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A glorious day’s racing was a reminder of the different qualities it takes to get a horse across the finishing line first. Sometimes it is patience. As the steaming Eleazar was doused with buckets of water after victory on his first run since September 2007, trainer Lucy Wadham revealed that he had injured both front tendons. Praising his owners for sticking with him, she pointed out that the handicapper often drops you a few pounds after such a long lay-off and reflected, ‘It is best to strike early.’ Sure, but it takes a good handler to know the horse is ready to do it on the racecourse, not just on the training grounds. Back in December Lucy did the same with the mare United, off since April 2007. I will be watching for the next ex-invalid she produces.
Patience, too, lay behind the victory of Tom George’s grey Nacarat in the big race, the Racing Post Chase. In an exhilarating display of fencing at speed, Nacarat led all the way over the three miles in the hands of Tony McCoy, leaving his rivals gasping and relegating the much fancied Big Fella Thanks to third place. Nacarat is now a fine, sturdy individual but his trainer revealed that when they got him from France, where he had raced on the Flat, Nacarat had been narrow and angular. They knew they had a quality animal and entered him for Kempton’s King George. But he was taking time to furnish his frame. They waited and the horse has now changed enormously, physically maturing to a truly impressive degree. It wasn’t a race, it was a rout. The others simply could not cope with Nacarat’s speed — McCoy had to steady him up the finishing straight — and it revived memories of the glorious grey Desert Orchid, who won four King Georges. Come next Boxing Day Tom George, who trains at hilltop above the Cider with Rosie village of Slad, could have his biggest success yet.
McCoy’s tactics were perfectly judged to undermine Big Fella Thanks but mercifully for us scribes Harry Findlay and his racing partner Paul Barber had a consolation victory with the Paul Nicholls-trained Herecomesthetruth in the novices chase. The words were not long in coming. ‘He’s a Battle of Britain horse,’ said Harry. ‘He wins it in the air.’ And so he did. Herecomesthetruth jumps superbly. But he is a quirky character with a tendency to run out and Ruby Walsh had him locked down, you could see, on the bends. Herecomesthetruth, said Harry, is named after his trainer. ‘When Paul goes on TV. I always say, “Here comes the truth,” and I make sure I have got my money on first.’ Barber offered Harry a half share in Big Fella Thanks, now the Grand National favourite, for a half share in Herecomesthetruth as soon as he saw him come off the lorry. We’ll have to wait a season or two to see who got the bargain.
Walsh and Nicholls doubled up in the juvenile hurdle with Hebridean, who had twice been beaten over obstacles despite winning a Grade 3 on the Flat for Aidan O’Brien. He now looks a tougher customer ready to cope with the hustle and bustle of the Triumph Hurdle. Said Nicholls, ‘It’s just been a case of getting the Flat out of his mind, getting him jumping and putting it all together.’
Le Burf, from the ten-horse Broadway yard of Giles Smyly, was a runaway victor on the soft at Wincanton earlier this year. He took the Raceform Update chase with another front-running victory in the quiet but always effective custody of Noel Fehilly. ‘I didn’t think he’d have the pace to do what he did at Wincanton,’ said his delighted trainer. ‘But he loves the tactics, he loves to dominate and seems to jump better in front.’ He could not want for a better flag-bearer.
As for my forecast in the bumper I was as much impressed by the second, Ballybach, as I was by the half-length winner. Trainer Nick Gifford loves him, too, and will continue his education by letting him get his head in front on a smaller track now, rather than face the hurly burly of the Festival bumper at Cheltenham. You have to be mentally ready for that as well as physically and Ballybach is too good a prospect not to be given time.
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