on the other hand, is improving. He'd been totally outclassed in the Tingle Creek so it was hard to assess whether that on-paper career best effort was merely the flattery of numbers. This effort - a half-length defeat from 16lb wrong at the weights had the Kempton race been a handicap - suggests it was not.It would have been even closer bar for Sir Valentino hitting the second last and even lacking some fluency at the final obstacle. He may well turn up in the Champion Chase but his Sandown defeat betrays the gulf that still lies between him and the likes of Un De Sceaux and an on-song Sire De Grugy.Falling out the back of the telly and never remotely involved was the remaining runner, Savello. Presumably his target will again be the Grand Annual but it's hard to judge yet what ability he retains this season.Moore came off worse than Sir De Grugy, receiving a nasty kick to the head during his tumble. Trainer Gary Moore was relieved to report in his Betway column that the horse came home sound despite carrying on jumping loose with the field.If all remains well, he heads to next month's Clarence House at Ascot where he will be joined by stablemate Ar Mad, who was briefly a possible King George contender. Moore hopes to learn from his next race whether to target that horse at the Champion Chase or step up in trip.

December 15, 2016

With Ruby Walsh having unaccountably deserted him to chase a Grade One prize on a dual Gold Cup runner-up, Douvan suffered the indignity of merely being ridden by multiple Grade One-winning jockey Paul Townend. They both muddled through successfully, however, by a touch-and-go 22 lengths.The winner was impatient to get the job done, moving keenly to the lead amid the charge of horses approaching the first fence. The most impressive bit was when he moved effortlessly clear at the fourth last; the most worrying when he drifted carelessly right at the next, getting in too close and clipping it. But he found his legs readily and did not look like actually falling. He was back in the groove by the second last and, like his rider, hyper-aware at the last.David Casey, representing the absent Mullins, reported: "Paul Townend said he was hacking at all stages and thought he was actually going slow. That's the type of horse we are dealing with."He was just buzzy down to the first fence and he was obviously just very fresh and well. He went and winged the first and landed in front and that was it from there. Paul said he was idling away a bit."If that's a tactful way of saying Douvan was bored by the standard of his opponents in the Grade Two Hilly Way, then fair enough. Days Hotel is very capable over 2m1f at Cork but, at 11 years of age, progressed into the veterans' category some time ago and has never yet cut it at Grade One level anyway.Douvan had brushed aside The Game Changer in the Arkle and the latter couldn't have hoped for better on ground palpably too testing for him; he was pulled up after making a mistake at the third last.However, assertions of Douvan's invincibility are somewhat premature given that - to cite only recent greats - at their peak Sprinter Sacre, Master Minded and Moscow Flyer were rated 188, 186 and 180 respectively. Douvan is currently published at 169 according to the British handicapper, a rating that perhaps slightly under-values his Aintree performance last April.Clearly, given Sunday was his first foray out of novice company, he hasn't yet been presented with an opportunity to rate more highly and there was little to overly trouble him at Cork - where anything other than a dominant display would have been disappointing.You'd still like to see some horse eyeball him over a few fences but, with Sprinter Sacre retired, you wonder whether one currently exists to do that.Douvan is currently (a please-don't-bet-with-us-until-we-let-some-of-you-have-£10-at-2/1-on-the-day) 4/7 (usual restrictions apply) but, in all seriousness, there is little in this division to worry him currently even if he isn't a 180+ horse… which he probably is.Fox Norton is on the upgrade but needs to improve to match Douvan and, er, that's it. Un De Sceaux will go Ryanair unless it's muddy. The lovely Sire De Grugy isn't going to win another Champion Chase - bar accidents - at his age. This is shaping up to be an event that will require tackling via alternative markets nearer the time.One horse that won't be an option is Vaniteux, who failed to boss inferior horses in Cheltenham's two-mile handicap chase off a mark of 154 last Saturday. He fell at the second last in the Arkle when rider Nico de Boinville was determined to at least try to put it to Douvan; it's looking increasingly as though he might have been alone in that sentiment.

