In the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, Clan Des Obeaux was the young upstart with everything still to prove against big-name rivals. Less than three months later, he will go into the Gold Cup at Cheltenham on 15 March with a fair claim to be the best staying chaser in training after a flawless trial in the Denman Chase here on Saturday, the highlight of an exceptional afternoon for his trainer, Paul Nicholls.
In all, Nicholls took five of the eight races on an Ascot card reinforced by events switched from Newbury’s meeting last weekend, which fell victim to the six-day suspension of racing due to an outbreak of equine flu. His stable had good winners too at both of the day’s other jump meetings – Haydock Park and Wincanton – and finished the afternoon with eight in all, at combined odds of 45,863-1. He also shortened from 9-4 to 6-4 over the course of the afternoon to seize back the trainer’s title from Nicky Henderson.
The Nicholls stable has clearly emerged from the unexpected suspension of racing with his horses in much better form than some of his rivals. Like Colin Tizzard, who took the Grade Two Reynoldstown Novice Chase with Mister Malarkey, Nicholls habitually gives his string a booster jab against flu in early January every year and thus has a full-strength team to deploy despite a new rule, introduced overnight this week, that all runners must have been vaccinated in the last six months.
Henderson, by contrast, does not vaccinate as a matter of course and was forced to rule out several runners from intended races over the weekend.
Nicholls’s winners on Saturday were spread across all three of the day’s jumping cards, while Henderson drew a blank from just three runners on the day.
A couple of races at Cheltenham could change everything, of course, but there is an air of bouncy confidence about Nicholls this year that has been largely absent for the last couple of seasons and Clan Des Obeaux promises to be his new standard-bearer.
It could be argued that Clan Des Obeaux won only as a 2-5 chance should, finishing 11 lengths clear of the second-favourite, Terrefort. From start to finish, though, this was the performance of an already top-class chaser with better yet to come. His jumping was bold and inch-perfect, while the burst of speed which carried him clear after the last alongside would overwhelm much better horses than he faced here.
And Clan Des Obeaux is just seven years old – the same age, as Nicholls pointed out, as the brilliant Kauto Star when he took the first of his two Gold Cups in 2007. Kauto Star was the mainstay of Nicholls’s yard as he dominated the National Hunt trainers’ championship for a decade from 2006, and while he remains the second-favourite for this year’s championship, Nicholls is now the first trainer to pass £2m in prize money this season.
“Every time he runs, he learns a little bit,” Nicholls said. “Last year he was a big baby but this year he’s just come together so much. That will have done him so much good and put on the finishing touches to perfection for Cheltenham.
“He never got any credit really from a lot of people for winning the King George. Before the race, it was the best King George for years, and afterwards it was a bit of a fluke, but he won really well that day. He’s only seven and it’s taken him time to get to that mature stage where he’s a proper racehorse, and he’s there now.
“Kauto was seven when he won his first Gold Cup and he’s just where we want to be. I won’t need to give him any racecourse gallops, he’s mega-fit and we’ll go to Cheltenham full of confidence.”
Nicholls increased his lead in the championship by another £65,000 as Cyrname led throughout and then quickened 17 lengths clear of Waiting Patiently in the Grade One Ascot Chase, but unlike most of the trainer’s winners on Saturday, Cyrname is unlikely to run at either Cheltenham or Aintree as he has a marked preference for right-handed tracks. His long-range target is next season’s King George, while a trip to Ireland for the Punchestown Gold Cup is also likely.
Elsewhere on the card, Nigel Twiston-Davies’s Al Dancer moved into contention for the Supreme Novice Hurdle with victory in the rearranged Betfair Hurdle, while Coneygree, the 2015 Gold Cup winner, has been retired after being pulled up behind Calipto in the Swinley Chase.
There was an unfortunate postscript to Haydock’s Saturday meeting, however, when a fight broke out in the track’s main enclosure during the afternoon. Footage of the incident was shared on social media, the first such outbreak of violence since serious incidents at Goodwood and Ascot last summer.
Huntingdon
1.00 Hold The Note 1.30 Our Bubba 2.00 Broughtons Rhythm 2.30 Little Stevie 3.05 Born To Please 3.35 Nobel Leader 4.10 Supakalanistic 4.40 Global Domination
Market Rasen
2.10 Queen’s Magic 2.45 Longhousesignora (nap) 3.15 The Twisler (nb) 3.50 Chosen Path 4.20 Mixchievous 4.50 Miss Amelia
