Champion Chase
Horse-byhorse guide
Chacun Pour Soi
Winner of six of his seven starts for Willie Mullins and 5lb clear of his nearest rival on official ratings. Entitled to a good deal of respect; must go well. Odds 4-5
Cilaos Emery
Taken to chasing well, winning four of his six starts over fences. This is his hardest chasing assignment yet; he can run well without threatening the principals.
Odds 16-1
First Flow
Climbed through the chasing ranks, culminating in his grade one Clarence House Chase victory at Ascot in January. Needs more rain; must have claims if ground stays soft. Odds 12-1
Greaneteen
A combination of keenness and giving weight all round found him out at Newbury last time. Entitled to bounce back, but has work to do to reverse form with several of his rivals. Odds 33-1
Notebook
Underwhelming favourite in last year’s Arkle and has finished behind Chacun Pour Soi on his past two starts. Now disappointed twice at Cheltenham; place chance at best. Odds 33-1
Nube Negra
Consistent, high-class chaser who defied long odds to take the Desert Orchid Chase in December. This is altogether much tougher though and he might struggle a touch in this company. Odds 13-2
Politologue
Wide-margin winner of last year’s Champion Chase. This year’s renewal looks much tougher, but he still holds solid place claims, especially if granted an uncontested lead. Odds 8-1
Rouge Vif
Has a bit to find with several of his rivals. Moreover, he is markedly better on good ground than on soft; needs the ground to dry out if he is to figure. Odds 20-1
Sceau Royal
Hit the frame just once in four appearances at the Cheltenham Festival. Good horse on his day, but likely to come up short. Odds 16-1
Put The Kettle On
Unbeaten in three visits to Cheltenham, including for last year’s Arkle, when Rouge Vif and Notebook finished well behind her. Plenty to find with her rivals on official ratings, but her excellent course form can see her raise her game and go close.
Odds 8-1
Verdict
The Champion Chase is a race that has somehow eluded master trainer Willie Mullins over the years and, while Chacun Pour Soi appears to have plenty going for him, he remains unproven at Cheltenham and others make more appeal at the likely prices. As the winner of his past six starts, including an impressive maiden grade one victory at Ascot last time out, First Flow can prove a major threat to all, especially if further rain falls at Prestbury Park. Politologue can further frank First Flow’s Ascot form with another big run here, and he completes the shortlist of chances.
When Kim Bailey was asked what he would have in common with his jockey David Bass, if they met for a drink in a bar, he replied, only semi-joking: “The peanuts. And he’d probably want to wash them before he ate them.”
They pair up again today with First Flow in the Betway Champion Chase and, at first glance, their relationship looks like one from the book of opposites attracting.
Bass, once a drummer in a punk band called Doodlinda (“smashing sound” in Swahili) is the now-vegan jockey with left-wing political views who was openly discussing mental health before it became the fashion.
“I’m the opposite to a lot of people in racing,” agrees Bass. “Maybe Kim and I are not as different as people think. I know how he works now. I had to get the hang of that. You have to know what’s going through a trainer’s mind.”
Bass’s background is also very different from the vast majority of his colleagues. His parents taught music and his mother is the vicar of a rural parish in Leicestershire.
“Grandad took me jump racing, but my first proper memory is the 1994 Grand National which Richard Dunwoody won on Miinnehoma,” recalls Bass. “I was obsessed by Dunwoody and the reason I went to Richard Phillips [the trainer] after the racing school was because Dunwoody was jockey coaching there.”
After two years, the aspiring jockey moved on to John “Mad” Manners. “I went straight there and 10 days later he gave me my first ride,” he explains. “He’d make you do things like hold a mare with a bit of string round its neck in the middle of a yard, cow muck everywhere, peeing with rain and him shouting ‘sex’ as the stallion came round the corner.
“I’d have my whole arm up a cow to get a calf out and lived in a room above the tack room. The window fell out, there was a hole in the roof and he’d ring me in the middle of the night to tell me the cows were out in Highworth.
“I was there two years. It was crazy, but it didn’t do me any harm and the one thing with John, he’d give you a chance. If you wanted to ride in a race, he was willing to let you have a go.”
Consequently, when he moved to Nicky Henderson’s as the yard’s 7lb claimer, he had already had 150 rides in point-to-points. Henderson saw the value of that experience and Bass won a Swinton Hurdle and Mares’ Final for him as a 7lb claimer and was second in the Grand Annual at Cheltenham.
His first meeting with Bailey was when he was put forward for a spare ride for the trainer at Towcester on a bank holiday. “I’d never met Kim and he came into the weighing room and said, ‘I don’t know who you are and I’ve never heard of you, but I’m told you’re OK’.”
The horse won, Bass started riding out for Bailey and the rest has been an upward trajectory for both jockey and yard. In his first full season in 2015, he rode Darna to win at Cheltenham and a year later The Last Samuri finished second to Rule The World in the Grand National.