December 7, 2016

It was a bravura edition of the Betfair Tingle Creek, with Ar Mad setting the race up the only way he knows how but Un De Sceaux now an entirely less headlong character and Sire De Grugy in vintage revival form. In terms of high-class competitiveness to the line, it was the race of the season to date.Ar Mad was clearly stoked to be back racing and his pace caught some rivals unawares from the outset: in first-time cheekpieces Vibrato Valtat bundled over the first while God's Own blundered through the second.However Un De Sceaux and Sire De Grugy, like the top-class two-milers that they are, comfortably chased the pace in second and third. The former jumped far better than his last encounter with this tricky track in April's Celebration Chase - for which Ruby Walsh blames faster ground and the big black presence of Sprinter Sacre that day. (Luckily that now-retired beast, much to his evident frustration, was only at Sandown to parade on Saturday.)Ar Mad was going too fast for his own good in the back straight and from the sixth onwards he began to look vulnerable until a blunder at the first of the quick-fire Railway fences saw him surrender the lead to Un De Sceaux. To his credit, he didn't fold but had no answer as the big two settled down to business exiting the back straight.They jumped the Pond fence and rounded the home turn in unison but Un De Sceaux held a marginal advantage at the second last where neither horse got it right but Sire De Grugy recovered more quickly to get almost upsides again. Un De Sceaux then put in a short one at the last, allowing the advantage to swing again to his rival, but gradually the winner wore him down on the run to the line."It takes more than one horse to make a horse race," an exhilarated Walsh told me on Racing UK immediately afterwards. "Sire De Grugy served it up to me….It ebbed and it flowed and it's great to come out in front but you need two horses to take each other on and that's what you got."Commenting on how the race panned out, he said: "Even in last year's Champion Chase, while Un De Sceaux likes to bowl and get on with it, he doesn't necessarily do it from the get-go. He kind of builds through the race, so I had no problem letting Josh [Moore, on Ar Mad] rock on and he was going a really good gallop and I was settled behind him. It rode a good race."He stressed that ground is important to Un De Sceaux: "The softer it gets, he still goes the same speed when other horses then can't keep up. So then you get back on drier ground when other horses can keep up, it blunts him more."The conversation got even more interesting when Walsh engaged with my invitation to compare and contrast the winner with stable companion and ante-post Champion Chase favourite Douvan.Amid an unsatisfactory ante-post incident exacerbated by some at best ill-judged bookmaker language, trainer Willie Mullins had withheld Douvan from this Sandown cauldron in favour of the putatively softer option of Sunday's Grade Two Hilly Way for his first steps out of novice territory. Given how hot the Tingle Creek turned out, that decision earns a Mullins-stylie tipped hat right back at him."Is he not forever borne out?" observed Walsh. "I could stand here and defend him all day. I think he does the right thing a hell of a lot more than anybody else."Then, having already pointed out that Un De Sceaux had won over 2m5.5f in France since Cheltenham, Walsh made the contrast: "When it gets back on good ground, Douvan probably has that turn of foot - like you saw what Sprinter Sacre could do to Un De Sceaux in the Champion Chase and again here in the Celebration, that acceleration on quicker ground that maybe Un De Sceaux doesn't have…"On testing ground [Un De Sceaux] just doesn't slow down whereas on good ground you need to be able to change it up a gear. We think Douvan possesses that - I'm sure we'll find out at some stage - but that would probably be the characteristic difference right at this minute."I interpreted that as: if it's good ground at the Festival (and it usually is), expect Douvan to run in the Queen Mum and Un De Sceaux in the Ryanair, if at all; if it's soft ground, the latter could stick to two miles. That's interesting because Un De Sceaux is 9/1 with Coral for the Ryanair and by far the most naturally talented horse yet to be mentioned in connection with the race.Afterwards, Gary Moore spoke of Kempton's Desert Orchid and Ascot's Clarence House as the primary targets for the proud defeated Sire De Grugy, sticking to right-handed two-mile contests. He also plans to raise his previous call of going up in trip with Ar Mad and stretching him out to three miles.That God's Own was able to pick up the pieces to the extent he did in third - beaten just a neck by Sire De Grugy and yet never once looking likely to throw down a winning challenge - and totally outclassed Sir Valentino finished only two lengths further adrift, serves to temper the most enthusiastic interpretations of Ar Mad's comeback effort.Don't get me wrong: I think this was a super return to action from last season's surprise chasing package after his recovery from a condylar fracture in February. However, the way he seemed to rally in the closing stages was as much due to the 1-2 slowing down at the tail end of their huge effort as it was to his innate stamina.Talk of the King George - popular with many - leaves me cold. The Moores would surely opt to ride him more conservatively over three miles at Kempton and that neutralises this horse's best asset: unfeasibly fast and accurate jumping, underpinned by more stamina than you'd imagine for that run style. Can't have him.

