What I learned at Ben Pauling's stable tour from The Jukebox Man's stamina to likely handicappers

1. Redknapp no wheeler dealer when it comes to the horses

Window down, arm rested, Harry Redknapp used to leave various training grounds on transfer deadline day with an eleventh-hour deal or two up his sleeve.

But almost a decade on from his last job in football management, the 78-year-old former Tottenham boss is not as quick to buy or sell his horses like he would a big man up front.

Apple of his eye The Jukebox Man, looking fit and well and every inch a 6/1 contender for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, is not for sale at any price, even Irish telephone numbers, something so obvious to anyone who might be interested that he hasn’t even had any offers.

But while not selling is one thing, not buying is another and Redknapp revealed that another burgeoning Ben Pauling-trained star, The Jukebox Kid, slipped through his fingers earlier in the horse’s career.

Clad in a John Motson-style sheepskin-collared coat in front of the assembled press at Pauling’s modern Naunton Downs stables near Cheltenham, Redknapp said:

“I actually missed a trick because I should’ve bought The Jukebox Kid!”

“I tried to sell him to you,” said Pauling. “For three months. You just kept saying Ben, Ben, Ben, lightning doesn’t strike twice.”

A laughing Redknapp said: “I’d already got 25, Ben, I didn’t need another one!”

The Jukebox Kid was one that got away, but Redknapp is more than happy with his lot. And why wouldn’t you be when you’ve got a live hope for the Gold Cup and an up-and-coming youngster making his way through the ranks amongst your squad.

2. Stamina should be no issue for The Jukebox Man

It’s easy to get carried away with the infectious enthusiasm of trainers on these pre-Cheltenham stable tours and in many ways you have to cut through the chaff to get to the most meaningful points.

So while it was great to see Pauling brand Redknapp a ‘national treasure’ only moments after the 2018 King of the Jungle had blasted his host for the ‘shit coffee’, I was more taken with the trainer’s adamant belief that the Gold Cup trip will be the catalyst for even more improvement in his eight-year-old.

“I firmly believe he will stay,” Pauling said, assessing a key element of The Jukebox Man’s Gold Cup task. “In fact I would actually suggest that he will be far more effective over this trip than he would be around a sharp three miles at Kempton Park.

“From the back of three out I thought he would win the King George relatively comfortably and from the back of three out until the last they didn’t just gain on us, but he was behind again. It was only his tenacity and will to win that got his head back in front near the line.

“I personally think this will be a much better test for him than the King George. He won the Kauto Star and we thought, great he likes Kempton Park, but I think he likes any track as he is very uncomplicated.

“He goes through his races sweetly and he jumps, touch wood, very well, and that is key to these top-class three-mile plus chases, as you have to be able to jump and travel.”

It’s hard not to nod your head along in agreement. A slow first circuit in the King George didn’t stop The Jukebox Man setting a new course record and the fact he had the gears to win over three miles on a speed track against top opposition should be seen as a positive.

Certainly, listening to his trainer, he thinks he will stay the Gold Cup trip and stay it well.

3. Taurus future written in the stars

Redknapp brought his magician pal David Redfearn along for the morning and whether it was his intention or not his quick-fingered friend entertained the waiting camera crews as the star attraction went through multiple one-on-one video interviews.

Shortly after turning a bunch of magazine clippings into a fistful of £20 notes, Redfearn leaned in and whispered to me ‘don’t forget about Taurus Bay, you know, Harry loves him’.

And sure enough when getting his picture taken with The Jukebox Man, Redknapp felt a little guilty at leaving Taurus Bay out of the media circus, saying ‘we better go and see him, he’ll be feeling left out.’

So, while he might forever be known as the horse who got beaten in the darkest photo finish of the decade in the concluding race after ‘hole-gate’ on Festival Trials Day, that could also be a mere footnote in a stellar career.

Pauling is certainly hoping so.

“I think he is genuinely out of the top drawer,” he said. “He is going to be a better horse with a summer on his back. He is a horse that I’ve always told Harry that we have to mind the whole time as with too much racing now he will just melt away.

“We will see how he is over the next couple of weeks and if he is cherry ripe then he will join the team at Cheltenham in the Turners.”

Punters will be in the dark a little with this horse (not for the first time) if he turns up at the Festival, but he looks a long-term project to keep an eye on if nothing else.

4. Doing Handstands in the Ultima?

I asked Pauling who the first name he’d be looking for when the handicap weights are revealed on Tuesday, in so much as how they’ll stack up against the Irish, and he said Handstands, a 12/1 chance for the Ultima.

He said: “I’d be very interested in Handstands in the Ultima, especially if someone from Ireland, or England, would run against him off 162. That would make me quite excited and would probably sway my decision.”

And I asked him what he thinks Handstands’ best trip would be at Cheltenham, regardless of opposition.

He said: “I do personally think he is a three miler. He won a Scilly Isles on bottomless ground around Sandown Park and that to me says, as he has got a year older, that he has got to stay three miles.

"All his best form is over two and a half miles, but I think he will stay as far as you want him to stay.”

It looks between the Ryanair and the Ultima for the Tim Radford-owned seven-year-old, but, reading between the lines, running off 155 in an Ultima might not be the daunting task it might appear on paper, especially given how well he has been at home after running at Windsor on his first start post-wind surgery.

“He has come out of that race like a bull in a China shop and he is a totally different animal,” Pauling enthused.

“His work has been brilliant and he worked well after racing on Friday. I had him down last season as an equal to The Jukebox Man, and, in fact, Handstands had by far the best form.”

5. Pauling has strength in depth

While The Jukebox Man is the undoubted leading light, such is the strength in depth of Pauling’s team that he admitted he would be disappointed if he didn’t come away from the Festival with a winner this year.

There’s Diva Luna in the Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase. There’s Kicour La as a lively outsider in the Albert Bartlett. There’s Mambonumberfive with a variety of options as he bids to prove himself all over again after flopping in heavy ground at Warwick. There’s Pic Roc in the National Hunt Chase, if he can jump.

But it’s in the handicaps where he could strike a real blow. We’ve discussed Handstands if he goes down that route and No Questions Asked could take in a handicap, as well, while Onewaywest should enjoy a proper gallop in the Pertemps.

And the leading two are seemingly Meetmebythesea in the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase and Vanderpoel in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual.

Speaking about the former, he said: “He has been running over two miles, but I think he will benefit for the step up in trip. He is a likeable individual that has got a good attitude and for a big horse I think he wants a bit better ground.”

On Vanderpoel’s chance he surmised: “I would have had him down as my Arkle hope at the start of the season. He has got the ability to be a bit higher than his current mark, but it is the right time to have a go at a handicap like this."

Related content

• David Ord on Ben Pauling's The Jukebox Man having 6lb to find for Gold Cup glory
• Full Ben Pauling 2026 Cheltenham Festival Stable Tour

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