Outlander has become the second Irish-trained horse to be committed to Saturday’s Betfair Chase but the Jockey Club’s £1m lure apparently played no part in the decision. “No, I don’t care about the million, to be honest,” said his trainer, Gordon Elliott, at his stables here in Ireland. “I won’t be getting it.”
The £1m is on offer to any horse who wins the Betfair, the King George on Boxing Day and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, a hat-trick that Kauto Star pulled off a decade ago. But Elliott denied having been told to go in pursuit of the pot by Outlander’s owner, who has famously made a fortune through his association with a budget airline. “I don’t think the million would interest Michael O’Leary too much,” Elliott said, wryly.
“Listen, to be honest, the chances of our lad winning the three is very slim but, if you’re not in, you can’t win. So we’ll take our chance.
“Don Cossack on his day might be the horse that could have done it. But it’s hard to do it. Just to get a horse to turn up on the three days in peak order. It’s a massive incentive to do it and I’d love to have a horse good enough but listen, I don’t know if our horse is, to be honest.”
Up the road at Moone Jessica Harrington was much more upbeat about her chances with Sizing John, the horse she turned into a top-class staying chaser last winter after inheriting him from Henry de Bromhead. The main concern has been whether the horse can be fit enough for his first run since April, in which he will face race-fit rivals like Cue Card and Bristol De Mai.
But Harrington revealed on Monday that she has taken him for “away days” not once but three times in her determination to get him ready for Saturday’s venture to Haydock. A spin on The Curragh was followed by two miles jumping fences at Naas and then a mile and a half gallop round Punchestown on Sunday.
Harrington was in jovial mood on the gallops but her eyes narrowed and her manner became grave as she said: “I’ve got him as fit as I can hopefully. And he seems to be in good form there this morning. He was throwing his head around when he came in after working yesterday. But you never know until you get them as far as the racecourse.”
Robbie Power, the jockey who partnered Sizing John to Gold Cup glory in March, seemed similarly optimistic about the horse’s readiness. “Look, I couldn’t be happier with him. He’s as ready as we can get him without having a race.”
Power described how Sizing John had blossomed last winter after being stepped up in distance, having repeatedly struggled to match the best at two miles. “You talk about confidence in a jockey or a sportsperson but I think horses need confidence as well and he’d been getting his arse spanked by Douvan all the time.
“I think the horse got his confidence back when he was getting his head in front. His work from Leopardstown to Cheltenham was something we hadn’t seen him do before. He just got better and better and the last couple of weeks I was fairly hopeful he would win the Gold Cup.”
Bristol De Mai heads the betting for the Betfair at odds of 7-4 after Monday’s entry stage, with six rivals left to take him on. Sizing John is a 9-4 shot with Outlander an outsider on 10-1.
Harrington had news of future arrangements for the horses owned by Alan Potts, who died last week, which include Sizing John. It appears that Potts, who was 80, transferred the ownership to a limited company some months ago and made arrangements for the horses to be trained until their retirement, in the event of his passing. “The horses are to run away until they’ve stopped running,” Harrington said. But she does not expect that Potts’s heirs would be seeking to buy young horses and certainly not at the rate or the expense that Potts did himself.
Chris Cook’s tips for Tuesday
Southwell
12.30 Pretty Reckless (nap) 1.00 Work In Progress 1.30 Whin Park (nb) 2.00 Equus Secretus 2.30 Passing Call 3.00 Windy Writer 3.30 Jane Lamb
Lingfield
12.40 Elhafei 1.10 Dun Shan na nGall 1.40 Gorgeous Noora 2.10 Celestial Spheres 2.40 Unforgiving Minute 3.10 Inuk 3.40 Kohinoor Diamond
Fakenham
12.50 Cliffside Park 1.20 Maid Of Milan 1.50 Bardd 2.20 Red Hanrahan 2.50 Saucysioux 3.20 Bach De Clermont