November 30, 2016

Hands up those who are bored by bookmaker-generated sub-news of supposed flip-flopping moves in the ante-post market for this Saturday's Tingle Creek? OK, too many to count.Either Douvan or Un De Sceaux is likely to run, depending on which one is pleasing Mullins the most on Friday morning and probably how fast the ground is. Soft is the latter's preferred medium.Gary Moore is the other key trainer in the race and he's suggesting Ar Mad might be switched to Huntingdon's Peterborough Chase the following day if the ground isn't soft enough. Praise be for Sire De Grugy, who probably runs at Sandown whatever.This race could end up scintillating or disappointing but more interesting than market-mover PR guff either way.

November 23, 2016

Gary Moore's yard is news central for this division currently, foremost thanks to that wonderful weight-carrying success by the 2014 Champion Chase hero and now veteran, Sire De Grugy, in a handicap chase at Ascot on Saturday.In conceding 6lbs to closest-rated rival Vaniteux and 17lbs to Quite By Chance, who's thriving at the moment and turned out to be his closest pursuer, the ten-year-old returned to a level of form within narrow hailing distance of his very best. It was comparable to his running Special Tiara and then Sprinter Sacre to three-quarters of a length in December of last year.He could be spotted travelling well and jumping superbly throughout at a track Moore later repeated suits him ideally, better than Cheltenham. He held the runner-up to a length-and-a-half defeat.It was another career best from Quite By Chance and a respectable first effort of the season from Vaniteux, who unseated at the second last in the Arkle last term when desperately trying to put Douvan under pressure.With Sire De Grugy's preferences in mind, his rider and biggest fan Jamie Moore would like to target the Clarence House over this same course and distance in January as Sire De Grugy's most feasible prospect of another Grade One success.But next he will share a horsebox to Sandown for the Grade One Tingle Creek on Saturday week with stablemate Ar Mad, whose peak performance came when trouncing Bristol De Mai over that course and distance in last season's Grade One Henry VIII Novices' Chase.The younger horse has undergone surgery to insert a screw into a condylar fracture in a front leg, sustained when last racing in February and scoring by 25 lengths at Plumpton. He had taken to fences with instinctive brilliance, leaving behind hurdling form that does not compare to, say, that of Sire De Grugy, and Moore senior hopes Sandown will tell him whether to stay at two miles or step Ar Mad up in trip."On a line through Vaniteux, Ar Mad's going to have a fight on his hands to beat Sire De Grugy, [who'd] be the better work horse and have a bit more speed," he told the Racing Post."I think if you ran them over two-and-a-half miles, Ar Mad would kill him but over two, Sire's always had that bit of class. He was a 140-odd hurdler and Ar Mad wouldn't have been that class over hurdles, but if he improves like he did from four to five, five to six, he could be anything."Moore had less upbeat news in his Betway column about his third talented chaser, Traffic Fluide, who misses his notional target of the same Sandown race. The lightly raced and progressive chaser hasn't been sighted on a racecourse since finishing third, five lengths behind Un De Sceaux in last January's edition of the Clarence House."He hasn't had a saddle on his back since god knows when," Moore admitted. "The reality is that, although he is back in exercise, we're behind and we won't see him back in action until the New Year - probably February, in reality. That means we are up against it to get him back in time for a tilt at a race like the Betway Champion Chase."If Moore does manages to get a run out of Traffic Fluide this season, another option could be the Ryanair, for which he is a slightly shorter price.Meanwhile, Mullins is clearly about to unleash Douvan and Un De Sceaux for their first runs of the season. He has a number of options, including the Tingle Creek, and will keep the pair apart this term for as long as possible. "We'll see what's in good form at the time," he typically asserted of his short-term plans.Walsh has commented this season that he thinks Un De Sceaux does indeed require cut in the ground to be at his best.

