Jungle Boogie gets the Christmas party jumping at Ascot

provided Henry de Bromhead and Darragh O’Keeffe with their first winner at in the Howden Graduation Chase at Ascot.

The talented but extremely fragile 10-year-old made every yard of the running in what turned into quite an eventful affair.

Only four went to post, with just Iroko trained in the UK, while the others travelled over from Ireland.

Unfortunately for those who backed Iroko, they knew their fate early on, as upon jumping the first fence he collided with the errant Fil Dor in mid-air, giving Jonjo O’Neill jnr no chance.

Jungle Boogie took the field along but the pace was only sedate and clearly too slow for James Du Berlais, who was keen in the hands of Daryl Jacob and making mistakes.

The leader had travelled very well in the Gold Cup when last seen but failed to see out the trip at Cheltenham, and on the second circuit he began to jump more and more out to his left.

Formerly trained by Willie Mullins, he was unbeaten in a bumper, a maiden hurdle and a beginners chase, but having had only three runs in almost as many years for the Closutton handler, he then had over two years off before joining De Bromhead.

He has been sound since, though, and is clearly a talented performer, running out an easy eight-length winner.

O’Keeffe said: “He’s a very classy horse, I got to ride him last year on New Year’s Day in Tramore and he was very good.

“He ran some race in the Gold Cup and probably didn’t stay the extended trip, but I thought coming here today that he seemed to be in good form.

“Iroko went early, he normally does jump a bit left anyway, but when the loose horse was there, he was having a bit of a look – but thankfully he got the job done.

“We had a chat before and said we’d go a nice gallop on him, he likes bossing things. When I opened him up to the second last, he really took off. He’s a very smart horse.

“He’s a horse that likes to get on with things, he’s 10 now but he’s got very little miles on the clock, so hopefully they’ll get a good clear run with him now and he’ll be able to go on to other big races.”