More Of That, the winner of the World Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, was on a racecourse for the first time since his Festival success when he exercised here on Tuesday, but the more immediate focus on a glorious November morning was the Hennessy Gold Cup, which is due to be staged at the track for the 58th time a week on Saturday.
Smad Place and Midnight Prayer, two of Alan King’s contenders for the race, also galloped down Newbury’s long home straight, past the line of four fences which will be the final test for tiring horses at the end of the three-and-a-quarter mile trip on 29 November. Oliver Sherwood, who won the Hennessy with Arctic Call in 1990 and could well saddle the favourite for this year’s race in the recent Carlisle winner Many Clouds, was also in attendance as the course staged an official media “launch” for its most famous race, won by such outstanding chasers as Mandarin, Arkle, Burrough Hill Lad and Denman.
King has yet to saddle a Hennessy winner but his two confirmed runners this year are both second-season chasers who improved throughout their novice campaigns. Smad Place fought all the way to the line before going under by a neck to O’Faolains Boy in the RSA Chase at the Festival, while Midnight Prayer took the four-mile National Hunt Chase the previous afternoon.
“Neither horse had been on a racetrack since the March meeting and I thought it would do them good to come away and have a change,” King said. “Midnight Prayer in particular certainly had the adrenalin up when he came off the horsebox this morning. The journey gives them something to think about and the atmosphere when they walk off and see the racecourse again.
“Smad Place did everything right at the Festival bar win [and] we feel that he’s strengthened up quite a bit. He’s always been a bit light and narrow, but he’s had a good summer and he looks a stronger horse this year and I think he’s working better than he’s ever done, so we hope there’s a bit more improvement to come.
“If he can’t be very competitive off that mark [of 155] in a Hennessy then he’s not going to win a Gold Cup, or run in a Gold Cup. You always hope with a young horse like that and if we’ve got a Gold Cup horse, it will be him. He might not be good enough, but he’d want to be running a massive race off that mark if he’s going to progress.
“A lot of people thought [Midnight Prayer] was quite lucky to win the four-miler, but he has won it and I’m not frightened of coming back to three-and-a-quarter, especially on soft ground. He’s got to start somewhere, there’s not too many options for these type of horses and he needs a prep for the Welsh National.”
Smad Place is top-priced at 10-1 for the Hennessy, two points behind the 8-1 favourite Djakadam, who is trained by Ireland’s champion trainer, Willie Mullins, and Many Clouds, a 9-1 chance.
“Many Clouds worked this morning and I was very happy with him,” Sherwood said. ”I thought that Eduard was the one to beat [on Many Clouds’ seasonal debut in early November] and I must confess I thought we’d finish second to him. We had a bit of a panic afterwards thinking the handicapper would murder us [but] he’s put us up 7lb, which could have been worse.
“I can’t see the [Hennessy] trip being a problem for him, and in the Reynoldstown [giving 4lb to O’Faolains Boy] we were staying on again at the end. I was delighted with his jumping at Carlisle and he’s come back this season as a fully grown man.”
Jonjo O’Neill, the trainer of More Of That, was not here to see the World Hurdle winner exercise with an unraced stablemate, but the unbeaten six-year-old, who holds an entry in a Grade One at Fairyhouse on 30 November, is clearly close to a return to action.
“He proved last year how good he was,” Richie McLernon, who partnered More Of That in his gallop in place of the injured Tony McCoy, said. “Beating the best Ireland has in Annie Power was as good as any horse had to offer and I’m sure the boss will have him ready when the time comes.”
Vautour, an outstanding winner of the Supreme Novice Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March, could make his first start over fences at Navan on Sunday. Willie Mullins’s five-year-old is one of 25 entries for a Beginners’ Chase over over two miles and a furlong.
