From the pub on Tuesday to the winner’s enclosure on Wednesday, the first half of Paul Nicholls’s Cheltenham Festival has certainly been one of contrasts. The 11-times champion trainer had no runners at the meeting for the first time in a quarter of a century on the opening afternoon, but quickly returned to centre stage thanks to a dominant front-running performance by Politologue in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Defi Du Seuil set off as the 2-5 favourite to give Barry Geraghty and JP McManus a treble on the day, but from the moment Harry Skelton kicked Politologue straight into the lead, however, he was jumping so accurately and galloping with such purpose that Defi Du Seuil would clearly need to be at his very best to match him.
He was not even close. When Geraghty asked for an effort three out there was no visible response from the favourite and he was beaten long before a stumble at the last almost brought him to a stop.
Politologue, by contrast, just kept doing what he had been doing from the off, making ground at every fence that none of his rivals ever threatened to retrieve. He crossed the line nearly 10 lengths in front of his stable companion Dynamite Dollars, who had been the pick of Nicholls’s stable jockey, Harry Cobden.
“A lot was made of that,” Nicholls said of the reports of his movements on Tuesday, after picking up Wednesday’s major prize. “Every lunchtime I always meet [owner] Paul Barber [in the pub] and have a Diet Coke and have a chat through what’s going on, so I did that as normal, went home, watched the racing, then went back to work and made sure that today’s runners were all right.
“I knew for a while that I wouldn’t probably [have a runner] because it wasn’t the right day. The races for us are the ones like this one and the Ryanair tomorrow and the Gold Cup on Friday. The ones that could have run yesterday will be winning at Ludlow next week, if you know what I mean.”
Politologue had finished 18 lengths behind Defi Du Seuil on his previous start in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown in December, but that was also when Nicholls hatched a plan to bring the grey to peak fitness for this.
“He had a little bleed after the Tingle Creek and he’s always had a few little bleeds working at home,” Nicholls said. “I rang John [Hales, Politologue’s owner] just before Christmas and said, “do me a favour, let me just run him in the Champion Chase. I’ll train him with [King George winner] Clan Des Obeaux and we’ll get him there very fresh, because when he’s fresh, he’s brilliant”. And bingo.” Clan Des Obeaux has also been off since December ahead of Friday’s Gold Cup, for which Nicholls will hope to equal Tom Dreaper’s record of five wins in the Festival’s most prestigious race.
“It’s a good sign for Clan as well,” Nicholls said, “and it just shows you the difference in horses when they’re very fit and fresh, to when they’ve run too soon before a Festival. He ran at Ascot last season [before finishing second in the Champion Chase] but he’s better when he’s fresh like that.
“These days we can get them right [at home]. Some do [need a trial], depending on the horse, but others don’t, not if you’re doing your job right.” For Skelton, meanwhile, this was a brief rekindling of what was once a very fruitful relationship. He was, in effect, Nicholls’s second jockey until his brother Dan, formerly the yard’s assistant trainer, struck out on his own and took Harry with him. Politologue was Skelton’s first winner for Nicholls since February 2019 and only his 10th ride for the yard since 2013.
“I owe so much to the Hales family, they have known me since I was a little kid,” Skelton said. “Me and Dan grafted at Paul’s for a long time and we will be ever grateful for what he has done for our careers. Paul told me at the start of the season to come back and ride out a little bit. This is what he can do, he trains them to perfection. From three out, I landed running and set him alight and he’s kept going hard all the way up the run-in.
“Obviously, Harry Cobden can only ride one horse, and last Wednesday, John rang me up and said, “Harry, you’re riding Politologue in the Champion Chase, you’d better ring Paul and go down and sit on him.
“It’s my third ride for them [the Hales family]. On the way down to the start, I saw two magpies and thought, perhaps this is it.”
