Review of 2007/8
Preview of 2008/9
SEASON’S HIGHLIGHTS 2007/08
For most people with even a passing interest in Jump racing, one story defined the entire 2007/08 season. Like two prize fighters heading for a heavyweight unification bout, steeplechasing superstars Kauto Star and Denman had put almost all of the challengers who dared offer any resistance on the canvas as they eased their way towards the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup in March. This was the race that had followers of the sport salivating for months. Not since Mill House against Arkle in 1964 had a Gold Cup been so eagerly awaited, but unlike those champions of a previous generation who were not even trained in the same country, the 2008 contenders both hailed from the same stables, those of Champion Trainer Paul Nicholls, at Ditcheat in the heart of the West Country. Even more remarkably, the two are neighbours in the yard, who can lean out from their boxes and eyeball each other on a daily basis.
The first chapter of this great story was written twelve months previously, when Kauto Star capped an unbeaten season with a brilliant win in the 2007 totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup, just two days after Denman had proved himself one of the most potent young staying chasers for years with a facile victory against fellow novices in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase to complete his own unbeaten campaign.
In 2007/08, both horses had won three races each ahead of the big day, with Denman’s awesome display in Newbury’s Hennessy Gold Cup answered by Kauto Star’s romp in landing his second Stan James King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day. Come the big day in the Cotswolds, Kauto Star, ridden as usual by stable jockey Ruby Walsh, started a strong favourite, with most experts predicting Gold Cup number two for the defending champ. But Denman and jockey Sam Thomas had other ideas and led for the entire final circuit of the race, keeping up a gruelling tempo that always looked likely to prove too much for his stablemate, winning a thrilling contest by seven lengths. Remarkably, Neptune Collonges, the other horse in the field trained by Paul Nicholls finished third, to complete a perfect result for his all-conquering yard.
Many people who witnessed Denman’s performance anointed him the best chaser for years, but in fact technically he was not even the best chaser in the Nicholls stable! That honour went to Master Minded, in the same ownership as Kauto Star, who had put up a quite breathtaking display in winning the top two mile chase of the season, the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase, by a scarcely credible nineteen lengths from Voy Por Ustedes, the winner of the race in 2007.
There were more great stories in the other Cheltenham championship events. Katchit, small in stature but huge in heart became the first five year old to win the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle for over 20 years, crowning a great season for trainer Alan King and jockey Robert ‘Choc’ Thornton; Inglis Drever, from the Northumberland yard of Howard Johnson, won his third Ladbrokes World Hurdle for owner Graham Wylie under Denis O’Regan, the third different jockey to be successful on him in the race; and Our Vic, for young trainer David Pipe and owner David Johnson was victorious in the Ryanair Chase, ridden by the stylish Timmy Murphy.
The triumvirate of Pipe, Johnson and Murphy topped even that great day three weeks later, when Comply Or Die, under a wonderfully patient ride, lifted the John Smith’s Grand National to land a country-wide gamble and give long standing stable patron Johnson a deserved reward for years of patience and not inconsiderable investment in the sport. It also helped to secure second place in the Trainers’ Championship for David Pipe, in just his second season since taking over from his legendary father. Having picked up many of the most valuable prizes at Ascot last season, Pipe will be looking forward to Jump racing starting again at the Berkshire venue in November.
The big races at Cheltenham and Aintree tend to be the focus of each spring, but throughout the country and throughout the season there were highlights that reinforced the glorious diversity of Jump racing and its great appeal to spectators, viewers and commercial partners alike. Progressive young chaser Cloudy Lane won in imperious style at Haydock, Ayr and Doncaster for Donald McCain, another training son of a famous father (in this case, Ginger, the wonderfully outspoken trainer of Red Rum and Amberleigh House). With Whiteoak, the same team won the first Grade 2 race for Mares, the David Nicholson Mares Hurdle, having started on the victory roll by winning a small novice hurdle at Bangor-on-Dee only four months previously. Emma Lavelle was another young trainer who had some great days last year, with the victories of Labelthou (at Ascot) and Crack Away Jack (at Cheltenham) and Sue Smith, wife of ex-show jumper Harvey took the John Smith’s Midlands Grand National back to her Yorkshire base thanks to Himalayan Trail’s heroics at Uttoxeter.
