Hennessy Gold Cup delight for Smad Place
While the victory came 12 months later than expected, it still tasted just as sweet for King as he continued his fine start to the season.
King admitted to having made a mistake by not giving the striking grey a prep race before last year’s renewal, in which he finished fifth.
But his decision to send the eight-year-old to Kempton at the start of the month was fully vindicated by one of the most impressive Hennessy victories in recent times.
Within a few strides of the tape falling, the Grade Two-winning hurdler was placed close to the pace, with Fingal Bay behind early leader The Giant Bolster, before Smad Place was taken to the front by Wayne Hutchinson at the ninth fence.
Attacking each fence with great venom, the 7-1 shot had plenty of his rivals in trouble long before the business end and continued to turn the screw at the head of affairs.
Despite having raced with choke out for so long, Smad Place found extra reserves when asked for more by Hutchinson, whose partner measured the four fences in the home straight as fluently as he met the first.
Runner-up Theatre Guide stayed on dourly from the rear of the field, but he was in a different county to the winner and was beaten out of sight by 12 lengths.
Irish raider First Lieutenant finished third.
Top weight and 9-2 favourite Saphir Du Rheu saw his chances compromised when making a mistake seven fences home before plugging on for fifth, while 2012 Hennessy winner Bobs Worth finished sixth.
Following his Hennessy romp, Smad Place received quotes of around 16-1 about winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.
King said: “We hoped for a good run but that’s taken my breath away.
“He (Hutchinson) was very brave, but I’m not sure that were the tactics we discussed.
“We thought he had a great chance last year but I was trying to be very clever and we came here without a run.
“This year we went to Kempton first and he was a different horse. I learnt from my mistake last year and Kempton helped get his confidence back.
“He loves to be up there and he deserved to win a big race as he’d been knocking on the door.”
Smad Place’s victory also had added poignancy for King after Barbury Castle stable lad John Goggin died last week following a car crash.
“While this win means a lot, it doesn’t bring him back,” said King.
It was clear that the victory also meant a lot to 34-year-old Hutchinson, who had nothing but praise for the winning horse and trainer.
“That was brilliant,” said the rider. “I’m absolutely thrilled to bits — he was fab.
“It’s all come together this year. He certainly enjoyed himself and so did I — he never missed a beat.
“I was always going to be positive and I was really confident in the horse.
“He had been placed in two World Hurdles so we knew he would stay three miles and he has gone and done it.”
Elsewhere, Thistlecrack is around the 10-1 mark to win the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Cheltenham after he showed pluck and class to win the bet365 Long Distance Hurdle.
Trainer Colin Tizzard said: “We thought we’d give him a couple of runs over hurdles to see if he is good enough to challenge for the World Hurdle.
“On that run, he is good enough and will go to Ascot now (Long Walk Hurdle).”
Warren Greatrex said of the third-placed and reigning World Hurdle king Cole Harden: “It’s all about March (Cheltenham Festival) so it’s good to get the first one out of the way.”
Gavin Sheehan was aboard Cole Harden, but the rest of the day could not have gone any better for the Irish jockey as he left Newbury with a treble.
Identity Thief entered the Champion Hurdle picture after his victory in the StanJames.com Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle.
Supplemented into the race on Monday, Henry de Bromhead’s five-year-old survived a bad blunder at the final flight to get the better of Nicky Henderson’s Top Notch.
De Bromhead said: “That’s a proper Champion Hurdle trial so we can dream about that in March.”
