The busy Christmas programme produced memorable performances by steeplechasers on both sides of the Irish Sea on Tuesday, as Douvan’s 13th consecutive victory in the Grade One feature event here was followed by Native River’s brave success under top weight in the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow.
Both horses are obvious contenders for championship events at Cheltenham in March but, while Douvan is as short as 1-3 for the Champion Chase, Native River is a 12-1 chance for the Cheltenham Gold Cup in a market dominated by Thistlecrack, the King George winner on Monday, who occupies the box next door at Colin Tizzard’s West Country stable.
Native River’s success in Wales sealed a remarkable two days for Tizzard, who saddled the 1-2 in the King George on Monday when Cue Card followed Thistlecrack home, and landed a Grade One novice chase on the same card with a 33-1 chance. The six-year-old, who was in front throughout the second circuit and held on grimly in the closing stages, showed similar determination to win the Hennessy Gold Cup last month and has now earned more for Tizzard’s stable from his two big handicap successes this season than either Cue Card or Thistlecrack, who are both Grade One winners.
Native River was not just the first top weight to win the Welsh National for a quarter of a century but also the first horse to follow up after winning the Hennessy since Playschool, with the current champion trainer, Paul Nicholls, in his saddle, in 1987.
“He’s a beautiful young horse,” Tizzard said. “He’s only six and it took me a long time to get them [Native River’s owners] to run him.
“Any other season, without the likes of Thistlecrack and Cue Card, he’d be anyone’s champion. He’s a stayer, so there’s nowhere else he can go apart from the Gold Cup. We were actually thinking before we came here today that he could go the World [now Stayers’] Hurdle route but I think he’ll stay chasing now.”
Tizzard now has such a strong hand in the Gold Cup, however, that Cue Card could be diverted to the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, a race he won in 2013. “We’ve got options with Cue Card,” Tizzard said. “He paid the price a bit for chasing Thistlecrack out in the country [in the King George]. The Ryanair we are definitely thinking about.”
Though Tizzard won two Grade One events and picked up nearly £300,000 in prize money in the space of two days, he still cannot match Willie Mullins’ record in Ireland over the same 48-hour period. Mullins took the two Grade Ones on the card here on Tuesday to add to Min’s success in the feature event on Monday, and won five of the six races on the card in which he saddled a runner.
Douvan’s latest success in the Grade One Paddy Power Cashcard Chase, his 12th win from 12 starts since he joined Mullins in the summer of 2014, was as effortless as the previous 11. Mullins has long maintained that Douvan has more natural talent than any of the outstanding horses to walk into his yard in recent seasons and it seems increasingly possible that he will go through his entire career without meeting a worthy rival.
It is certainly hard to see any significant challenge to Douvan in the two-mile division, where he will remain this season.
“I just need to try to keep him sound and keep him well and hopefully let the races come one after the other,” Mullins said. “He’s potentially the best horse that we’ve had; it’s hard to see that we’re going to have one better than Hurricane Fly [who won 22 Grade One races] but he never jumped a fence and I’m hoping he [Douvan] will do more over fences than anything we’ve ever had. He has huge potential still, even with all he’s done with us.
“I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope that he stays sound, and we’ll stay on the two-mile route.
“I don’t need to find out any more [about him] as long as he can keep winning those type of races and then, if we decide to go up in trip [next season], that’s another day’s work.”
Altior, the hot favourite for the Arkle Trophy, is one horse that might be able to give Douvan a race over two miles in time, and he extended his unbeaten record over fences to three races with an 18-length success at odds of 1-9 in the Wayward Lad Novice Chase at Kempton Park.
Altior, who took the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham in March a year after Douvan’s success in the same race at the Festival, has now won his three chase starts by a combined total of 87 lengths. He was cut to a best price of 7-4 for the Arkle, with Min next in the market at 7-2 and another runner from the Mullins yard, Yorkhill, third best at 8-1.