Paul Nicholls naturally drew many of the headlines, with total prize money in excess of £3.5 million and 151 winners at a strike rate of 25%, better than anyone else among the top 60 trainers - and he has suggested that this season he may try to win the championship in Ireland as well as Britain! However, there were plenty of others who also had seasons to remember. Nigel Twiston-Davies, sometimes characterised as a man who makes hay in the late summer and early autumn before the big boys (and girls) come out to play, kept his string in remarkable form to notch up 87 winners and fourth place in the table, including major successes at Perth, Wetherby, Kempton Park and Cheltenham.
Alan King continued his inexorable rise to the top of his profession with 128 winners and £2.1 million in prize money and both Philip Hobbs and Jonjo O’Neill, relatively quiet by their exalted standards in the biggest races, managed to produce over 100 winners and £1million in prize money each, with Hobbs putting the final full stop on a wonderful season for the sport by winning the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown in April with stable stalwart Monkerhostin.
However, on any shortlist for the most uplifting winner of 2007/08 was Miko de Beauchene, in the Coral Welsh National at Chepstow, for trainer Robert Alner, who had sustained life-changing injuries in a serious road accident just a few weeks previously. The fact that the horse was ridden by his loyal friend Andrew Thornton just added to the emotion of the occasion.
Rather like 2006/07, it was not a vintage season for Irish-trained horses in Britain. There was the usual handful of Cheltenham Festival winners, but none in the biggest events throughout the season. Even the Irish dominance of the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle was broken, although with several eye-catching performances in the best novice races, the Irish are likely to be mounting another strong challenge for that race in 2009.
As far as jockeys were concerned, the granite-like AP McCoy won his thirteenth successive Jockeys’ Championship, despite a horrible fall at Warwick in January that left him needing an operation on his back. For most mortals that would have been a season-ending tumble, but AP produced a scarcely believable comeback by winning a race at Cheltenham less than 9 weeks after his fall. Richard Johnson, who must be starting to wonder if McCoy will ever let up, was runner up for the eleventh time. Two of the stalwarts of the profession retired last season. Mick Fitzgerald, never short of a word or two and one of the most popular jockeys of recent times, said goodbye with well over 1,000 winners to his name, as did Tony Dobbin, who finished an equally successful career with an emotional victory at Carlisle, his local track, on his last ever ride.
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The Season Ahead 2008/09
Every new season brings with it change and Jump racing is no different, although it would take a good deal of imagination (or ill fortune) to see Messrs Nicholls and McCoy not ending 2008/09 as Champion Trainer and Jockey respectively. Sometimes though it is intriguing to have a look at one or two of the less well know names who could make an impact in the year ahead.
Aidan Coleman
Venetia Williams has a habit of forging working relationships with the best jockeys around. Norman Williamson was her first choice for many years (with AP McCoy a regular substitute when available) and after his retirement it was Williams who helped to mould Gold Cup winning Jockey Sam Thomas into the top class pilot he is now. With Thomas riding more and more for Paul Nicholls, the new kid on the block appears to be Aidan Coleman, who whilst still in the very early stages of his career is certainly a name for the future, who will take some stopping in the race to be top conditional jockey this season (the award for young, inexperienced riders). Coleman is certainly a fast learner. Having not ridden his first winner until last season after graduating from the British Racing School in June 2007, he ended the campaign with 28 and in many of those races you would have struggled to tell him apart from some of the better jockeys riding today. Already going strong again this season, he looks a good bet to reach the top of his profession in the next few years. Eager to learn, hard working, cool under pressure and well grounded, Aidan Coleman has already convinced Venetia Williams that he will be a star of the future and as many a racing journalist will tell you, she can be a hard lady to impress!
Gary Moore
Fashionable is not a word that would often be used to describe Gary Moore, but run a league table of trainers based on hard work, shrewdness and commitment and Moore would almost certainly be in the Champions League positions. A former journeyman jockey, who rode 150 winners, and father of four established and aspiring jockeys (including Flat Champion Ryan and leading jump jockey Jamie) Moore and his wife Jayne have worked tirelessly to improve the quality of horses under their care since Gary started training both flat horses and jumpers in 1993. A man with a reputation for getting the best out of horses that other people have failed with has proved a double-edged sword – there is no shortage of owners wanting to send their charges to him, but he seldom gets his hands on the quality of animal that his talents deserve. Having proved he can do the job when the ammunition is right (Tikram’s Cheltenham Festival win being a case in point), there is now perhaps reason to be cautiously optimistic that the likeable and down-to-earth West Sussex resident can take the next step. Moore has recently expanded into additional top class facilities with a wider range of training gallops and the quality of horses in his care is slowly creeping up. With an average of well over 50 winners for the last four seasons, he is a man who will be well worth following over the next few years.
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