November 16, 2016

"Is there anything you would fear, moving into this division with Douvan?" asked Oli Bell of Walsh during Racing UK's NH Preview on Monday. "Yes and he's just retired," came the answer.That pretty much sums up the two-mile scene as things stand, with the magnificent, resurgent titleholder Sprinter Sacre having bowed out due to a tendon problem last Sunday.It wouldn't have been a career-threatening injury in a younger horse nor in one that had not already traced a sensational trajectory. But Sprinter Sacre had already metamorphosed from invulnerable star into nervous athlete, due to the vulnerability imposed on him by atrial fibrillation, and finally, gloriously, back into a soaring phoenix bursting from the ashes of a career.It would have been asking too much for a second comeback and Henderson took the difficult decision to retire the most thrilling horse in his yard, the horse that has taken him on the most remarkable journey of even his decorated career.Yet he wasn't to be spared the rack. Hours later, having enjoyed the alien sensation of "a clean run" in getting the fragile Simonsig to the track for Cheltenham's Shloer Chase - the race that witnessed Sprinter Sacre's resurrection last year - the grey took a tumble at the third that proved fatal.Thus a tumultuous day took a devastating turn and the rest of the race took place in a palpably sombre atmosphere, even before the worst news was confirmed.It took some time, therefore, to assimilate that Fox Norton had underpinned and even advanced the improvement he had asserted when winning a good handicap at the same track on his seasonal debut last month. He travelled strongly, jumped well and beat a race-fit horse in Simply Ned, who was targeted at the contest and ran up to his best. Word of warning: the time compared with the poor-jumping novice Le Prezien was no great shakes.You can always rely on Colin Tizzard to be spot on and he was firm in his prompt reminders to all that this horse was built by Neil Mulholland, who had trained Fox Norton until a fortnight earlier when his owners accepted an offer they couldn't sensibly refuse.Fox Norton now runs in the well-known colours of Alan and Ann Potts, who earlier in the year split with Henry de Bromhead and then again moved their considerable string to Tizzard from Colm Murphy when he decided to retire from training in September.Even Tizzard didn't seem convinced by his own I-just-drive-the-tractor (sharp-as-a-tack) persona when asked where next for Fox Norton. He named the Tingle Creek. The horse did sustain a little cut "right on the tendon", however, so stay tuned for updates. He also has 11 lengths to find on a certain Douvan based on last year's Arkle form but he may already have narrowed that gap.Third-placed Special Tiara ran well below his best despite being advantaged at the weights and this race having been "the plan for ages" according to de Bromhead. Admittedly, it wasn't as woefully as on his seasonal debut last year but before explaining it away entirely as rustiness, he did also run poorly at Punchestown on his final start.It's a hallmark of this rapid chaser when on song that he rallies sustainedly just when you think he must be beaten, but there's been none of that the last twice. He'd had an exhilarating 12 months prior to his Champion Chase third in March; it's hard to envisage him topping that form this season, even if his form does rally when we see him next.If that's in the Tingle Creek, he could encounter Sir Valentino who set a new track record when beating Garde La Victoire and 2015 Champion Chase hero Dodging Bullets in the Haldon Gold Cup at the start of this month. The winner was receiving weight from both his nearest pursuers.Back in fifth in the Shloer, Top Gamble had it to do at the weights on his seasonal debut and never really got involved. Trainer Kerry Lee fashioned improvement from him last season and may yet do again, albeit cut in the ground is important.Over in Ireland on the same day, Arctic Skipper created something of a shock by winning the Grade Two Fortria at Navan at 25/1, seemingly improving about 20lb on dropping back to a trip he hadn't tried for almost a year.Unless virtually every runner bar Fago in the race ran well below form, you must assume this second-season chaser has progressed, but his closest pursuers, Gilgamboa and Ballycasey (both discussed elsewhere) need further. It doesn't strike you as strong literal form.The Game Changer weakened markedly from the last having perhaps set sail for home too soon in the conditions for a horse whose best form is on a sound surface and whose tactics are usually stealthier. But he may not find a great deal under pressure - in last term's Arkle, he went from cleverly picking up the pieces for third to dropping it when bumped in Vaniteux's fall two out, then hitting the last and clinging on for fourth.