Several of the best chasers of the last 40 years have had their first experience of Cheltenham’s fences in the two-and-a-half mile novice on the first day of the November meeting, but few have won as memorably as Count Meribel did here on Friday. A bad mistake at the second-last seemed to have cost him his chance to win, but Mark Grant, Count Meribel’s jockey, somehow kept the partnership intact, regathered his momentum and then got him home by a neck in a three-way finish.
It was a performance that will be called to mind if, like four of the last seven winners of this race, Count Meribel is a Grade One winner later on in the season. He had jumped impeccably until his solitary blunder, and done so at a strong pace that proved he has an engine to match his technique. Over the final two fences on Friday, he showed that he has courage and resilience too.
Grant, who was winning at Cheltenham for the first time in a 16-year career, felt that Count Meribel “would have won by three or four lengths” but for the error that almost brought him to a standstill.
“He’s certainly as good as any that I’ve ridden,” Grant said. “If the ground was right for him, he could be good enough for the Festival [in March]. Two out, he didn’t know what to do, but he did well to stand up and all credit to him, to battle back and win.”
Nigel Twiston-Davies is listed in the racecard as Count Meribel’s trainer, but he passed much of the credit for the success to the former Champion Hurdle-winning trainer Jim Old, who has acted as his assistant since his retirement in 2015.
“Jim’s a great help and I think he could be a very nice horse, and possibly better over three miles,” the trainer said. “He’s always been a very good jumper and I think we’ll probably move up to three miles next time. Mark definitely thought he would be better at three, and he was staying on well. The RSA [Novice Chase] at the Festival is the dream, but I’m sure a lot of very good horses are going to pop out before that.”
Count Meribel is a 33-1 chance for the RSA Chase next March but is seen as a serious contender for the Festival meeting by both the trainer and his assistant, who originally bought the six-year-old for just 3,500gns [£3,675].
Old confirmed that plans “will work back very carefully from Cheltenham, with possibly just one or two in between”, and paid tribute to a “phenomenal recovery” by Count Meribel’s rider. “I know it was the horse that did it,” Old said, “but to sit on was one thing, to pick him up and go again was the ride of the year.
Lingfield 11.55 Lord Murphy 12.25 New King 1.00 Humanitarian
1.35 First Selection 2.10 Poetic Principle 2.45 Master The World
3.15 Gifted Master 3.45 Zarrar
Uttoxeter 12.15 Passing Dream 12.50 Beakstown 1.25 One Of Us
2.00 Tokay Dokey 2.35 Midnight Tune 3.05 Methag 3.40 North Star Oscar
Wetherby 12.30 Skidoosh 1.05 Miles To Milan 1.40 Apterix
2.15 Cracking Find 2.50 Kajaki 3.20 Raven's Tower 3.50 Ravenhill Road
Cheltenham 12.40 Montestrel 1.15 The Worlds End 1.50 Looking Well (nb) 2.25 Rather Be (nap) 3.00 First Assignment 3.30 Christmas In April 4.00 Royal Illusion
Wolverhampton 5.15 Jem Scuttle 5.45 So Hi Storm 6.15 King Of Change 6.45 Blowing Dixie 7.15 Swift Rose 7.45 Star Of Bengal
8.15 Hollander 8.45 Whatwouldyouknow
“The first time he ever jumped, he looked special. He made a wonderful shape and loved it. We have not got any doubts about him getting the trip in the RSA and he probably wants it in that class of race.”
Paddy Brennan, who won the Gold Cup on Twiston-Davies’s Imperial Commander during a four-year spell as the trainer’s principal jockey, took three of the five remaining races on the card, completing his 496-1 treble on Coolanly in the Grade Two Ballymore Novice Hurdle. The winner is a 40-1 chance to land the Grade One of the same name on the second day of the Festival meeting in March, and 25-1 to win after a step up to three miles in the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle.
Tiger Roll, last year’s Grand National winner, returned to action in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase but could not add to his win over the same course at last season’s Festival. Gordon Elliott’s runner, who was carrying top weight, eventually finished a creditable fourth as Josies Orders registered his fourth career success around the twists and turns.
