Lulamba ready to test his mettle in Game Spirit
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Fri 6 Feb 2026
Lulamba is following a tried and tested route to next month’s Arkle for Nicky Henderson by stepping out of novice company for Saturday’s William Hill Game Spirit Chase.
Seven Barrows superstar Sprinter Sacre claimed the Grade Two prize en-route to striking gold at the Cheltenham Festival in 2012, while the brilliant Altior also completed the Game Spirit-Arkle double in 2017. He would go on to win the Newbury race three times in all.
Lulamba has been foot perfect in winning his first two starts over fences at Exeter and Sandown, but Henderson is keen to get more experience into his five-year-old and plumped for William Hill Super Saturday at Newbury over the Kingmaker Novices’ Chase at Warwick on the same afternoon.
He said: “It’s a warm heat and we’re meeting older horses and coming out of novices, mainly because I want to go to Newbury and it’s a good track for him.
“He doesn’t need the race but he needs the experience as he hasn’t had a lot. The first chase he ran in he only jumped half a dozen fences because of low sun and he was very good at Sandown, but I would like to see him jump another dozen fences in competition.
“We’ve been discussing it day in, day out at home and we’re pretty sure we’re right not running Jango Baie (in the Denman Chase), but this lad is nearly always fresh and sometimes too fresh and I think he might need this to bring him under control a little bit. I just hope the ground isn’t desperate.
“Whether it is the right race or not, that is another question. Warwick is there and you look at the two, but I would rather just take him to Newbury.
“We’ve taken Jonbon and Long Run to the Kingmaker, but we’ve also used the Game Spirit for our Arkle horses in the past. This time last year Sir Gino was going to do the same thing and Lulamba is in good form.”
Saint Segal is enjoying a fine season for Jane Williams, winning at Chepstow and Kelso as well finishing second to Thistle Ask in both the Haldon Gold Cup and the Desert Orchid Chase.
Williams is expecting another positive performance from her stable star, but is wary of the threat posed by Lulamba.
“We’re pleased with him, I’m not sure what he’ll make of the ground, but he likes Newbury,” she said.
“He’s a horse I was trying to run a bit less this year but he’s quite difficult to train, so he’s happier racing.
“I have to say Nicky Henderson’s horse is the most beautiful horse, so I shall enjoy looking at him. I don’t really want to see his heels, but I expect we will!
“I’m looking forward to it, even if we have to come second to Lulamba. If he’d gone to Warwick instead it would have been much better for me!”
Master Chewy and Libberty Hunter were first and second in last year’s Game Spirit and both are in the mix once more.
Master Chewy is fitted with a visor for the first time as he steps back in trip after finishing second in the Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton last month.
Willy Twiston-Davies, who trains the nine-year-old in partnership with his father Nigel, said: “He’s in good form and we’ve stuck a visor on him as we will probably ride him a bit differently.
“He looks really well at home, he’s pulling up the gallops every day – he’s just a pleasure to train. A very straightforward, consistent horse.
“He won it last year and it’s easier than going up to three miles in the Denman Chase.”
Libberty Hunter was last seen finishing a well beaten fourth in the Tingle Creek for Evan Williams, who said: “Lulamba looks a superstar, doesn’t he? He looks a very, very good horse.
“We’ll go and have a little day out and see what happens. It was somewhere we wanted to go and a drop of rain won’t be against us.
“He’s got a bit of age about him now, but we’ll go and enjoy the day and see how we get on.”
The small but select field is completed by Dan Skelton’s Calico, the Anthony Honeyball-trained Brookie and Meetmebythesea, who is two from two over fences for trainer Ben Pauling.
Pauling said: “I’d like to get three runs into him to qualify him for the novices’ handicap chase at the Cheltenham Festival and I thought running against mature horses would teach him a bit, as he has floated round at Wetherby and won and then turned up in a small-runner race at Ayr.
“It’s obviously a proper race with the likes of Lulamba and some proper experienced horses in this division, but hopefully he will run a nice race and he goes there in decent form.”
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