Eddie Fremantle live from Kempton
12.52: A large crowd is assembling on a glorious day on Racing Post Chase day, although I fear some will struggle to stay the trip – the punters, that is, not the horses in the big race. That particularly applies to the gentleman on my train swigging vodka from the bottle at 11am. He may find his selections hard to make later.
Another chap with a tough choice was the anonymous punter who is going for the Scoop 6 bonus. In an extraordinary act of generosity, he has said that he will donate the £2.7m he will scoop should he be successful in picking the Racing Post winner to the British Legion. Perhaps Battlecry caught his eye but in the end he has plumped for the favourite, Big Fella Thanks.
12.57 Paddy Power report support for Shannon Springs in the opener at 1.30 from 25-1 to 12s. Andrew Turnell's contender has to put a poor effort behind him but the flatter course should suit. He is 16.0 on Betfair.
Later, Ice Bucket has nearly halved from 11-1 to 13-2 with the Irish firm, while punters are hoping Excape – 13-2 to 5-1 – can put a moderate run on bad ground behind him in the Adonis Hurdle. Perhaps it is those who backed Nicky Henderson's horses for the Triumph before he ran at Plumpton.
There is a rumour doing the rounds that trainer Mark Johnston has broken his leg in a skiing accident. If that is the case, we wish him the best for a speedy recovery.
1.10pm The Channel 4 and RUK presenter Nick Luck is involved in Dusky Lord, who runs in the opener. He hopes for a good run even though the horse is not the soundest. He certainly looks well handicapped on old form. Gold Gun is capable of running a big race but does not always give his running or find much off the bridle. Perhaps in-running players will consider backing him before the race and laying him in running.
The favourite Thundering Star steps up in trip and looks too short to back even though he is unexposed, while Dansimar's win came in an ordinary mares race at Hereford. I reckon there must be value in looking outside that pair.
1.22pm I know I am often guilty of blathering inanely on Racing UK but the duo going through the card for Kempton Park TV are beginning to do my head in even though it is before the first race. There is no mute button either.
King Jack takes the eye in the paddock but Gold Gun looks poor and is sweating. Aimigayle is very fit.
1.40pm A fine piece of training from Lucy Wadham to produce Eleazar after 511 days off to win the first from two more fancied horses in Dansimar and the 5-2 favourite Thundering Star, at odds of 22-1. Aimigayle set a decent gallop and did well to hold on for fourth but King Jack weakened quickly from the home turn and Dusky Lord was taken off his feet.
2pm Ainama's reputation preceded him when he made his hurdling debut here last month and he went off odds-on. This test should be harder and if you didn't back him first time you really shouldn't take a shorter price today. That said, he is bound to be hard to beat.
Alfie Flits is carrying more condition that I expected and getting a little warm. Dee Ee Williams looks outstanding in the paddock and Nick Gifford's horses are running well, even if Dusky Lord didn't run to his best in the opener.
2.13pm The four-year-old Trenchant beat the older horses with a gutsy performance, coming down the outside in a pulsating finish to the race under Robert Thornton. The 4-5 favourite Ainama's jumping simply was not up to scratch, while Dee Ee Williams found not very much for the pressure.
The 14-1 winner Trenchant was unable to score on the Flat but Alan King and Thornton have sorted him out. David Pipe will be rather pleased, as Torphichen hammered Trenchant at Sandown.
2.30pm The Fred Winter at the Festival looks out for Trenchant after that win as his handicap mark will go up by around 8lb. "I should have run him at Warwick yesterday but forgot to enter him," said Alan King. He will have to go for the Supreme or the Triumph now, although Walkon is the Triumph No1 for the stable.
In the Pendil Novice Chase, King's Ouzbeck looks as though the run will put him straighter after a break. Herecomesthetruth looks best in the paddock, bright of eye and athletic.
2.33pm Tony Stafford, racing manager to Excape's owner Raymond Tooth, thinks he is sure to run better in the Adonis Juvenile Hurdle here at 3.45 than at Plumpton. "He jumps well at home and works with the 100-rated Flat horses and goes well," Stafford says. "He may be more of a Liverpool horse than Cheltenham, but the time to back him will be when he goes back on the Flat off 83."
2.57pm "He's a Battle Of Britain horse – he wins it in the air," says the co-owner of Herecomesthetruth, Harry Findlay. Paul Nicholls and Ruby Walsh are favouring the new 2½-mile Grade One at Aintree rather than the Topham, although Nicholls declared: "We have lots of options with him."
Findlay said that he named the horse after Nicholls. "When he comes on the telly, he always tells the truth. I always used to say when I saw him being interviewed."
As for Big Fella Thanks, who was beaten in a point in Ireland by Herecomesthetruth two years ago, Findlay says he was away when he won at Doncaster and is relying on his form man, Glen Gill, who fancies the horse strongly in the Racing Post.
The Scoop 6 Bonus Man, as we should call him, will be hoping the Big Fella is another Battle Of Britain type.
3.50 Nacarat will head to Aintree now after putting up a breathtaking performance to win the Racing Post Chase, being up with the pace from the outset and running his rivals into the ground. Trainer Tom George is of the opinion that he does not like going downhill.
Tony McCoy told George that he was trying to steady the horse all the way up the home straight so as not to win too far.
The favourite Big Fella Thanks lacked the speed to get into the race but still ran a decent National trial in third, although the bookies have lengthened him.
4.03 Hats off to the Scoop6 punter, an amazingly generous man. Big Fella Thanks failed to land him the £2.7m bonus for the British Legion, but he has rung up to donate £200,000 from last week's £669,000 scoop to his favourite charity. The Tote have thrown in £11,000 from a free bet of the odds to £1,000 – not quite such a magnanimous gesture, but it all goes to the Legion.
4.08 "That's my Fred Winter horse," said Alan King of Saticon after his charge's second in the Adonis. "And Walkon is in a different league." So his Triumph prospects are looking good too.
The winner, Hebridean, will probably go to the Triumph as well, says Paul Nicholls. "It has taken us some time to work him out and get him into our routine," said Nicholls, "but he keeps on improving."
Excape, though, was not up to the task. Perhaps the Flat plan that Tony Stafford spoke of earlier would be best from now on.
5.0pm I do hope our fellow passenger with the vodka bottle did not take the 6-4 about Bellvano, who was left at the start of the concluding NH Flat race, as he would not know what happened. It looked like JP Magnier was caught napping as the tapes went up and his horse whipped round. But he didn't appear to do much to correct the gelding.
The jockey was roundly booed as he came past the stands but plenty present had backed the Ruby Walsh-ridden winner, King's Legacy, the 6-5 favourite, who held off a green Ballybach.
The Irish firm Paddy Power have decided to return all stakes on Bellvano. This spirit of generosity is spreading – we saw some great stuff at Kempton but I don't know what was more breathtaking, the performance of Nacarat or the big-hearted liberality of the Scoop6 punter.
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