9 minute read
Christmas presents
Elegant Escape, Clan Des Obeaux, Kemboy, Verdana Blue, La Bague Au Roi and Altior: just some of the names who highlighted a busy, exciting and informative Christmas period of NH racing
All the excellent NH graded race action over the Christmas period led to one result: the one horse who did not lift a hoof on a racecourse and spent the festive period tucked up nice and warm in his stable eating his hay and carrots, has shortened in price for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Last March’s RSA Novices’ Chase winner Presenting Percy has not been seen on a racecourse since his Festival success, however the form of his Cheltenham victory was given a significant boost by the 2018 festive efforts of the rivals he beat that day at Prestbury Park.
First, Elegant Escape third in that RSA galloped to Welsh National victory. He put in a decent one and a quarter length victory over Ramsee De Teillee in the 3m5f feature – a race run on soft ground but perhaps not the slog fest that it can sometimes prove to be.
However, Elegant Escape is only rated a 40/1 chance to follow in the footsteps of his stable mate Native River, who took last year’s Welsh highlight before going on to Festival glory.
Elegant Escape, a son of Dubai Destination, was bought for €150,000 at the Goffs Punchestown Sale in 2016 by trainer’s son Joe Tizzard and owner John Romans after the pair had enjoyed “around 15 pints”.
Seemingly, the alcolohic intake had not affected their judgement as the horse had finished second on his debut point-to-point at Monksgrange behind none other than the always hotly debated son of Germany, Samcro. He went on to be sold for £335,000 at the GoffsUK Aintree Sale, bought by Gordon Elliott – the pair of point-to-pointers between them raising over £450,000 in revenue from just two auction ring sales.
Samcro was once likened by TV pundit Matt Chapman as the second coming of Jesus, such was the talent he displayed, but the jury is currently out as regards the Gigginstown-owned six-year-old, who at Christmas faded into fifth in the Leopardstown Ryanair Hurdle (G1) having travelled around the home bend in front and looking then the likely winner.
The Gordon Elliott yard has subsequently checked him over and found that the horse is suffering from a lung infection.
It means that gelding is unlikely to be seen on a racecourse for the remainder of this season.
The second “Presenting Percy form line” was created by the runner-up in last spring’s RSA.
Monalee finished second in the Savills Chase (G1), albeit well beaten behind Kemboy. The winner is now a 6/1 chance for the Ryanair Chase and a Gold Cup 33/1 shot after his 7l victory.
Kemboy, a son of Voix Du Nord, finished fourth in the JLT Novice Chase last March. A faller in the Irish National, subsequently he has not been headed in chases at Limerick, Punchestown, Clonmel and now over Christmas at Leopardstown when collecting that first Grade 1. He is a rapidly improving seven-year-old, who appears to have bags of pace, jumps and stays well.
He was bought privately in France after finishing second in a 1m4f Flat race for three-year-olds only at Divonne-Les-Bains.
He is a son of the deceased Voix Du Nord, a sad loss as a 12-year-old for the Haras National de Cercy la Tour. By Valanour, as a three-year-old he won the 1m2f Group 1 Prix Lupin from Millemix and Valixir and the Group 2 1m3f Prix Noailles from Cherry Mix.
His first crop of three-year-olds appeared in 2010 and he died just two years later, his loss highlighted by the fact that he was one of only two stallions over this Christmas period to sire two graded winners having also got the Irish Independent Hurdle winner Espoir D’Allen. In his three years at stud, he never stood at a fee greater than €1,500.
The Supreme Racing Club with Kemboy
Kemboy is part-owned by a Willie Mullins-based ownership syndicate called the Supreme Horse Racing Club with owners Brett, Graham and Sharp.
The club manages a number of horses with up to 20 members in each partnership and it enjoyed the best of Christmas luck as it also owns (this time with Michael Songer) Aramon, winner of the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle.
He was not particuarly fancied by his stable to win the Grade 1 novice, but he took the race in style, is improving with his starts and must be on the list for the Supreme Hurdle – especially after his stablemate, the Rich Ricci-owned and one-time Supreme Hurdle fancy Annamix, met with defeat in a maiden hurdle at Limerick.
