LOVE AT FIRST BITE
De Boinville’s mount storms King George
Rivals queued up to try to sink Might Bite in the 32Red King George vi Chase but ended up biting off more than they could chew as the 6-4 favourite jumped and galloped them all into submission.
On a day to remember for trainer Nicky Henderson, whose Champion Hurdler Buveur D’air sauntered to victory in the Christmas Hurdle, Might Bite gave him a third win in the race as he also leapfrogged Paul Nicholls to the top of the trainers’ championship race.
For jockey Nico de Boinville, 28, it was a first King George win. He now has another Rolls-Royce of a mount to go with his previous ride on sprinter sacre, that horse’s potential successor altior and, come March, an ally to help him try to add to his 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup win on Coneygree.
Might Bite went into yesterday’s race with a reputation of being hugely talented but also for doing silly things. He fell at the last fence 12 months ago with the Kauto star Novices’ Chase in the bag and also nearly threw away the Rsa Chase at the Cheltenham Festival by veering sharply right on the run-in when he spotted the exit from the track.
But the word being bandied around the winners’ enclosure to describe the performance here after being chased home by two big outsiders — Double shuffle and Tea For Two — was ‘straightforward’.
Might Bite might only have won by an official margin of one length but his superiority is better measured by the foot and a half by which he cleared the final fence.
There was plenty left in the tank had De Boinville needed it. Henderson said: ‘You can enjoy watching horses like him all day and night. He loves all the showmanship that goes with it and he likes to boss it and say look at me.’
De Boinville added: ‘it is just a case of keeping it simple on him. He always slightly idles but that’s why we said not to pick up the stick and leave it until after the last. He was doing it very easily. He was travelling and jumping which makes it a lot easier as a jockey — i just had to hold on.’
While Might Bite performed and Double shuffle and Tea For Two both excelled on a track where they run best, some of the other fancied runners were well below par.
Bristol De Mai, the Betfair Chase winner trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, made a series of jumping errors, checking out after a final blunder three fences out as he was beaten over 25 lengths in sixth.
The winner’s in-form stablemate Whisper, a close if beaten rival last season, never got near enough to land a blow in fifth and Fox Norton, on his first run at three miles, was pulled up three out.
Thistlecrack was not disgraced in fourth and ended up beaten less than six lengths but he never looked like threatening the winner and does not look the same horse who won the King George 12 months ago.
Bookies generally make Might Bite 5-1 second favourite for the Gold Cup behind Jessica Harrington’s 2017 winner sizing John.
However, Might Bite will carry the question mark of last year’s Rsa run in the Festival.
Henderson conceded that but also that he had a cunning plan. He said: ‘i am first to admit Cheltenham is a different ball game. He will jump the last and probably want to go right.
‘i have thought of something but i am not going to give it away.’