Politologue victory has Nicholls relishing Cheltenham prospects
Paul Nicholls has been looking for a proper Grade One horse to follow in the footsteps of Kauto Star, Denman, Master Minded and Big Bucks and, in that respect, Father Christmas arrived early for him when Politologue, ridden by Harry Cobden, beat the odds-on favourite Fox Norton by half a length to win the Betfair Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown yesterday.
With Altior and Douvan, the top two milers, under a cloud and Fox Norton likely to step up in trip, yesterday’s win puts Politologue in among the upper echelons of the division and earned him a quote of 10-1 for the Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March.
According to Nicholls, who was landing his 10th Tingle Creek, the grey has all the attributes of a candidate for that race; he jumps for fun, cruises through his races and has a bit of class. And he was equally complimentary about Cobden, for whom this was a second Grade One victory.
Colin Tizzard’s runner-up got in close to the first but, on the back foot from thereon as Ar Mad blazed a trail, he could never quite find a rhythm.
A step up to three miles in the King George was not ruled out, though the gap is only 17 days.
Nicholls said: “He looks the proper job. I knew there would be huge improvement from Exeter [in the Haldon Gold Cup last month) because he hadn’t been in long enough then. Harry said he just cruised there, then idled. The faster they go, the better the tow he can get into the race.
“John Hales has always wanted a Gold Cup horse, so we slightly went down that route with him as a novice last year but, after the JLT [over 2½ miles] at Cheltenham, I said we needed to go back to two miles at Aintree. We’ve been missing a Grade One horse for a few seasons but have got one now.”
Even though there was a certain amount of carnage in the novices’ equivalent, the Randoxhealth.com Henry VIII Chase, it was won very impressively by Alan King’s Sceau Royal, the 11-1 outsider.
Finian’s Oscar reached for the first and was never at the races after that. Approaching the Pond, it was between the three smart former hurdlers, Brain Power, North Hill Harvey and Sceau Royal, and the chasing-bred Capitaine.
They got rid of the jumper at the second last, where Capitaine fell and, at the last, Sceau Royal was travelling so well that David Mullins had to ask for everything on Brain Power, but he skewed on landing, catapulting the jockey out of the side door.
It was another high-profile winner for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede following on from Bristol De Mai’s Betfair Chase a fortnight ago.
“He was taking a pull for most of the race,” said King, referring to jockey Daryl Jacob. “He’s not very big but he’s been a slick jumper from day one.
In fact you won’t see many slicker rounds of jumping than that at Sandown or anywhere.”
He added: “He doesn’t really like very soft ground so I wouldn’t mind if he went straight to the Arkle and we got him there very fresh.”
At Aintree, Nigel Twiston-Davies’s Blaklion put in a faultless round of jumping to win the Randoxhealth.com Becher Chase. He is now as short as 10-1 favourite for the Grand National in March.
On heavy ground it was the Aintree ‘experts’ who filled the first three places, with Blaklion, fourth in last season’s National, coming home nine lengths clear of 2016 National runnerup The Last Samuri, with Highland Lodge, already first and second in this race, a further six lengths back in third.
“It’s a relief,” said Twiston-Davies. “It’s what we hoped for and what we expected. He didn’t quite get home in the National but we could see that his fencing was superb. He is small but agile and accurate. It’s lovely when they get round like that.”
Today’s big meeting at Punchestown will have to pass an 8am inspection if it is to go ahead. Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Sizing John is one of six runners set to go to post in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase, which is the feature event on a seven-race card.