Harrington is happy for John to do the Lottery
JESSICA HARRINGTON likened the Jockey Club Chase Triple Crown to “doing the lottery” as Sizing John prepares to take up the first of three challenges which could yield a £1m jackpot.
Last season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup hero will edge closer towards winning the huge bonus if he can land the Betfair Chase at Haydock on Saturday under former Grand National-winning jockey and Hickstead-winning showjumper Robbie Power.
Even still, Sizing John would only become a millionaire if he can claim the King George at Kempton and the Gold Cup back at Cheltenham in March. “It will be very hard to win the three races,” said Harrington.
“It’s a bit like doing the lottery. If the first number doesn’t come up you know your fate for the rest of them.
“I would like to bring him back to the Gold Cup, but the last two winners of that race (Coneygree and Don Cossack) haven’t even got back to Cheltenham.
“From that point of view, plan A is to get him there, and anything else would be a bonus.”
Sizing John’s enterprising assault on the windfall was engineered by Barnsley-born owner Alan Potts, who died last week at the age of 80.
Potts and his wife, Ann, who died in August, sent a strong squad of horses to Harrington’s County Kildare yard in 2016 and the switch gained significant profit with two Cheltenham Festival winners in March.
Harrington said: “Alan was the one who said last year that he would like to go for the £1m bonus this season. He was very good to me, and brought some nice horses into the yard.
“Everything I wanted to do, I was allowed to do. He was under a lot of stress with Ann not being well, but he got her to Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown and to France, which she loved, in June.
“She loved the horses and probably had more affinity with the horses than him. But, at the end of the day, if you said a horse can’t run because he’s not right he would never say run. He always put the horses first in anything he did.
“Before Ann died, all the horses were changed to Ann and Alan Potts Limited partnership and I believe the plan is for the horses to continue to run until they get old, like myself.”
Sizing John is likely to arrive in England on Thursday ahead of his first start since April, when he dramatically won the Punchestown Gold Cup.
Harrington is, however, satisfied the seven-year-old is as fit as he can be without having had a run beforehand.
Sizing John is one of seven confirmations for the Betfair Chase, with Charlie Hall Chase winner Bristol De Mai, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, the current favourite due to winning course form and likely soft ground.
Last year’s winner Cue Card, a heavy faller in the aforementioned Wetherby race, is entered, with teenage jockey Harry Cobden replacing Paddy Brennan on the Colin Tizzard-trained veteran.
Cobden, the champion conditional, is a natural horseman who carried the colours of Sir Alex Ferguson, and others, to victory at Leicester yesterday on the Paul Nicholls-trained Tommy Silver.
A week after the jockey rode Give Me A Copper to victory at Kempton for the same high-profile owners, the likable Cobden is blossoming as number two at the Nicholls stable while maintaining his links to fellow west country trainer Colin Tizzard.
He predicts a bright future for the Tizzard-trained Slate House won the Grade Two Sky Bet Supreme Trial Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham on Sunday by making most of the running.
“For a horse only having his second run on a proper racetrack, it was a little bit for him to think about it, and he idled a bit in front. He’s quite a sensitive horse and it wasn’t ideal when I was trying to get him going forward. But when one came to him he picked up nicely. He’s a nice horse,” he said.
“I’d say he’s a very smart horse. I don’t know how far he’s going to go, but he’s won a Grade Two and I’d say he’s won it comfortably. He’ll probably end up wanting three miles and fences one day, but he’s a lovely prospect.”
Cobden could also partner the Nicholls-trianed Vicente over the Grand National fences in Aintree’s Becher Chase next month.
The dual Scottish National winner, who came to grief at the first in this year’s National, was runner-up at Cheltenham on Saturday in a long-distance chase.
“He is not always the most clever jumper, but he jumped well at Cheltenham and Harry said he would love to ride him over those fences,” said Nicholls. “If he went to the Becher and hated those fences, we would know to train him for Ayr again as that is the other long-term option.”