What we learnt this Christmas including Cheltenham Gold Cup clues

Galopin still of Gold standard

Five 10-year-olds won the Cheltenham Gold Cup between 1982 and 1998 but it’s a feat that has never been achieved since. That’ll be the size of the task facing Galopin Des Champs if lining up on March 13 and while his stock may rise again after the Dublin Racing Festival when he’ll bid for a fourth straight success in the Irish Gold Cup, you’d better brace yourselves for the trends enthusiasts to come for him in the lead-up to Cheltenham this time around.

So, should we be backing him now around the 6-7/1 mark (stop it, kids) for the Festival, with a view to laying a bit back if all goes well again at the DRF? On the face of it, he ran a good way below par in Sunday’s Savills and being beaten by Affordale Fury and stablemate I Am Maximus has to go down as a disappointment, especially after the weight of support for the returning Leopardstown stalwart suggested he was close to peak fitness based on what he’d been showing at home.

But that missed John Durkan run did look to be a bit of a killer late on, and Willie Mullins was swift to admit as much as the dust began to settle. One could argue that the current prices for Cheltenham are great value and I’d be inclined to lean that way.

Reigning champ has it all do to

One thing we can surely all agree on is that Inothewayurthinkin is a pretty rotten antepost favourite for the Gold Cup.

Beaten 53 lengths and 41 lengths in his two starts this season, the current title-holder is miles off the pace again this side of the New Year, and trainer Gavin Cromwell needs to pull off a minor miracle if he’s to repeat last spring’s heroics, even if he is just seven – rising eight – and should only now be approaching the physical peak of his jumping career.

Haiti would love it testing

The aforementioned pair, along with the principals from the King George at Kempton, are all now trading at single-figure prices, but Haiti Couleurs was another to enhance his Gold Cup prospects with victory from a mark of 154 in the Coral Welsh National at Chepstow.

That should arguably read ‘rekindle’ rather than 'enhance’ as he'd already looked bound for the top table with wins in the National Hunt Chase and Irish Grand National, followed by a comeback success over hurdles at Newbury in November, before the wheels seemingly fell off in the Betfair Chase.

He wouldn’t be the first horse to recoil at Haydock – where he’d run a shocker on the hurdles track on his only previous visit – and Saturday’s grinding win was a real throwback after he picked up the running a long way from home and basically bullied inferior opposition in spite of the huge weight.

He’s a dour stayer and evidently cut from a similar cloth as Native River, the 2016 Welsh National winner whose subsequent form string in Cheltenham Gold Cups read 3144. Haiti Couleurs would look a big price around 16/1 if the ground came up very testing in mid-March.

Kempton is the King George

I can’t be the only one to have watched Britain’s Boxing Day feature surrounded by family and friends, many of whom spend the majority of their time on the periphery of horse racing and only occasionally dip in when the wider sporting conscience happens to flow in our direction.

December 26 is one of those occasions when the wider world is looking in and as one conversation led to another, the Redrow agreement and racing’s best interests inevitably came to the party. I did what I could with the information at hand, but in amongst the confusion and general misunderstandings of my audience which ranged from seven to 75 in terms of age, one thing that struck home most was a very simple comment about the King George nearly always ‘looking good’.

Granted, we’ve had some late thrills and spills down the years but having all eight horses in the picture at the third-last fence, before that super-tight finish, really was a thing of beauty this Christmas. The ground, configuration of the track, quality of the participants and the overall aesthetics were a brilliant advertisement of what Kempton is about and it's times like these I fear some might have taken all that for granted.

You couldn’t run the King George anywhere else as far as I’m concerned.

The festive wrap

Away from the three-mile chasing division, we now know that Christmas Hurdle winner Sir Gino will be aimed at the Champion Hurdle, rather than the Champion Chase, with a warm-up in the Unibet Hurdle on Trials Day – where he could meet The New Lion – yet to be fully decided upon. Quite what that means for Constitution Hill remains unclear, but his connections appear to be in something of a no-win situation which obviously isn’t ideal when it comes to such a generational talent.

We learnt that there probably won’t be a lot between Lossiemouth and a peak-fitness Brighterdaysahead, who was having her first run back from a layoff in the December Hurdle, in whichever race they might meet again, while the latter’s trainer Gordon Elliott, who won nearly everything that Willie Mullins didn’t, suggested that Romeo Coolio should be a big price to even line up in the Arkle, let alone win the thing. Lulamba hardened at the head of the betting as a consequence.

Romeo Coolio may clash with Final Demand at the DRF which is quite exciting after the Mullins horse gave off strong Rolls-Royce vibes in the Faugheen at Limerick (replay below), while stablemate Narciso Has looks something of a rarity as a Festival favourite being a touch over-priced around 5/1 for the JCB Triumph.

Elliott now has a stranglehold on the Mares’ Hurdle courtesy of Wodhooh (Brighterdaysahead clearly has options), and the Stayers’ Hurdle thanks to Teahupoo and – to a lesser extent – Honesty Policy.

We learnt that Marine Nationale was an unlucky loser and should give Il Etait Temps a real fight when it comes to potentially taking his Queen Mother Champion Chase crown in March, and that Fact To File ideally needs to drop back in trip and allowed to stride on in the Ryanair Chase, where Majborough may also now be pointed after his staying-on third behind Solness.

So what of the novice hurdlers, you may be thinking? I’m not sure we learned a whole heap this side of the Irish Sea if truth be told as No Drama This End surely didn’t improve to make all in the Challow and Mydaddypaddy was turned over but only jumped a handful of hurdles due to the low sun issues at Aintree.

The well-touted El Cairos was clearly going to win before coming a cropper in that typically strong maiden at Leopardstown where Elliott stable companion Skylight Hustle won but didn't wow in the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle 24 hours later.

It’s odd to come this far into the season without a clearcut Sky Bet Supreme favourite but at least the door is ajar for something to light the touchpaper over the next couple of months. Perhaps this Sunday’s Ballymore Novice Hurdle at Naas will serve up a significant clue as Fruit De Mer (Henry De Bromhead) and Lord Rouge (Elliott) versus Saint Baco and/or Sortudo (both Mullins) could be a little New Year treat.

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