Following the Tingle Creek, Phil Turner wonders whether today's owners and trainers could take a hint from yesterday's superstars, inside and outside of racing.
No one could ever accuse Steve Ovett of resting on his laurels during the formative years of his athletics career. His breakthrough came in 1977, when he began an unbeaten streak at 1500m and a mile which would last for over three years, though arguably his most remarkable run that year came well away from the glare of a packed stadium.
At a loose end one weekend, Ovett drove a training partner to the Dartford Half Marathon and, on a whim, entered the race himself – despite the fact he’d be tackling a distance alien to him (in borrowed kit/shoes too!) and competing against several international-class marathon runners. “He shot off after after five miles and won – he was laughing his head off at the end, it just felt so easy,” was the rueful recollection of one of Ovett’s beaten rivals.
Ovett’s most famous win came over 20,297 metres shorter than at Dartford some three years later, when taking gold in the 800m at the Moscow Olympics. All of which serves as a reminder that elite athletes, be they human or equine, are often far more versatile with regards to trip than we sometimes pigeonhole them.
Timeform’s highest-rated chaser of the 1970s Captain Christy is a case in point. He was also a top-notch hurdler and rounded off his 1972/73 campaign by clocking a course record time when winning the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr. Just 11 months later he landed the Cheltenham Gold Cup (as a novice) over a mile-and-a-quarter further, whilst the following year featured notable performances over even longer trips when runner-up in both the Whitbread Gold Cup (under top weight) and Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.
Captain Christy’s final run before his career came to a premature end was arguably his finest, when a runaway winner of the 1975 King George VI Chase by thirty lengths from Bula, another horse well known for his exploits over shorter. The next King George VI winner to make all was Desert Orchid 11 years later, when David Elsworth’s bold decision to try his free-going grey over a staying trip was rewarded handsomely.
Subsequent events, of course, proved that Desert Orchid stayed a good deal further than three miles, including a memorable success shouldering 11-11 in the 1988 Whitbread Gold Cup. The grey’s next visit to Sandown seven months later came over a trip fully 13 furlongs shorter, when Desert Orchid easily defied top weight in the Tingle Creek Chase (then a handicap) en route to winning the second of his four King George VI wins later that month (Kauto Star also completed the Tingle Creek-King George VI double in 2006).
You don’t have to search far for other examples of horses from yesteryear mixing trips (particularly in the 1970s and 1980s), which does beg the question whether modern-day connections are being too conservative in their campaigning of top horses?
Admittedly, the lack of a comprehensive Jumps Pattern in those days (a major overhaul in 1989 resulted in the calendar of graded races broadly still used today) meant connections were often drawn more to the value of a race than its distance. Prestige rather than prize money seems the bigger priority nowadays, the offshoot being that connections have become a bit gun-shy about trying something different.
At first glance, it is hard to criticise the decision to aim JONBON (c168) at a third straight Tingle Creek Chase win – he’s a notably durable performer who’d not finished outside the first two in 18 previous starts over fences (including 13 wins) and was raced at around two miles for all bar two of those runs. However, the fact he’d been beaten on his last three tries at the minimum trip hinted at a new-found vulnerability, whilst the manner of his laboured reappearance behind L'EAU DU SUD (c161) in the Shloer Chase even prompted connections to reach for cheekpieces today.
The headgear sparked a better run than at Cheltenham last month and he comprehensively reversed placings with L’Eau du Sud. Even so, the overriding feeling was that Jonbon, who’ll be ten in just over three weeks, probably needs longer trips nowadays (he’s unbeaten on both tries at two-and-a-half miles) and he finished further behind IL ETAIT TEMPS (c174) than he’d done over this course and distance back in April.
It is common for athletes to require longer trips as they get older, even those known for their versatility. Steve Ovett had waved goodbye to 800m and 1500m races by the mid-1980s, concentrating instead on the 5000m (his final major win came with Commonwealth gold at that distance in 1986) – he was still a world-class athlete, though lacked the top-end speed to prove as competitive as he once was over shorter.
Jonbon’s former stable-companion Shishkin provided a recent equine example of this, belatedly proving himself a top-class staying chaser having spent the bulk of his career at two miles – indeed, the manner of his last-gasp victory in the 2023 Aintree Bowl (when aged nine) suggested the step-up in trip was long overdue.
This weekend’s other big race, the Becher Chase at Aintree, adds further fuel to the theory.
Three-and-a-quarter miles on winter ground usually places the emphasis firmly on stamina and TWIG (c145) became the 14th 'veteran' to win the Becher since its inception in 1992. By contrast, 32 of the 33 Tingle Creek renewals over the same period have gone to horses aged nine or younger – ten-year-old Moscow Flyer was the one who bucked that trend when winning the vintage 2004 edition against Azertyuiop (aged seven) and Well Chief (five).
The seven-year-old Il Etait Temps is building up a similarly impressive strike-rate to that illustrious trio and isn’t all that far off the level the form they showed too, even though he’s sometimes slipped under the radar as one of jumping current star performers – today’s race was only the fourth time stable jockey Paul Townend has ridden him, which suggests he also hasn’t always been at the top of the Closutton pecking order.
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There is little chance of that happening again as he continues to go from strength to strength, a rise all the more remarkable given he was sidelined in 2024/25 until the final day of the season. His last four wins at Grade 1 level have seen him claim the notable scalps of Grey Dawning (c166), Gaelic Warrior (173) and Jonbon (twice), whilst he also promises to stay a good deal further too – he’s already won twice at around two-and-a-half miles and was an intended runner for last season’s King George VI until struck down by an infection.
Two miles is understandably the short-term plan for him, though. His Tingle Creek win represents stronger form than that achieved by reigning Champion Chase winner Marine Nationale (c167) and has pushed his rating up to just 1lb below Timeform’s current highest-rated jumper Galopin des Champs (c175), with reigning Ryanair Chase winner Fact To File and Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin (whom Il Etait Temps also beat as a novice) both also on 174.
Although Jonbon may now struggle to disrupt that Irish stranglehold towards the top of the Timeform ratings, it’s not out of the question that his much younger stable-companion LULAMBA (c158P) could do so at some stage. Indeed, the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase was run in a significantly quicker time than the Tingle Creek 70 minutes later, so the fact that Lulamba could saunter clear on the run-in suggests he can already be mentioned in the same breath as some of Nicky Henderson’s stable stars from the past 15 years – particularly as it’s reasonable to assume the smart pair BE AWARE (c151) and LUMP SUM (c151) ran somewhere near their best in contesting the minor placings.
In fact, the decision to fast-track Lulamba to fences aged just four is the sort of bold policy of old and connections will hopefully enjoy a better run of things than they did with Sir Gino, who made a similarly impressive start to his chasing career in the Donnelly colours last winter until sidelined by a serious leg infection.
Jack Of Trumps was even more precocious, still a three-year-old when winning a Irish point and just five when runner-up in the 1978 King George VI Chase (a position he also filled 12 months later), which remains the closest JP McManus has come to landing the Boxing Day showpiece. Maybe Jonbon could have broken that duck if allowed the chance.
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