Bred by Gestüt Rottgen, Aramon was bought by PB Bloodstock at the Baden-Baden Mixed October Sale 2017 for €40,000 having won his last start in Germany over 1m2f – his second victory out of 11 runs in his homeland.
He did not appear over hurdles until August 2018 at Kilbeggan over 2m5f. He beat Golden Jackpot (now rated 140) and has since been dropped back to the minimum trip over hurdles.
He was beaten by Triplicate next time out and then again when third behind him and the winner Quick Gragim in the Royal Bond Novices Hurdle (G1) at Fairyhouse having won a Grade 3 in the interim. Aramon exacted revenge at Christmas over Triplicate (fourth) and will be heading upwards of his 140 rating, putting him bang amongst the leading novice hurdlers of the season.
His sire Monsun was the most successful stallion over Christmas. He claimed grandsire honours courtesy of the Christmas Hurdle (G1) winner and Buveur D’Air’s conqueror Verdana Blue, a daughter of his NH Grange Stud-based son Getaway, and via two five-year-old geldings by Network: Le Richebourg won Leopardstown’s Group 1 Racing Post Chase, while Delta Work, who had beaten Le Richebourg in the Grade 1 Drinmore Chase at the beginning of December, doubled up in the Neville Hotel Novice Chase (G1).
Delta Work is from a predominately AQPS French family, while Le Richebourg, trained by Joseph O’Brien, is a half-brother to the one-time David Pipe-trained pair of Grands Crus, winner of the Grade 1 Feltham Stakes and runner-up in the World Hurdle (G1), and the 145-rated Gevrey Chambertin.
Delta Work and Le Richebourg were born in the spring of 2013 having been conceived in 2012 around about the time Network’s talented son Sprinter Sacre annihilated the Queen Mother Champion Chase field, leaving such good horses as
Sizing Europe and Wishful Thinking trailing 19l in his wake.
Network has stood the last three years at Haras D’Enki, having had stints at Haras National Treban and Haras National de Cercy
Network is now standing at a private fee, having last been advertised at €12,000 in 2018.
Verdana Blue’s sire Getaway has been a popular sire in Ireland, and has risen from a starter fee of €3,000 in 2011 to €7,500 in 2018.
He has had a point-to-pointer and a bumper horse sell at public auction for excess of £300,000 and 11 more horses in training fetch over €100,000. One store horse has achieved a six-figure sum.
Getaway has been a busy stallion and in 2016, 2017 and 2018 covered 299, 284 and 249 mares. His first crop will be seven-yearolds in 2019.
Fellow French sire Doctor Dino joined Voix Du Nord with two Christmas winners, progeny of the son of Muhtathir both winning at the highest level: Sharjah took the Ryanair Hurdle (G1), and the filly La Bague Au Roi won the Kauto Star Novice Chase (G1).
Doctor Dino was tough and well travelled as a racehorse, collecting the Man O’War Stakes (G1) and then the Hong Kong Vase (G1) twice on travels that saw him put together a nine-race-winning career.
He retired to stud at the Haras du Mesnil in 2010 at €3,000, a price he was held at until 2015 when his was given a slight fee increase to €4,500. The fee was given a significant shunt upward in 2018 to €8,000 after Sceau Royal won December 2017’s Henry VIII Novices’ Chase (G1) and that upward trajectory has been maintained, particularly after his Flat runner Golden Legend finished second in the EP Taylor Stakes (G1) at Woodbine. He is due to cost breeders €12,000 this spring.
Sharjah is a 5/1 chance now for the Champion Hurdle, while La Bague Au Roi is as short as 8/1 for the RSA.
The King George VI Chase, the highlight over the whole Christmas week, was another race won by a French-bred runner – Clan Des Obeaux taking the big chase by a length and a half from a rejuvenated Thistlecrack.
Clan Des Obeaux
He is a son of leading sire Kapgarde, and was bought for the Paul Nicholls yard after success in the spring of 2015 over 1m4f at La Roche-Sur Yon in a race for three-year-olds.
