Racing Sandown Park, Punchestown and bloodstock
‘A piece of cake’ triumph provides a trip down memory lane, while a tired Altior shows why he’s still a class act
IN many ways, the bet365
Gold Cup is not the race it once was in its halcyon days as the “Whitbread” when horses such as Arkle, What A Myth, Mill House, The Dikler, Diamond Edge and Desert Orchid triumphed in Sandown’s end-of-season long-distance handicap chase.
This is due to a number of factors. The value of the Grand National and the changes to that course now mean that any staying chaser with a high enough rating runs at Aintree — whether it can jump or not — and it has been the bet365 Gold Cup’s biggest usurper.
Brief stints as sponsor by Attheraces and Betfred, after Whitbread bowed out in 2001, did not help its identity. New long-distance chases such as the Betfair and the importance of winning at the major Festivals are contributory factors, and the creation of the Celebration Chase means that very often it is not the headline act on its own day. However, bet365 has now sponsored the last 11 editions, giving it some stability.
The victory of Mark
Bradstock’s Step Back in Saturday’s bet365 Gold Cup trumped a below-par performance from Altior, in what was expected to be a lap of honour, in the Celebration Chase.
Step Back’s victory tied in very nicely with some of the race’s magical past. Sara Bradstock’s father John Oaksey had won the second-ever running of the race on Taxidermist exactly 60 years before.
But as an amateur jockey, former H&H racing correspondent John had some unfinished business with the Whitbread — back in 1974, he was first past the post on Proud Tarquin for my father Roddy [Armytage], but he was placed second behind The Dikler after the stewards deemed a minor bump as reason for disqualification.
Quite apart from the fact that Oaksey, a qualified barrister, was outflanked by his Irish counterpart Ron Barry on The Dikler, in the stewards’ room, Sir John Thomson, Proud Tarquin’s owner-breeder, had such a sense of fair play that he refused to let my father appeal the on-the-day decision.
So the Oaksey family were owed one and once again it proved
that, given the raw materials as they were with Carruthers and Coneygree, Mark and Sara can produce the goods. In fact, if you add in King Harald, their 2005 Cheltenham winner, they fight way above the weight of the average 20-horse yard.
The most staggering fact about the bet365 is that only one horse has ever won both it and the Grand National (Mr Frisk), although several winners were placed in the National. The way Step Back jumped and galloped, it
‘He had muscle problems in the winter, but turning him out helps, so spring is his time of year’ SARA BRADSTOCK ON STEP BACK
would be no surprise to see him in the shake-up at Aintree in 11 months’ time.
Once he jumped to the front at the fifth with Jamie Moore, he was never headed. And of course, the absolute key to frontrunning — as demonstrated by both Un De Sceaux and Faugheen at Punchestown last week — is to keep taking a length out of the field at every obstacle, which means the opposition are forever on the back foot playing catch up.
Although the 13-length runner-up Rock The Kasbah and the third Present Man closed in on him going to the Pond, Moore had plenty up his sleeve, despite the Bradstocks’ fears Step Back, an Indian River gelding, would not like the ground. The way he finished up Sandown’s hill, he loved it and would happily have gone round again.
“He is the most lovely horse and he just gallops and jumps forever,” said Sara Bradstock afterwards. “We knew he was in very good nick. He had awful muscle enzyme problems in the winter which has taxed us, the vets and the farrier, but in the spring we can turn him out which helps, so this is his time of year.
“His owner wanted a horse to run at Grade One tracks so he’s done that job. We got him for £47,000, having won three point-to-points — that’s expensive for us, but nothing compared to the winners of one point-to-point which go for six figures.”
It was the Bradstock’s fifth winner of the season.
“We’ve got no bloody horses — that’s the problem,” added Bradstock. “But we’ve proved again and again, we can do it if you give us the horses.”
She concluded that they may
give him a look at Aintree in the Becher Chase in December, although they might also consider giving him a winter holiday and bringing him back for the spring. She added they would have one more go with the 2015 Gold Cup winner Coneygree next season.
‘A DOWNER OF A DAY’
JAMIE MOORE described his victory aboard Step Back as “a piece of cake”, but it was scant consolation for the loss of his father Gary’s Ar Mad in the Celebration Chase. The frontrunning eight-year-old fell fatally at the eighth and in the process of breaking his own shoulder, inflicted a similar injury on Jamie’s brother Josh.
“I just had to steer Step Back,” Jamie said. “He was fit and fresh which counts for a lot at this time of year. But I went out very down in the dumps. I’m very close to Josh and it’s gutting to lose the horse and for him to break his shoulder again. As soon as they hit the floor, I knew they were in
trouble. It’s nice for me to win this race, but it’s been a bit of a downer of a day.”
The race went to Altior and, although on the face of it, his truncated season should have meant he was also fit and fresh, the rush to get him back from his wind operation finally caught up with him at Sandown — beating the 33-1 shot San Benedeto by just 3¼ lengths. If he ever looked like wanting more than two miles, it was on Saturday.
Afterwards, a momentarily worried Nico de Boinville even dismounted the champion chaser on his return to the winner’s enclosure, but he is now 14 races unbeaten over obstacles and he can regroup during a long summer break.
De Boinville said: “He was just lacking that bit of electricity today and it was pretty workmanlike. I think Cheltenham has left its mark and it’s soft ground here. It’s the mark of a great champion that he can still pull it out of the bag.”
Henderson, who was crowned champion trainer for the fifth time, and with a “Mullins-esque” four-timer on the day thanks also to Top Notch, Call Me Lord and Soul Emotion, was more than happy to excuse his stable star.
“It’s been a very difficult season for him,” he said, reflecting on getting him back from his early November wind operation.
“We had to push him to get him to the Game Spirit and he was great at Cheltenham, but when Nico got off there the first thing he said was that he’d had a very hard race. He wasn’t ready for Aintree and I think there’s probably still a bit of Cheltenham on him. He was tired, not exhausted, but he’s as good as there is and won because of his class.
“I’d have loved to have had a go at two-and-a-half miles at Aintree, but he’s only just come back in time for today, so he can go and have a good old summer.
“He’s sure to start off in the Tingle Creek — he deserves to win the one he didn’t win this season. I don’t want to upset Simon Munir and Isaac Souede because they have quite a few horses with me, but I wouldn’t mind beating their Willie Mullinstrained horse [Arkle winner] Footpad.”
‘Altior was just lacking
that bit of electricity today,
but it’s the mark of a great champion that he can still pull it out of the bag’
NICO DE BOINVILLE