The immense grandstand is the same and so too the view across to Swinley Bottom but in many others respects Ascot in the jumping season could be an entirely different course from the one that packs in more than a quarter of a million spectators for the Royal meeting in June.
It takes dedication to get to Berkshire on a murky Friday in late November and the crowd of around 7,500 for this card is invariably one of the smallest of the year at the Queen’s racecourse but that dedication is often rewarded by an early sighting of a future star and this year’s meeting could prove to be another case in point.
Simonsig and Beat That, both future Grade One winners and, in the case of Simonsig, a Cheltenham Festival winner too, recorded victories on this card in 2011 and 2013 respectively. The obvious candidate for a higher grade from this year’s renewal is Jolly’s Cracked It, who survived a blunder at the second-last to win the Introductory Hurdle and is likely to contest the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown next time out, but Puffin Billy, who was close to death from colic a year ago, also received quotes for events at the Festival after making a successful fencing debut in the Beginners’ Chase over two miles and three furlongs.
Jolly’s Cracked It is the latest polished young performer to emerge from the stable of Harry Fry, who has returned seasonal strike-rates of 28% and 29% since leaving Paul Nicholls to start up on his own at the beginning of the 2012-13 campaign. So far this year his percentage is down, but only to exactly one winner from every four runners, and Jolly’s Cracked It will be well worth his place in the field for the Tolworth over Christmas if he can erase the occasional sloppy jump from his profile.
Friday’s race started, if that is the word, with all the jockeys looking at each other in the forlorn hope that someone would break into a gallop. In the end two outsiders set the pace at little more than a canter and Jolly’s Cracked It was the one with finishing speed when it mattered. The 5-4 chance looked ready to surge into a clear lead when he made a mess of the second-last and, though Fry’s charge had only a length to spare over Jebril at the line, there was little doubt that he was a deserving winner.
“It was an unsatisfactory race in that they went no gallop to begin with,” Fry said. “We were always happy that, if there wasn’t any gallop, as looked the case before the race, he’d have enough toe to quicken up and win. Nick [Scholfield] rode him like that, he fluffed the second-last but he’ll be so much better in a strongly run race.
“We’ll probably go to the Tolworth next. I think there’s no doubt he’ll get further but he loves soft ground and the Tolworth could be tailor-made for him.”
Puffin Billy was a little low over some of his fences but, given that he is quite fortunate to be racing at all, his eight-length win was all that Oliver Sherwood, his trainer, could have hoped for.
“This time last year in December he had a 180-degree twist in the gut and the team at the Valley Equine Hospital saved him,” Sherwood said. “If it had been in the night, he’d have died. You always worry after an operation like that whether they’ll ever come back. I had my doubts until I’d seen him do it but he’s back and I’m chuffed to bits with him.
“He bumped one or two but he’ll have learned a lot from today and the ground is also important to him. Today was the thing. I’ll think again now.”
Puffin Billy is 20-1 (from 33-1) for the Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham with William Hill but there are no Festival prices as yet about Arpege D’Alene, who was a rare winner at a double-figure price for Paul Nicholls in the opening maiden hurdle.
Arpege D’Alene stretched nine lengths clear of the runner-up Its A Sting at the end of the two and a half miles but has no significant targets at this stage. However, his success for the owner Chris Giles, a co-owner of the same yard’s top chaser, Silviniaco Conti, could be taken as a promising sign that the yard remains in top form ahead of Silviniaco’s run in the Grade One Betfair Chase at Haydock on Saturday.
Colin Tizzard, whose Cue Card won the same race 12 months ago and will attempt to follow up, also returned home with a winner on Friday evening after Third Intention took a graduation chase at Haydock with Daryl Jacob, who will replace the now-retired Joe Tizzard aboard Cue Card, in the saddle.
“I can’t wait [to ride Cue Card],” Jacob, who lost his retainer to ride for Nicholls at the end of last season, said on Friday. “People knocked his comeback run at Exeter [when fourth of seven in the Haldon Gold Cup] but I thought it was a great run trying to give all that weight to two really smart two-milers in God’s Own and Balder Succes.”
