Kings Palace leaped his way to the head of the betting for the RSA Chase with an exhibition round of jumping that put David Pipe in unusually talkative mood here on Friday. “He’s so much quicker over his fences and it just puts the others under pressure,” the trainer said of his charge, who was clipped from 10-1 to 7-1 for his target race at the Festival in March.
Punters with good memories might be inclined to react with caution, bearing in mind that Kings Palace was similarly impressive as a hurdler at this meeting last year but flopped when next seen in the Festival’s Albert Bartlett, falling at the last when clearly beaten. But Pipe arranged for the horse to have a wind operation in the summer and, although it is hard to be sure about such things, he believes that has tackled the root cause of his disappointing effort in the spring.
The signs are certainly promising, after two wins by daylight around here. Pipe praised the seven-length runner-up, Sausalito Sunrise, as “the type of horse that keeps coming back for more. When it came to two-out, he came nearly upsides us, but Scu [Tom Scudamore, jockey] was always confident and he’s galloped all the way to the line.
“He’s very exciting. It’s what every owner, trainer, jockey wants, a horse with his potential.
“For such a good jumper, he’s fallen twice in his career, which is crazy, really. So it’s great to get him back after the Albert Bartlett and he retains his enthusiasm.”
Pipe ruled out the Feltham Chase at Kempton over Christmas as coming too soon, so Kings Palace is unlikely to be seen before his Festival prep-run some time in February. He is not the only big name for whom Kempton will come too soon, as Philip Hobbs said here that Captain Chris, recovering from lameness, will have to miss the King George VI Chase, in which he has twice been placed.
While Pipe’s idea of an exuberant celebration is a big smile, the Keighley family and their friends greet success with less restraint and they had two opportunities to do so here. Benbane Head and Any Currency provided the local stable run by Martin Keighley with a first Cheltenham double and a timely one, ending a difficult run of results for their team.
“It’s the best day,” said Martin’s wife, Belinda, who seemed to be jumping the fences with the horses as she watched from the paddock. “We’ve just been a bit quiet for a fortnight. We couldn’t put a finger on it. Champion Court ran horrendously on Saturday and a lovely bumper horse wasn’t himself the same day. So we sort of shut up shop apart from a few that the owners wanted to run.”
Both Keighley winners could be described as deserving a change of luck. Any Currency, who won the cross-country, had been placed six times from 10 previous visits to this testing track without once getting his head in front, while Benbane Head had been fancied at Exeter a week ago but was eliminated when his jockey took the wrong course.
That jockey was Richard Johnson, whose luck did not change, as he was claimed to ride another horse against Benbane Head here, ended the day winless and picked up a day’s supension for careless riding to go with the 12 he got for his Exeter error.
Big Shu, alas, suffered a worse fate in the cross-country, collapsing and dying from an apparent heart attack after being pulled up. His trainer, Peter Maher, had earlier said the horse had endured a rough crossing from Ireland and there was speculation that that may somehow have left him vulnerable to such a dismal outcome. Vets here were reluctant to be drawn into discussing Big Shu, pending a possible post-mortem.
At Doncaster on Saturday, a new and significant partnership will be on display when Jason Maguire returns to action after a one-day suspension to wear the yellow and blue colours of Paul and Clare Rooney aboard Starchitect. The jockey has signed a deal to ride for the Rooneys, whose string of jumpers is expanding fast.
“I’ve agreed to ride all of the Rooney’s horses,” Maguire said on Friday. “I think they’ve got about 80 at the moment. Mr Rooney was kind enough to ask to retain me to ride all his horses and it’s a good opportunity for me. Hopefully they’ll continue to have an appetite for buying nice horses.”
Maguire has been mainly employed as stable jockey to Donald McCain in recent seasons and both men expect to continue working together as much as possible. The Rooneys, who own around a third of McCain’s string, also have horses with James Ewart and Ben Pauling.
