Doubles all round at Cheltenham
Alan King, Martin Pipe and Nigel Twiston-Davies shared the training honours on the New Year’s Day card at Cheltenham by notching doubles.
Two of those winners emerged as clear favourites for races at the Festival in March.
The King-trained Trouble At Bay is 10-1 market leader for the JCB Triumph Hurdle with William Hill and Victor Chandler following his three-quarters of a length triumph over French raider Meryl in the Steel Plate Trial Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle.
Robert Thornton’s mount was unsuited by the very steady pace but responded when asked to quicken things up at the bottom of the hill and was always going to hold his pursuers on the run-in.
King was satisfied with the performance and said: “It turned out the opposite of what we expected as we thought there would be plenty of pace, but ‘Choc’ committed the horse and in the end they did it well.
“He will definitely have a break now and I imagine he’ll go for the Adonis Hurdle at Kempton or straight for the Triumph if that meeting is hit by the weather.”
King has an embarrassment of riches for the four-year-old hurdling crown and added that Howle Hill will run at Wincanton next Thursday and Emanic at Warwick on January 10.
King, whose stable is taking all before it at present, has a potential Grand National horse in Bear On Board, whose jumping was flawless as he galloped to a two-length success over Fasgo in the Miles Gosling Handicap Chase.
King had deliberated until the last minute before letting Bear On Board take his chance.
He said: “You’ve no idea how close I was to not running him today. He hasn’t got the best of front legs. But after walking the course we had a long lunch and decided to let him take his chance.
“This came only two weeks after his win at Bangor and he’ll definitely have a break now before going for the National, for which I think he could be a serious contender. He’ll go up five or six pounds for this and should get into the race.”
King, though, announced that his 12-year-old staying chaser Spendid has been retired because of leg trouble.
The highlight of Pipe’s day came when Therealbandit powered to a 20-lengths success over French challenger Massac in the Ian Williams’ Owners Novices’ Chase.
The winner is as short as 3-1 with Coral for the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at the Festival, but in post-race analysis from the trainer there was a suggestion that the seven-year-old could be considered for the Tote Gold Cup, for which Victor Chandler introduced him at 16-1.
Waterlaw made every yard under Jamie Moore to launch the Pipe brace in the Cheltenham & Three Counties Race Club Handicap Chase.
The 7-4 favourite, a first horse trained by Pipe for owner Mel Davies, gamely held the challenge of Tom Costalot by a length up the hill.
There was a minor shake-up in the betting for the Victor Chandler Handicap Chase following Redemption’s length-and-a-quarter defeat of Monkerhostin in the George Stevens Handicap Hurdle.
The sponsors cut the nine-year-old four points into 12-1 for the race at Ascot on January 10 and his trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies is bullish about a big run.
He said: “It’s very exciting to see the horse take advantage of this lower mark over hurdles, and rewarding inasmuch as he’s had so much bad luck over fences lately. He’ll be 6lb out of the handicap at Ascot but I’m very keen to run him.”
A change of trip did the trick for Whereareyounow, who comfortably completed the Twiston-Davies/Carl Llewellyn brace when beating Spring Grove by seven lengths in the Unicoin Homes Handicap Chase.
Although the 11-2 winner will be entered for the Martell Cognac Grand National, he will only run at Aintree if something goes wrong with Bindaree,who is in the same ownership.
Twiston-Davies said of his winner: “It was Carl’s idea to drop him to two miles five and I suppose the Cathcart could be the race for him at the Festival.”
History repeated itself in the EBF ‘Junior’ Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race when Secret Ploy, trained by Hugh Morrison, confirmed his Newbury superiority over Baby Run, thus foiling a treble for the Twiston-Davies stable.
Cashmans make the winner a 20-1 shot for the Weatherbys Champion Bumper.