“Kim was already well on the road back to being a big yard again before I arrived,” points out Bass. “But the quality has got better and now in First Flow [today’s
Betway Champion Chase], Vinndication [tomorrow’s Stayers’ Hurdle] and Imperial Aura [Ryanair Chase], we’ve got two or three capable of competing at the top level.”
Bass has been vegan for two years. “There might be a couple of vegetarian jockeys, but I don’t think there’s another vegan, nor will there be for a while. I haven’t managed to change anyone’s mind yet.
“I’ve always been a bit of an eco-warrior. It started as a bit of a joke. My girlfriend is a pescatarian and I had a beetroot burger one night. It got back to Kim, he joked that I’d turned vegan and I decided I’d try it. I knew it was good for the environment, but I was interested to see what it did health-wise.
“It works for me. The first thing it improves is your metabolism and while I’m not lighter, it’s definitely easier to lose weight. My knowledge of nutrition is way better because you have to look at what you’re eating.
‘I have struggled with mental health at times and asked for help, and still do’
“You’re constantly told you won’t be as fit or strong and won’t recover from injury as quick, but when I fractured my wrist at Ayr in the autumn it healed in six weeks, which is pretty normal.
“I’ve never felt as fit. If I get beat on one, someone is bound to say I’d have won if I’d had a steak the previous night. But I don’t eat meat, fish or dairy. It’s as simple as that. Some people can’t get their heads round it, but when I first met my girlfriend I couldn’t get my head round her just eating fish. But it’s all good banter in the weighing room – everyone gets the mickey taken in there, only I probably get it a bit more!”
Mental health has always fascinated him, too. “I have struggled at times, have asked for help occasionally and still do,” he says.
“There’s still a bit of stigma attached, but we’re making progress. When I was mentally fragile and first saw someone I was embarrassed to talk about it, but it should be normal. I’m not saying every jockey needs it, but I felt it was something I needed and still need. I’m not talking about sports psychology, Dunwoody did that but that was about getting an edge.”
And just as he does not force feed his colleagues veganism, if he gets on his political soapbox, it is with a definite twinkle in his eye.
“Half the weighing room were not even registered to vote in the last election, which is what this government wants,” he says. “I did try to get them to register, not tell them how to vote. However, I’m not about to start redistributing my prize money. I’m trying to be apolitical these days, but it’s not working.”
No sooner had Shishkin sauntered to victory in the Arkle, cementing himself as the latest star in Nicky Henderson’s staggering sequence of two-mile chasers, than he was confirmed as a 6-4 favourite for the Champion Chase in 2022. Such is the restlessness of expectation attached to a horse who, while not yet discussed in the same breath as Sprinter Sacre or Altior, is fast emerging as the worthiest of heirs.
The only effective antidote to his Cheltenham anxieties, Henderson believes, is to record a winner on the first day of the Festival. For the second year running, Shishkin obliged, following victory in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle 12 months ago by delivering the trainer his recordextending seventh Arkle triumph. Over three decades, his horses have been insuperable in this steeplechase, from Remittance Man in 1991 to Tiutchev in 2000 and Sprinter in 2012. Shishkin’s imperious display, prevailing by 12 lengths without coming off the bridle, ensured that the tradition remained firmly intact.
Nico de Boinville, who won aboard Altior in the same race in 2017, said: “After that performance, you could say that he will be anything. That was a really hard-run, fast two-mile race, and no prisoners were taken.” While it was a pity that Energumene could not ignite a much-anticipated rivalry after being withdrawn with an injury last week, Shishkin looked as if he had several gears left in reserve. Henderson, while absorbing this week’s shock of finding that Altior had a chest infection, could barely believe his luck at the chance to nurture Shishkin, still unbeaten over fences. “How lucky can you be?” he said. “We had the great days when Sprinter won it, then Altior came through, so it’s extraordinary to find another one. He looked every bit as good as the other two and although he has a long way to go to be mentioned alongside them, he couldn’t have done any more here.” Shishkin’s trajectory to greatness appears impeccable. First came the 23-length defeat of Mick Pastor at Kempton last November, on his chasing debut. Another obliteration of the field at Doncaster two months later moved De Boinville to declare: “He has got it all.” As he lined up at prohibitive odds for the Arkle, the race could hardly have unfolded more in his favour, as Allmankind and Captain Guinness exhausted themselves at the front. With three fences to go, he crept up on their shoulder before launching into a lead that grew with every stride.
Henderson said: “He’s very quick, which can frighten you a little. But he has a high cruising speed, which enabled him just to sit on the other horses’ tails. He was impressive, the way he came up the hill at the end. He has always looked like a chaser, but he’s definitely a two-miler. He is just a natural.”
It is a measure of Shishkin’s vast potential that Henderson appointed him as the leader of the Seven Barrows battalion in Altior’s absence, above even Gold Cup contender Champ. He inhabits that rarest of realms for any racehorse, projecting the aura of a true phenomenon in the making. He is the most thrilling novice chaser on either side of the Irish Sea, with no limit set on what he could yet accomplish. The only uncertainty is how often we will see him in the years ahead. For now, simply savour him while he lasts.