Ruby Walsh, who will ride Douvan if he runs in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown Park on Saturday, has joined the discussion about the six-year-old’s chance of lining up in the Grade One event, telling his regular online blog on Wednesday that bookies had been “mad in the head” to quote last season’s brilliant Arkle Trophy winner at generous prices earlier in the week.
Walsh said on Wednesday that Willie Mullins, his trainer, will decide whether to run him before the final declaration stage on Thursday morning, adding: “Whoever priced him at 4-1 and 5-1 ante-post was mad in the head anyway.”
He continued: “He’s the odds-on favourite for the Champion Chase [at Cheltenham in March], is unbeaten since he joined us in Closutton,” referring to Mullins’s base in County Carlow. “We’ve never made any secret of how highly we rate him and the reigning champ, Sprinter Sacre, was retired a few weeks ago.
“If the bookmakers decided for some reason to price Douvan like he wasn’t going to run, that’s their problem. Not ours. I expect him to run a big race if he takes part, but I also expect [his stable companion] Un De Sceaux to do the same if he runs.”
Walsh’s intervention did nothing to shore up Douvan’s price on Wednesday, however, and after two rollercoaster days in the ante-post market, Mullins’s chaser was once again odds-against at 6-4 for the Tingle Creek on Wednesday evening, having been as short as 4-7 in the morning. Un De Sceaux is top-priced at 11-4 while Sire De Grugy, who edged out Special Tiara in a memorable finish to the race 12 months ago, is a 3-1 chance.
By lunchtime on Thursday, punters who backed Douvan at big prices will either be sitting on one of the best ante-post bets of recent seasons, or cursing themselves for getting sucked into a gamble that, according to Leon Blanche, a spokesman for the bookmaker Boylesports, involved “all the people we respect” placing “decent sums of cash” on Douvan.
Should he line up, Douvan would be sure to start at long odds-on, as he did in last season’s Arkle Trophy, when he was the shortest-priced favourite of the four-day Festival meeting at 1-4. His easy success there was repeated at both the Aintree and Punchestown Festivals in the weeks that followed, and he ended an unbeaten first season over fences with six wins, five of which were at Grade One level.
In all, he has been to the track 10 times since joining Mullins in the summer of 2014 and has started at odds-against only once, when he was the successful 2-1 favourite for the Supreme Novice Hurdle at the 2015 Cheltenham Festival.
Sam Twiston-Davies, who had not ridden since suffering bruising to his spleen and kidneys in a fall on 9 October, finished second on his only ride when he returned to action at Ffos Las on Wednesday afternoon. Southport, who is trained by his father, Nigel, was a length and a half behind Super Sam, the 10-11 favourite, in a handicap hurdle.
“I’m not blowing, so that’s good,” said Twiston-Davies, the stable jockey to the champion trainer, Paul Nicholls. “To be fair I had a great ride. He was perfect for a first ride back. I had to push him a little bit, but at the same time I felt comfortable doing so.”
Despite being ruled out for nearly two months, Twiston-Davies is still in second place in the race for the jockeys’ title, having ridden 70 winners before his injury. He is now 41 behind the clear leader, Richard Johnson, however, and can be backed at 12-1 to overhaul the defending champion before the end of the campaign in April.
Twiston-Davies has two booked rides at Wincanton on Thursdayafternoon, but parts of the course are frozen and subject to an 8am inspection.
David Bass, who had been expected to spend several weeks on the sidelines after fracturing a cheekbone in a fall at Ascot on 19 November, will also be back on the Wincanton card should it go ahead. Bass’s rapid return to full fitness will allow him to ride Altior, the favourite for this season’s Arkle Trophy, in the Grade One Henry VIII Novice Chase at Sandown this weekend.
