Yanworth stops King swearing

ALAN KING said his New Year’s resolution is to stop swearing and he had no need for any expletives as Yanworth bounced back to his best at Cheltenham.

Sent off the 15-8 jointfavourite with Willoughby Court, who had beaten him last time out at Newbury, he turned the tables in impressive style, thanks to a much improved round of jumping.

“He’s going to be the death of me,” said King who was recording his 1,550th winner. “His jumping was good. Barry (Geraghty the winning jockey) was impressed.

“Full credit to Wayne Hutchinson and Yogi Breisner, who have done a lot of work with him.

“He’s gone and winged the last and I thought he was going to go and win by two or three lengths and then he’s suddenly pricked his ears.

“Luckily, when the other horse came to him he went again. It’s not straightforward, but he was much better. That was a big step in the right direction.” Yanworth was cut to 8-1 from 12-1 by Betfair and Paddy Power for the RSA Chase and is 9-1 with the former for the JLT Chase.

King added: “I think he will have entries in the JLT and the RSA at Cheltenham in March, but he wants another run.”

Unlike Yanworth, Willoughby Court’s jumping let him down. A howling error at the fourth-last fence was the final killer blow.

Ben Pauling, his trainer, said: “He’ll go for the JLT. But he was never as fluent as he was at Newbury.”