COMBATIVE CAPTAIN IN COMMAND
CAPTAIN TEAGUE pulled rank on his Coral Challow Novices’ Hurdle rivals to give Paul Nicholls a record-extending sixth win in the Newbury Grade 1 test.
The 14-time champion trainer was bidding for a fourth straight victory in the race on the back of wins for Bravemansgame (2020), Stage Star (2021) and Hermes Allen (2021) – and Ditcheat stable jockey Harry Cobden oozed confidence on the well-backed 2-1 favourite for most of the two-mile, four-furlong trip.
But Captain Teague found leader Lookaway defiant on the run to the final flight, and the five-year-old, carrying the colours of Nicholls’ principal owner, Johnny de la Hey, had to roll up his sleeves to score by a length and a half, with The Jukebox Man and Johnnywho closing in.
A 40-1 third in Cheltenham’s Weatherbys Champion Bumper last March, Captain Teague began his career over timber with a fluent victory in the Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle at Chepstow in October before a defeat when the odds-on favourite back at the home of jump racing the following month.
“It didn’t work out at Cheltenham but he learned an awful lot that day and Harry learned an awful lot about
him,” said Nicholls. “It’s his third run over hurdles – he’s learning all the time – and he was much improved today.”
Captain Teague can be backed at 16-1 with Ladbrokes for both the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle over two miles and five furlongs and the threemile Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham next March.
“Johnny’s not totally mad about Cheltenham, but I’ll have a chat with him and see what he wants,” added Nicholls. “This time next year, when he’s jumping, you’ll see the best of him – he’ll be a very smart three-mile chaser.”
The market drift of ante-post favourite Willmount to 9-4 second choice proved right when the Nicky Henderson trainee was pulled up by James Bowen three flights from home.
Bowen, deputising for Nico de Boinville – Henderson’s stable jockey confirmed he had suffered a fractured collarbone in a fall at Doncaster on Friday – had earlier ridden Jeriko Du Reponet to a cosy length-and-threequarter supremacy in the Coral Committed To Safer Gambling ‘Introductory’ Hurdle.