John Ingles highlights Timeform’s ratings reaction to wins for Constitution Hill, Hewick and Il Est Francais at Kempton.
King George VI Chase – Hewick the winner but only third best in the race?
There was a lot going on in the closing stages of the King George VI Chase and, having been going nowhere in rear with a circuit to go, it was Hewick (167 from 165) who surged home late on the flat to upset some better-fancied rivals at odds of 12/1.
But while Hewick’s victory rewarded the perseverance of his jockey Gavin Sheehan and the skills of his trainer Shark Hanlon to bring him back from five months off to add to a cv that already includes a bet365 Gold Cup, a Galway Plate and a Grand National Hurdle in the States, the feeling is that Hewick might have finished only third in different circumstances.
He would have been beaten fair and square had he completed in last year’s Gold Cup so makes little appeal for Cheltenham but he’s not one to write off elsewhere in something less competitive, particularly when conditions aren’t too testing.
Shishkin (remains 176§), who showed no signs of the reluctance at the start that had put paid to his intended reappearance at Ascot and minus the cheekpieces this time, looked the most likely winner jumping the second last in front but a stumble strides later unseated Nico de Boinville and so deprived him of the biggest win of his career.
Even so, he should have another good race or two in him in the months ahead, perhaps the Ascot Chase again which he won last year, and he’s just about the most plausible British-trained Gold Cup hope at present.
Had he not been interfered with in the wake of Shishkin’s mishap, Bravemansgame (remains 172) might well have landed the King George for the second year running, but having been hampered it took him until the shadow of the post to get up for second, pipping favourite Allaho (171 from 178) by a head for the runner-up spot.
Whilst second for the third time in as many starts this season, this was Bravemansgame’s most encouraging effort of the campaign under more patient tactics than usual. Allaho looked beaten before the race changed complexion and was flat out when left in front before being relegated to third and he’s seemingly not quite as good as he was before his lengthy absence.
Kauto Star Novices’ Chase – Il Est Francais looks a future King George contender
Il Est Francais - he is indeed French, or at least French-bred and trained in France, albeit by the Anglo-Swedish training partnership of Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm, and races in the grey colours of Richard Kelvin-Hughes that are familiar from jumps tracks on this side of the Channel.
French raiders have won the Kauto Star, or Feltham as it used to be known, before with Djeddah successful in 1996 for Francois Doumen and Jair du Cochet in 2002 for Guillaume Macaire.
It was also the race in which future Gold Cup and dual King George winner Long Run – who had been trained in France up until then – made such a big impression on his British debut for Nicky Henderson in 2009.
Il Est Francais reportedly has the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris as his main aim next year but it’s not hard to imagine him bidding to emulate Long Run back at Kempton in twelve months’ time judging by this striking performance which combined some superb jumping with a high cruising speed and a ready turn of foot, taking him 11 lengths clear of favourite Hermes Allen (153 from 155p) at the line.
The runner-up set a high standard from his debut win at Grade 2 level at Newbury but he bumped into an exceptional novice here. The impressive winner of his two earlier chases at Auteuil, Il Est Francais takes his rating from 134P to 160p and looks a chaser out of the top drawer.
Christmas Hurdle - Constitution Hill still in a league of his own
Constitution Hill (remains 177p) really deserves a higher billing but such is his superiority to every other hurdler around at present, certainly those in Britain, the Christmas Hurdle was never likely to demand any more from him than any of his other seven races to date.
Deprived of an earlier chance to make his reappearance, as he’d done last year, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle when that race was rescheduled for Sandown where the ground was very testing, he nonetheless made short work of some inferior rivals to win his second Christmas Hurdle.
Sent off at his shortest odds yet, 1/12, in a race that only really developed from the home turn, Constitution Hill didn’t need to run anywhere near his master rating, taking over on the bridle two out and then quickening clear for an easy win, by just shy of ten lengths, from the 150-rated Rubaud who’d set the pace.
The International Hurdle, now run on Cheltenham’s Trials Day card at the end of January, is unlikely to be much more taxing, before a defence of his Champion Hurdle title. With State Man and Impair Et Passe due to contest Friday’s Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown, that race should tell us more about what sort of challenge he can expect from Ireland.
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