Sizing up £1m prize bonus for Triple Crown
JESSICA HARRINGTON has confirmed Gold Cup winner Sizing John will be aimed at the National Hunt Triple Crown after Jockey Club racecourses announced a £1m bonus will be on offer once again.
Any horse able to win the Betfair Chase at Haydock, the King George VI Chase at Kempton and the Gold Cup at Cheltenham will earn its connections the huge bonus.
Since its inception in 2005, only Kauto Star has won all three races in the same season, with Colin Tizzard’s Cue Card coming agonisingly close a couple of years ago when he fell in the Gold Cup having won the first two legs.
Sizing John – owned by Barnsley-born Alan Potts whose wife Ann died recently – completed a Gold Cup treble at Cheltenham, Punchestown and Leopardstown last season.
“This bonus is a great extra incentive and builds the season towards a crescendo for the sport,” said Harrington who enjoyed success in the past with her champion two mile chaser Moscow Flyer.
“Ever since Sizing John won in April at Punchestown we have had the Triple Crown on our minds. Our aim is to start him off in the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November. It’s exciting to have a horse to run in these races.”
Nicky Henderson has also revealed that Might Bite will have the bonus as a target – the progressive horse won at Doncaster before landing Grade One novice chases at both Cheltenham and Aintree.
“The Chase Triple Crown is a fantastic initiative,” he said. “It focuses your mind as to where to start the season if you want a chance of winning the Triple Crown. Might Bite’s main objective is the King George so it would certainly make sense to start at Haydock.”
Serial interloper Richard Melia, the man who gatecrashed Sizing John’s Cheltenham Gold Cup celebrations in March, is set to be banned from all tracks owned by Arena Racing Company after appearing in the winner’s enclosure at Yarmouth yesterday.
Melia has previously been spotted next to Frankel on Champions Day back in 2012 while he washed down Sue and Harvey Smith’s Auroras Encore after the Yorkshire horse won the 2013 Grand National. He then walked alongside the horse into the winner’s enclosure.
Melia was present in the Yarmouth paddock after the Jim Crowley-ridden Gabr won the opener. Glen Tubby, executive director at Yarmouth, confirmed Melia had been ejected and expects ARC to ban him from its venues in the future.
Melia’s antics go back to 1996 when pictured with Collier Bay after his Champion Hurdle victory. He said: “I only did it because I had a bet on the horse. It was not a real one, just a friendly one.
“I will have to go to the Breeders’ Cup next as they are on to me in England. I’ve done other sports since the Gold Cup. I did the Anthony Joshua versus Wladimir Klitschko fight and shook hands with them both after the fight.”
Ten day bans handed down to this year’s Grand National-winning jockey Derek Fox, as well as Sean Quinlan and Stephen Mulqueen, have been reduced to two on appeal.
They argued that officials at Perth did not deploy flags in the correct position when a chase race had to be voided due to a stricken horse on the run-in.
Take Cover, winner of the Beverley Bullet, has been declared for tomorrow’s Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury by Bawtry trainer David Griffiths. I HAVE high hopes of winning the big betting race in Britain tomorrow – the Ayr Gold Cup – a contest in which form at York could play a big part.
After all the rain on the west coast of Scotland, horses who combine ability and stamina will prosper at Ayr.
The first two days of the Ayr Gold Cup meeting were lost to the weather on Thursday and yesterday, although the clerk of the course is hopeful of racing going ahead on Saturday.
Richard Fahey and I combined 11 years ago with two-time York winner Fonthill Road to land the big sprint.
Richard saddles eight of the 25-strong field tomorrow – and I think the race is between two from Musley Bank.
I have selected the lowweighted Stamp Hill as my mount.
He has plenty of speed, so the drop back to six furlongs from seven – a distance at which he won the International handicap at Ascot in July – won’t inconvenience him.
Toscanini, who ran a great race to be second in the Group 3 Sky Bet City Of York Stakes at the Welcome To Yorkshire Ebor Festival, is towards the upper end of the weights and he would have been my choice without Stamp Hill. Tony Hamilton is on board him.
Richard also saddles the top weight Kimberella, winner of the Sky Bet Dash at York last season, Mr Lupton, victorious in the 888Sport Charity Sprint on Knavesmire last year, and last year’s runner-up Growl, who made his seasonal debut in 2017 in the Group 2 Duke Of York Clipper Logistics Stakes at York.
So it’s very much a case of punters studying all that excellent York form when choosing which horse to back. One of my earlier rides of the day tomorrow is Dance Diva, a filly I really like.
She’s won three times from five outings and wasn’t disgraced when runner-up in an Ascot Group 3.
It’s that same status of race tomorrow at 2pm and hopefully she’ll put on a good show for me.
Carnageo arrives in Scotland after a super victory at York’s Sunday meeting earlier this month. If there’s a decent gallop in the 4.10pm Kilkerran Cup, then he will have a really good chance. My sole concern would be that, with ground conditions being testing, jockeys might be reluctant to set a good pace in the early stages of races.
There are no ground worries for Scofflaw, my mount in the contest at 4.55pm, who won at Epsom on his last run just over a week ago.
Equally happy with ease in the going is Northwest Frontier, who finished mid-division in York’s Betfred Melrose Handicap last month after just coming to the head of affairs too soon. He’ll have a decent shout.
I have now recovered after a bad allergic reaction to a sting from a wasp at Carlisle earlier in the week.
It was quite scary as I got a rash all over and my hand and lips were swollen. I gave up my rides at Beverley on Wednesday as a result. Thankfully, I am over it and raring to go.