King George special Might Bite to get teeth into Kempton chase
Back Henderson’s charge to cut out novice errors Thistlecrack returns to Kempton as underdog
This time last year jump racing was about to herald its latest superstar in Thistlecrack, a rare novice winner of Kempton’s Boxing Day spectacular, the 32Red King George VI Chase. Back then his future looked bright and the Gold Cup beckoned – but time stands still for neither horse nor trainer.
The bare fact is that, interrupted by a tendon injury and time doing just that, standing still, Thistlecrack has not won since, and today Colin Tizzard’s chaser returns to the scene of his greatest victory as an underdog, already dismissed by some pundits a thing of the past.
It would be premature to write him off, particularly in a race which lends itself to multiple winners. But you have to ask yourself, would even a fully fit, on-song Thistlecrack be able to cope with last season’s star novice chaser Might Bite, the relentless grey Bristol De Mai or even his own stable companion, Fox Norton, the Champion Chase runner-up, stepping up to three miles for the first time?
This year’s race has a bit of everything except an Irish challenger and, despite only eight runners, it is deep as an ocean trench. Neverthe- less, those who go by the tick-tock of the stopwatch have been waiting patiently for 3.05pm today for precisely one year and 70 minutes – ever since Might Bite fell at the last fence in the Kauto Star Novice Chase, when he was in the process of clocking a time 10 seconds faster than Thistlecrack’s King George.
Since that fall Nicky Henderson’s eight-year-old chaser has gone through 2017 with an unblemished record, and was a dozen lengths clear of today’s rival Whisper when he tried to duck out of the gate back to the paddock in the RSA Chase at Cheltenham, handing his stable companion the advantage.
Even then Might Bite still managed to beat him from a standing start, and it is that dramatic run rather than the clock on which I base my belief that the eight-yearold can dominate British chasing for the next couple of years.
The Kempton fall was a simple error in counting, and Might Bite’s quirks should not come into play there, where the paddock gate is beyond the finish line today.
Henderson’s masterstroke was to start Might Bite off this season in a small graduation race at Sandown rather than slog round against Bristol De Mai in the mud at Haydock, resisting the lure of the £1 million bonus for winning the Betfair Chase, the King George and the Gold Cup in the same season, which the Nigel Twiston-davies trained grey is a third of the way to landing.
So far Bristol De Mai’s best form has been on heavy ground around Haydock.
His 57-length defeat of Cue Card must be taken with a pinch of salt, however, and if he can do the same today he is the next Arkle – but on good ground he was beaten by 20 lengths by Sizing John in the Gold Cup and by 25 lengths by Tea For Two at Aintree.
You can make allowances for that, as Twiston-davies feels he was not quite right for Cheltenham and he was still very young but, even though he is the highest-rated horse in the race, for me he still has it to prove on better ground, and today it will probably ride closer to what Might Bite wants than he does.
Tizzard, who bids to win the race for the third year in succession after Cue Card and Thistlecrack, is not without a chance. Thistlecrack was very stuffy at Newbury and one wonders if even a trainer as good as Tizzard has had long enough to get him up to speed for this – though nothing seems beyond him, and the horse’s day may yet come again.
However Fox Norton could prove a revelation at three miles if he stays. Two of the race’s greatest winners, Desert Orchid and Kauto Star, both started off in that sphere, One Man and Edredon Bleu were both Champions at two miles.
Fox Norton did not look like he was stopping over two-and-a-half at Aintree last season although that was on good ground.
Tea For Two was only beaten by three-and-a-half lengths by Thistlecrack last year, but will need a career best to finish as close, and only the increasingly reliable Hennessy second Whisper looks sufficiently able to pick up the pieces should any of the top four underperform.