Road To Cheltenham: Will Jonbon reverse form with El Fabiolo?

An accomplished performance from Jonbon to win Sunday’s Shloer Chase firmly set him on a course for a re-match with his Arkle conqueror El Fabiolo in less than four months’ time. Their lifetime score – as Nicky Henderson has been keen to point out, before and after this latest success – is a one-all draw. Don’t judge their comparative ability by the Arkle, is his message.

The likelihood of these divisional new kids – already heirs apparent, due to the dual Cheltenham titleholder Energumene’s setback – clashing sooner than in Cheltenham’s Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase is surely minimal, however, even if Willie Mullins has developed a latter-day penchant for the Clarence House Chase.

In fact, the pathways for both second-season chasers appear likely to be relatively uneventful, as things stand, with Jonbon already having beaten the best of the British plus the significant others from last year’s Queen Mum, and El Fabiolo unlikely to clash with Ireland’s more substantial players on the two-mile scene as they reside in his own yard.

Jonbon at least had two new opponents to grapple with at Cheltenham – Edwardstone, considered the main threat to Energumene last March but beaten after a fence or two, and Nube Negra, who’d won the past two editions of the Shloer. Editeur Du Gite he’d thumped previously in Sandown’s Celebration Chase, albeit that horse is considered by trainer Gary Moore to be less effective right-handed (despite his Desert Orchid romp at Kempton last December) and, in last Sunday’s four-runner contest, had alone enjoyed the benefit of a run.

There was another novelty for Jonbon. Henderson’s stable jockey Nico de Boinville was riding him for the first time over obstacles in public. He’d guided him to debut victory in a bumper at Newbury in March 2021, but eight months later was replaced by Aidan Coleman on the horse’s hurdling bow due to being injured in a schooling fall the preceding morning. And that’s how it remained.

Viewed one way, it turned out well for de Boinville, as he was ostensibly spared from the wider politics of having to choose between Jonbon and Constitution Hill in the 2022 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. But Coleman’s association with Jonbon’s owner JP McManus – born in the days when he rode for Jonjo O’Neill at Jackdaw’s Castle – has also impacted more widely, encompassing the now-retired mare Epatante’s more important successes, for example.

In his Racing Post report from Sunday’s racing at Cheltenham, Lee Mottershead revisited two key quotes from articles he’d written about the Seven Barrows duo in the recent past. From Henderson: “There’s an awful lot of horses [Nico] doesn’t ride. Of course, he minds, and I would like him to be able to ride more of them, but he understands.”

From de Boinville: “I wouldn’t do what I do unless I was competitive and ambitious. You want to be on these horses and riding for these owners. At the same time, you cannot control the uncontrollable. You need to have a certain level of acceptance. If you get hung up on it, you can become a very bitter person. You also shouldn’t burn your bridges because things can come back around.”

Things came back around on Sunday due to Coleman’s misfortune. He had suffered a severe knee injury at Worcester in June and is currently battling to return in time for Saturday week’s Tingle Creek meeting – Jonbon’s original intended comeback, until the McManus team suggested a change of plan, and still potentially his next start.

Meanwhile, de Boinville seized the day – and perhaps secured an important psychological milestone for connections, given the horse’s only two defeats have come at Cheltenham. Indeed, it was the best round of jumping seen from Jonbon thus far – and on softer ground than at Cheltenham according to times, if not the official going. He’d also been characteristically buzzy and mildly sweaty in the paddock – you’d be worried if he wasn’t.

His jockey rode him with controlled positivity, sitting prominent on the outside of Editeur Du Gite and letting him jump without complication. Close-up comments describe him as “not fluent” at the ninth but my overriding response to that fence was how clever and unflustered Jonbon was in overruling the saddle and instead putting in a neat extra stride.

“Basically, telling me to sit quiet and leave it to him,” de Boinville smiled afterwards. His mount might have been literally out-leapt at some fences – a couple of times by Editeur Du Gite and consistently by Edwardstone – but my impression was the partnership was only marking time until the race began in earnest.

From the inviting fourth last, they turned up the heat. There, Editeur Du Gite was hesitant and definitively surrendered the lead, whilst Nube Negra – taken wide – was beaten after the next. Edwardstone was still travelling powerfully approaching three out and rider Tom Cannon later confessed he’d briefly felt he’d had a squeak…but then Jonbon scooted effortlessly away.

Cannon’s words were reminiscent of those of Jonathan Burke last December when riding Boothill against Jonbon in the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase last season – except here Cannon was on board a 167-rated three-times Grade One winner.

By the home turn, barring accidents, there could only be one victor. Jonbon was allowed to go left at the last by a careful de Boinville and afterwards palpably idled, ears pricked, with the job finished off by nine-and-a-half lengths. As understudying goes, this was exemplary. “Yeah, [I wanted to] let him go and enjoy himself,” the winning jockey said, characterising the ride he gave.