He was initially owned with Nicholls by Paul Barber with Potentis Bloodstock. He ran three times for the West Country yard through the 2015-2016 – achieving a Newbury juvenile hurdle victory in December 2o15 and then a Cheltenham second in the Juvenile Hurdle Trial (G2) at the January meeting.
BY THE Time of his next run in March when sixth in the Triumph Hurdle (G1), his jockey was wearing Paul Barber’s green colours, no longer in the red and pink belonging to Potentis.
He had another change of colours the following autumn when seen in his first novice chase – jockey Sam Twiston-Davies sporting the red, white and blue belonging to owner Sir Alex Ferguson.
Jared Sullivan of Potentis transfered and sold much of his British racing interests in the spring and summer of 2016. He now owns horses as Sullivan Bloodstock and has his string with Nicky Henderson, Olly Murphy, Willie Mullins and Alan King.
Nicholls had spotted the longer-term potential of Clan Des Obeaux and, with the bullet in his pocket that his long-time yard supporter and one-time backer Paul Barber had a share in the gelding, he could ensure that the horse was sold to stay within the yard.
Putting his own judgement on the line – and perhaps with few likely owners with the financial power to purchase the then promising four-year-old – Nicholls punted the horse to one of the biggest names around, the sporting hero Sir Alex Ferguson
The horse immediately stared to pay the gamble off for his new ownership group of Ged Mason, Sir Alex and Mr & Mrs P K Barber – his first win over fences came on his second chase start when he took the Grade 2 Fullers London Pride Novices’ Chase. He then went on to finish second in the Dipper Novices Chase (G2) behind Whisper.
That spring he was given a mark of 152, which dipped slightly in the autumn of 2017 when beaten into second on his first graduation chase, that time Whisper getting the better of him. After regaining winning ways at Haydock, he then took a second in a Grade 3 behind Guitar Pete.
Nicholls sidestepped last spring’s Cheltenham Festival, instead going for the Grade 1 Betfair Bowl a race in which he finished an honourable third behind Might Bite and Bristol De Mai, a strong performance in his first effort against top level older performers.
A fourth first time out this autumn in the Grade 1 Haydock Betfair Chase, when reported to have tired in the home straight, set him up perfectly for Kempton.
Nicholls reported after the King George that jockey Harry Cobden never had any doubts before they race as to which horse he preferred of the Nicholls entries in the Grade 1.
The race was a little unsatisafctory with the fall of Waiting Patiently and the unseating of Bristol De Mai, but Clan Des Obeaux, although he idled once hitting the front – a trait of which Cobden said he was aware would happen – showed resolution to win. In doing so he became the fourth six-year-old since 2000 to win the race following in the hoofprints of Gold Cup winners Kicking King, Kauto Star and Long Run.
Altior did as was expected to win the Desert Orchid Chase (G2) to retain his 16-race unbeaten record, while there was just one British-bred graded race winner over the Christmas period – the Grade 3 Irish EBF Mares’ winner, Good Thyne Tara. She is a daughter of Kayf Tara, the flagbearer for the British NH stallion ranks.
Away from the graded racing, Champagne Platinum took himself into Supreme Novice reckoning after winning an introductory hurdle at Newbury.
The son of Stowaway, trained by Nicky Henderson and owned by JP McManus, is unbeaten in three starts, his wins coming in a point-to-point on April 1, 2017 at Quakerstown for Roisin Hickey, and now twice over hurdles.
The exciting Champagne Platinum
The five-year-old was purchased at the GoffsUK Aintree Sale by Kieran McManus for £250,000 – a fine return on the £35,000 Kilronan Stables paid for him as a store horse at the 2017 Part II Derby Sale.
It is a race that Henderson has won eight times in the last 11 years, and in 2010 Paul Nicholls took with subsequent Champion Hurdle winner Rock On Ruby.
Finally, as a point of reflection, Christmas showed just how strongly two names now dominate the Irish NH training ranks: through December 19-January 1, Gordon Elliott had a staggering 109 runners, while Willie Mullins sent out 72.
It leaves little room for others.
