Vibrato Valtat looks a strong contender for the best two-mile chases this winter after winning the Haldon Gold Cup with a classy display that was only slightly undermined by a shocking blunder at the final fence. But as his star continues to ascend, that of Sire De Grugy is fading away almost to nothingness and the fear must be, after his weak display here, that we have seen the best of this former champion.
Youth is far from being the only or even the principal virtue in jump racing but any onlooker might have guessed, correctly, that Vibrato Valtat was the youngest in this line-up as he breezed along at the top of the straight, his rivals working hard to stay with him. But it was far from being the plan for the six-year-old to take a clear lead as early as the second-last.
“It used to be a nightmare because he’d pull up in front,” said Paul Nicholls, his trainer, in the winner’s enclosure, “but since we did his breathing last summer he’s just a different animal.” And indeed Vibrato Valtat ran on strongly to the line but only after giving the final obstacle a proper belt, perhaps through lack of experience of jumping fences on his own.
“He’s always been very good at getting his front legs out quickly,” said the grey’s relieved jockey, Sam Twiston-Davies. “It’s just as well, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Nicholls came here fretting that Vibrato Valtat might end up needing the run, being “a big, burly horse” who had been denied a racecourse gallop because the ground was too dry at Wincanton a fortnight ago. In light of this four-length success over Third Intention, the champion trainer’s conclusion is that the winner is “just much improved … he could end up anywhere.”
It was a timely success for the Ditcheat trainer because Dodging Bullets, who cleaned up the top two-mile chases last winter, has recently developed a splint in one leg which may yet prevent him from attempting a repeat success in the Tingle Creek at Sandown next month. Whatever happens to him, Vibrato Valtat is now also being aimed at that race and could go straight there or take in Cheltenham’s Shloer Chase en route if the trainer is so minded.
Nicholls has made a strong start to the new season and was particularly pleased about the healthy appetite of Saphir Du Rheu, an easy winner at Carlisle on Sunday. “He came back amazing because he had a night at Wetherby, a night at Carlisle, all the way back and never left a nut. He was fresh as anything this morning.” The six-year-old, a possible Gold Cup contender, will run next in the Hennessy three weeks on Saturday.
Plans are much less clear for Sire De Grugy, tailed off last of five here and with only one minor success to his name in the 19 months since his heroic season of 2013‑14. His despondent connections did not seem inclined to blame an early jumping error, or to hope that he might be fitter for the run.
“I think he’s just not quite as good as he was, simple as that,” said his jockey, Jamie Moore, whose father trains the nine-year-old. “He was in good form at home, we thought we had him where we wanted him. And the rain came.
“But the whole way round, whereas the year he won everything he used to tank and tank, today I was laboured all the way. I was first off the bridle and that’s not him. I’m very disappointed but, like I say, maybe his best days are behind him.”
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