“He’s just a very intelligent horse. He’s very quick with his feet. He’s so slick at his fences. He gets back down on the floor very fast,” he added, clear in his mind that Jonbon has all the attributes required to win a Champion Chase.

De Boinville should know. He’s won three of them – one on Sprinter Sacre, the best two-mile chaser I’ve ever seen (albeit he wasn’t in his absolute prime in 2016 when de Boinville was on board, as compared with three years earlier when Barry Geraghty was in the saddle) and two on then-dominant Altior in 2018 and 2019.

Henderson concurred with his stable jockey, the word “Ryanair” not crossing his lips – and seemingly not his mind, either. He spoke of using last April’s Celebration Chase – a novice versus the Queen Mum cast, bar the lead – to direct this season’s game plan. He’d previously toyed with the 2m4f novices’ chase at Aintree’s Grand National meeting until realising the shorter race was clearly the gimme.

“Two-and-a-half [miles] is looking further away from the answer to the puzzle,” he began, until correcting himself. “It’s not a puzzle! I’m sure he’s going to stay but why go there if you don’t need to?... He is championship material.”

Asked whether he can see a way of turning the Arkle form around with El Fabiolo, Henderson responded with striking alacrity: “I can, yes. I think he’s growing up; I think he’s grown up a lot. He’s a horse that used to get himself in a bit of a tiswas about life.

“Yes, I can. I don’t think he was necessarily at his best in the Arkle. But no excuses. The other horse was better than we were on the day – that was clear for all to see. On that day we weren’t good enough, but it won’t stop us trying again… It could be building up to one of the main headline clashes, which would be great – that’s what it’s all about.”

Henderson mentioned the Tingle Creek, whilst acknowledging it’s only three weeks away. Earlier in the season he’d cited the Desert Orchid as an alternative but, due to some welcome tweaks by Britain’s Jumps Pattern Committee, that Kempton race is now a limited handicap and I can’t see that floating this trainer’s boat. (It might tempt the aforementioned Boothill, however, after taking in this weekend’s Hurst Park at Ascot.)

As for Jonbon beyond December, he’ll still have options in the Clarence House on 20 January and Newbury’s Game Spirit on 10 February, probably facing nobody new or viable. As they’re in the same ownership, neither Gentleman De Mee nor – even if she continues to progress – Dinoblue are likely to cross his pre-Festival path. From Mullins’ long-suited hand in this division, perhaps Blue Lord – entered over 2m4f in Sunday’s John Durkan – is likeliest to cross the water?

Yet first, Jonbon will hopefully face Queen Mum runner-up Captain Guinness again at Sandown – a rival he beat comfortably by almost four lengths in April despite taking off too early at the last of the trio of Railway Fences when they met there. That rival – now a consistent and tractable character – will be similarly primed, after an unexpectedly straightforward return in Saturday’s Grade Two Bar One Racing Fortria Chase at Navan.

It was a race that ruthlessly traced the dividing line between the first and second division of last season’s two-mile novices, featuring the Mullins-trained pair Dysart Dynamo and Saint Roi. Neither put up a fight, despite the former receiving 9lb from Captain Guinness.

With Paul Townend taking over from Danny Mullins at what controls exist on Dysart Dynamo, the favourite bounced instantly into the lead and took a typically strong hold. He jumped largely well, but was tamely reeled in by a smooth Captain Guinness from three out. Rachael Blackmore waiting to produce her mount to lead on landing at the next and then he stretched seven lengths clear, merely for hand and heels.

Rivière D’Etel gave her usual right-jumping display, replete with awkward head carriage, but nonetheless hauled herself into second. Townend clearly felt his mount had nothing left to give two out because he didn’t even ask, so either Dysart Dynamo was some way off peak fitness despite his strength in the market or else he was disappointing.

The former explanation fits Saint Roi, who was also conceding weight all round and drifted in the market, who was anchored in rear from the outset and got well behind, jumping slowly, until Townend decelerated before halfway and the field bunched up. Mark Walsh then allowed the other three main players to move on again from the seventh before asking his mount for brief effort after the next. Saint Roi then looked laboured entering the straight.

It looks like he’ll be playing the role of Andy Dufresne this season and could be headed ultimately towards a valuable handicap, whether at two miles or over further. Saint Roi won the 2020 County Hurdle from a mark of 137, remember, and would be potent in that grade.

youMy Road To Cheltenham co-presenter Ruby Walsh suggested last week that ever-rushing Dysart Dynamo likes to boss inferiors and he might get that opportunity, perhaps in Britain, at a track that favours speed and at a grade below the best. The Desert Orchid again? Prior to falling late on, he set up both the 2022 Supreme and the 2023 Arkle for big performances for those who did not chase him too closely, as Jonbon arguably did on both occasions.

