Ten for the jumps
Robin Oakley
Hoading to Cheltenham on a Saturday but not for racing felt a little strange. It was a case of natural purpose frustrated, like visiting the Folies Bergere to study the audience or voyaging to Italy to buy sanitaryware. The Cheltenham Festival of Literature had invited me and The Spectator's editor, Boris Johnson, to discuss politics and the media before a surprisingly large audience, and with our publishers hopeful of flogging a few more copies of our respective books (Inside Track and Friends, Voters. Countrymen since you have forgotten) we had both agreed to head west. I had it all worked out. The scheduled hour on stage, 45 minutes signing copies and then a quick belt round the corner to the betting shop and I would be in time to have a solid wager and watch Nayef, the star of my Ten To Follow for the flat this year, win the Champion Stakes at Newmarket and make a significant contribution to the Oakleys' winter holiday fund.
Alas, things did not quite work out that way. Interviewer John Miller and I had to take to the stage Boris-less, while the tousled one was fretting in traffic queues somewhere between Oxford and Cheltenham. The full hour went by with the audience, who were clearly good sports, putting up with an endless barrage of Oakley anecdotage. Finally, just after the scheduled end, the Victor of Henley, a breathless bundle of rumpled blue moleskin, arrived to make his apologies. The organisers, clearly fearing a riot if the audience didn't get their Boris quota, granted an extra half-hour, and for minutes birds were charmed out of trees, lambs lay down with lions and he managed to convince us that the Tory party had a future.
I wouldn't have minded except for two things. Boris sold three copies to every two I did, and by the time we had completed the signing session the Champion Stakes had been run, Nayef had passed the post a convincing winner and I had had none of the 3-1. The Spectator's Turf columnist is thinking of asking the boss for a rise.
Attention now switches firmly to the jumps and here are ten horses we could have some fun with over the months to come. There are some quality horses coming back after injury, such as Mark Pitman's pair Ever Blessed and Monsignor, the first a Hennessy winner and the second a star hurdler who was always bred to be a chaser and who will be the most exciting recruit of all to novice chasing this season. Those two, Nicky Henderson's Blue Royal and Alan King's Toto Toscato, selected here last year and then off the track all season, should be watched until they have proved their soundness on the racecourse and then hacked consistently.
I will open my ten with the obvious choice of Henrietta Knight's Best Mate. He is a likely candidate for the King George but we will be lucky to see him at a decent price for anything this season after the promise of his novice career. He has that precious ability to quicken.
One for whom staying long distances will prove his forte is Moral Support. Charlie Mann did well with him last year, improving him two stone on his Irish form and finding him eventually co-favourite for the Grand National in which, like so many, he was baulked. Look for a prominent showing from Moral Support in races like the Welsh Grand National.
Alan King looks to have a really useful novice chase recruit in Gola Cher, winner of three novice hurdles last year and second in his other two. He had already won a point-to-point and is reported to have schooled well over fences.
We have to include an inmate of the consistent Venetia Williams stable and I am going for Montalcino. The form of the Aintree Grand National meeting in bottomless ground is mostly best ignored, but you had to admire his win there in a top-class novice hurdle. A useful stayer on the flat, he could be well worth following over the smaller obstacles.
Two novice chasers who caught my eye one day at Chepstow last season (and landed me the Exacta) were Jolly Green Giant, trained by Paul Webber, and Robert Alner's Spring Grove. Both look the sort who could notch a few wins to watch in handicap chases this season. Paul Green, who owns Jolly Green Giant, could have even more fun this season with Hindiana, trained by Ferdy Murphy. The French-bred Hindiana, who had already won a Grade 2 chase in France, was campaigned effectively over hurdles last season, winning on good to firm, soft and heavy ground. He will go over fences this season and is being primed for a first run in the Hennessy.
I cannot compile a list without one of Noel Chance's horses and I do hope Looks Like Trouble will be as good as ever when he gets back from injury. Noel's No Collusion was impressive on the gallops last season but kept getting balloted out of his intended bumpers. With No Collusion as yet just a talking horse my pick of the Chance yard is Right to Reply for novice chases this season.
One horse who did score a string of bumper wins last season was The Bajan Bandit, trained in Scotland by Len Lungo, who also has the very classy Direct Access, whose four hurdle wins last year were a bonus before his chasing career. The Bajan Bandit looks to me like a real Cheltenham horse.
Finally, one from a smaller yard in the hope of a decent price. I think Tom George should score a victory or two with handicap chaser Tremallt but the one of his which caught my eye was the Sadler's Wells gelding Historic, who ran well last season against Gola Cher. Watch for him in staying hurdles and good luck to us all.
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