To return to the Shloer also-rans, trainer and jockey are at variance over what Edwardstone should do next. Alan King had hoped the race would clearly direct him either to stick to two miles in the Tingle Creek or to step up to 2m4f for the Peterborough Chase. There’s plenty of encouragement in his pedigree for a longer trip, albeit he’s only tried it once – over hurdles – and is now in his sixth season of racing.

However, Cannon thinks they should stick at the shorter trip. It’s dilemma likely to be decided by the respective opposition because it’s hard to imagine how he can reverse this form with Jonbon.

At Cheltenham, King reasonably pointed out that he’d always been playing catch-up during Edwardstone’s previous season. The horse’s return was postponed due to unseasonably quick ground and then, having won the Tingle Creek, he unseated at Kempton. With an energetic horse who needs plenty of racing, King was pushed towards the Clarence House only to find that race postponed by a week due to Ascot’s abandonment.

There, Edwardstone put in a big effort against an exquisitely ridden Editeur Du Gite, beating his main rival Energumene but having nothing left to repel the front-runner’s late rally. Six-and-a-half weeks later came that lacklustre, never-going performance in the Queen Mum.

Although King didn’t buy it when, on Saturday, I put to him Racing TV pundit Martin Dixon’s theory that Edwardstone had not recovered from his hard race at Cheltenham at the end of January in time for the Festival, the ancillary facts suggest that’s a far more plausible explanation than the ground, which was merely good-to-soft on times at the Festival.

Third-placed Nube Negra was surely primed for a Shloer hat-trick but, despite winning that race twice in the interim, hasn’t really matched his peak form of three seasons ago when he beat Altior in the Desert Orchid and was perhaps slightly unlucky not to triumph over the mare Put The Kettle On in a sub-standard Champion Chase. He’s another candidate for handicap terms at Kempton this Christmas, given his falling mark.

Having reverted to his characteristic forward-going tactics, Editeur Du Gite ultimately ran no better at Cheltenham than on his colourless returning fifth behind Elixir Du Nutz in the Haldon Gold Cup. He looked a subdued horse in the paddock beforehand, although rider Niall Houlihan was inclined to blame the testing ground. His best form is undoubtedly on good-to-soft. He surely boards the Kempton bus, too. That revised race might just work, you know.

“We may go straight to Cheltenham” are not words that often issue from Paul Nicholls’ mouth – and he has been known to change his mind when a Grade One race looks susceptible to passing without his active involvement – but that was his reaction to Stage Star’s remarkable success in the Paddy Power Gold Cup last Saturday, overcoming the sort of error at the last that at the very least should have impacted his four-length dominance over Notlongtillmay.

The Ditcheat trainer reported that although Stage Star had “trotted up sound” on Sunday morning, he wouldn’t be surprised if he were “a little sore” over the subsequent 48 hours. “There’s no rush to run him,” he added, pointing out his strong record when fresh over the years and adding that he’d that morning entered Stage Star and stablemate Pic D’Orhy – who runs at Ascot on Saturday – in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas, without being sure that’s his ideal target.

He counted out any right-handed targets between now and the Ryanair, even though he hasn’t tried it since the horse’s second Rules start in an Ascot bumper, due to Stage Star’s propensity to jump left.

“Most horses that made a mistake like that would have not finished, literally wouldn’t have even got up the hill, but to regain his composure and gallop on!” Nicholls said. “Harry did say had he not made that mistake at the last, he wouldn’t have come off the bridle.”

Going into the Paddy Power, the Brown Advisory form had appeared deeper than that of the Turners, yet it was the latter that held sway by providing the first, second and fifth – replicating their respective position at the Festival on unfavourable weights terms for Stage Star. The last of that trio, Unexpected Party, yet again suggested he’d be at his absolute best at around two miles. He’s still a novice.

The Real Whacker – who’d beaten subsequent winners of the Down Royal Champion Chase and Irish Grand National in Gerri Colombe and I Am Maximus in the longer novices’ event – was pulled up on his seasonal debut here.

Trainer Pat Neville blame “carrying top weight on his first run of the season” whilst the vet found the horse had been “struck into on his right for and was lame”.

I’m going to go into more detail in this section next week, but here is a summary of the new events of last weekend.

Plenty of connections would have gone home satisfied by their representatives’ various debuts in Navan’s beginners’ chase last Sunday, in which Facile Vega beat Inthepocket, Saint Felicien, Spillane’s Tower and Dreal Deal in that order. In Britain, we can currently only dream of such opening salvos – albeit the contest did separate into two separate races by the third fence – only conferring credit on the fourth, who managed to bridge that divide late on.

Unless he turned out to be foot-perfect, Facile Vega was always on a loser with certain sections of the public, with his mother being who she was and having such a lofty reputation scarcely before he’d set foot on the racecourse.

He ran poorly at the Dublin Racing Festival, for reasons it’s still hard to fathom (albeit he did have a downplayed visit to the vets afterwards), but he redeemed himself in defeat when second to Marine Nationale in the Supreme and when spanking both the perennially poor-jumping Il Etait Temps and Diverge at Punchestown – proving himself on good-to-soft ground in the process, bearing in mind his extravagant action.

Here, bar for getting in close to the first two fences, he made a highly encouraging switch to fences – doing the donkey work of chasing the solo leader Saint Felicien, leading between the final two flights and keeping on well to the line. Expect to see him upped in grade at Leopardstown over Christmas.

Runner-up Inthepocket was ridden a shade more conservatively and landed slightly statically four out, meaning he got slightly behind compared with the winner, Saint Felicien and Sa Fureur. The last-named was switched left but also ran down the third last in that direction, meeting the fence at an awkward angle and taking a somersaulting fall. Let’s hope his confidence isn’t affected by this.

At that point, Inthepocket needed to be agile to sidestep the faller and he then aped Saint Felicien by jumping left at the final two flights. He jumped the second last slightly airily and left the strong impression he would do better for this experience.

It was good to see Saint Felicien back in the game after 20 months on the sidelines. He was talked about reverentially as a Champion Hurdle prospect this time two years ago but who ended that season pulled up in the Coral Cup.

He was gifted a long lead at the outset but, at this left-handed track, jumped markedly left throughout – even running down the fourth obstacle into the corner. This habit and the lay-off meant he had little left when headed after the second last. He finished well clear of the fourth, however.

Spillane’s Tower had a previous run over fences under his belt but took a step forward with his never-truly-involved fourth place here. Dreal Deal – now with John McConnell rather than the suspended Ronan McNally – had a sharpener on the Flat prior to finishing fifth here but never threatened.

The following day, American Mike dispatched favourite Fact To File – who took the Florida Pearl route of going straight to fences from bumpers and was accordingly burdened with expectation – over 2m4f at the same track.

Each had finished second in Cheltenham’s Champion Bumper in their respective years, American Mike to Facile Vega in 2022 and Fact To File to A Dream To Share in March. But the former underwhelmed over hurdles last term, his best effort on paper when weakening tamely in seventh in a first-time tongue-tie in the Ballymore.

Here, the winner soon established an unchallenged lead and jumped better than the runner-up, who ran down the first and fourth to the right and made a small mistake at the seventh. Fact To File was switched left to challenge approaching two out, where the leader reached for the fence, but American Mike got the last fence spot on and that sealed it.

At this stage, the winner looks a much better prospect over fences than he did over hurdles, but Fact To File may well prove the better long-term prospect, with this experience under his belt and granted a greater test of stamina. Back in a distant third, Lets Go Champ shaped like he could be a potent force in staying handicaps, given time and further experience.

At Cheltenham the previous day, Broadway Boy trounced Weveallbeencaught, poor-jumping Carlisle winner Good Risk At All and Mister Coffey, who was having one of his wussier days.

In doing so, the winner paid a mighty compliment to dual Stayers’ Hurdle victor Flooring Porter, who’d wiped the proverbial with him at that same track in October.

The runner-up ultimately paid the price for trying to keep tabs on the winner, who jumped far better than at the course previously and looks a NH Chase type. But he's trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, so he’ll run in the Kauto Star and the Brown Advisory instead – and might yet run with credit, at least in the latter.

On the previous day at the same track, JPR One was set to follow up his Newton Abbot debut success with a straightforward victory – only to do a Galopin Des Champs at the final fence and get his feet in a tangle, unseating Brendan Powell. But for that, Homme Public would have finished second and chase debutante Petit Tonnerre, who wasn’t getting much involved, would have been less obliged to attempt a challenge.

The winning trainer-combination of Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, who are having another fine season after their breakthrough Festival success last March, were thus rewarded for their enterprise in running their Wetherby handicap winner.

However, I’d hold some doubts about whether it went much to impact on offsetting the bad news that their 2023 Martin Pipe winner Iroko, who’d made a highly taking chase debut at Warwick earlier this month, is out for the season with a foot injury.

Petite Tonnerre shaped as though he could do better, but I’d like to see him finish off a race before trusting him as a handicap plot. Fourth-placed Mighty Tom, who’d previously been humbled by the smart Letsbeclearaboutit (stablemate of Flooring Porter at Gavin Cromwell’s yard) in a Cork Grade Three, was unsuited by his rider’s waiting tactics in these circumstances and made a too-quick move towards three out.He’s better than that, but not straightforward.

Advised 16/11/23: Envoi Allen at 16/1 for the Ryanair Chase with Paddy Power.

Scenes! Unprecedented scenes! I’m stunned into silence by Ruby making the first move.