Tied Up in Knotts Over Hunt Ball

Before I begin, Chance du Roy runs in the 4.25 at Haydock today – I’m on 1pt e/w at 4-1.

Now, If you haven’t already seen Matt Chapman’s interview with Anthony Knott on At The Races, I implore you to view it:

Knott: farmer, one-time winning jockey, and now an owner who backs his own horse Hunt Ball with rhetoric and roubles alike, is everything we love about racing here at Palphabet.  His boundless enthusiasm for the sport has seen him recently jump on board Hunt Ball after victory at Wincanton and he famously celebrated his only win as a rider by punching the air and gesticulating to onlookers.  This is all well and good, only Anthony chose to do it with a furlong and a half left to travel on Wise Men Say, with other horses just a length or two away and whilst adopting one of the most unconventional horse riding techniques I have ever seen...Well, it had taken him 28 years to get a winner.  Again, I implore you to watch this race (fast-forward to 4:00 into THIS clip and then watch Nick Luck try to make sense of it all in the post-race interview on RUK) - hilarious!

Going back to that ATR interview, Chapman failed in his attempts to coax out of Knott the race into which Hunt Ball will next be entered.  Seeing as I’m attending Ladies’ Day and the Grand National Saturday at Aintree in a few weekends time, I certainly hope we see him in the flesh there, so that I can follow Knott and “lump on” again:

I'm pleased to say I was on Hunt Ball on Day 1 of the Festival

 
As I type, sponsor’s spokesman Mark Pearson is on talkSPORT coyly mutering about HB’s chances in the Aintree Betfred Bowl - they haven't chalked up a market for it yet - whilst  www.oddschecker.com shows he is as short as 20-1 for next year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.  The handicapper has raised him over 70lbs, more than five stone since he started his winning spree and he continues to deliver.. only time will tell how long this can go on!

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Eschewing a good think, and instead going with my gut again, I’ve put together my nominees for the Palphabet Alpha Moments of the 2012 Cheltenham Festival.   Please post your answers or alternatives in the comments box below - I did try to embed a proper poll, but I couldn't work out how to do it :-(

Ride of the Festival

1.     Barry Geraghty on Riverside Theatre – Ryanair Chase

2.     Ruby Walsh on Big Buck’s – Ladbrokes World Hurdle

3.     AP McCoy on Synchronised – Betfred Gold Cup

Shocker / Grimace of the Festival

1.     Cotton Mill’s refusal to jump the second-last Neptune hurdle

2.     The Cross Country Course Deaths

3.     The final-fence debacle in the Champion Chase

Greg Wood's Blog is worth a read on some of these matters - it wasn't a bad week so don't wish to overplay the dramas...

Man / Gelding of the Festival

1.     Nicky Henderson

2.     Barry Geraghty

3.     Synchronised

Woman / Mare / Filly of the Festival

1.     Quevega

2.     Alice Plunkett

3.     Eve McCoy (after telling her dad to "pull his finger out")

Moment of the Festival

1.     Anthony Knott’s celebration – “Bugger the cows!”

2.     Spontaneous applause for a champion – Kauto Star being pulled up in the Gold Cup

3.     Sprinter Sacre’s emergence as the most exciting chaser in racing

4.     Big Buck’s

Cheltenham 2012 - Day 2

P&L after day 2 hides some very close bets.. honest!

Henderson - what's not to like?

Barry and the Henderson stamp a Big Foot on the Fest

Ignoring Henderson's strong challengers proved a downfall today but I was a whisker away with Get Me Out of Here, who gave £96.17 back to the pot but would have returned over £800 if he'd have managed to get home ahead of Son of Flicka. Elsewhere Soll, my tip of the week fell early on, along with stablemate Allee Garde. Simonsig, who I decided to lay, duly won for Henderson, who also took the RSA with Bobs Worth and the Champion Chase with Finian's Rainbow.  Nicky then had a 40-1 winner in the Fred Winter with Une Artiste, as I was lamenting another well-backed Alan King horse (Vendor).  It got me wondering - why don't I back Nicky Henderson horses very often?... and I think it's due to something buried deep in the realms of my subconscious...

Now, I'm certain that Paul Nicholls doesn’t hold Nicky Henderson in anything but the highest esteem.  I know Henderson, a former Champion Trainer and seemingly top bloke, is well loved in the horse racing fraternity.  He is clearly a fantastic trainer, with more festival wins under his belt than any of his current competitors and boasts a stable full of talented horses, worthy winners over all manner of mileage and obstacle. Yet, on television, I’m sure I've seen PFN appear to blank NH on a couple of occasions – at both Haydock and Kempton Park – after Kauto Star twice inflicted recent defeats on Gold Cup chaser Long Run.   So I have taken a position of harbouring a totally irrational dislike towards the Lambourn trainer, and hardly ever feel compelled to back his horses.

Now, after a day like today, I have two choices – I can either maintain a bitter and unfounded aversion towards contenders from Henderson's yard, or I can adapt to the environment.  I certainly don’t hate the bloke, I just like Nicholls, love Kauto Star and Denman, and found it more than slightly amusing when I saw the Ditcheat man seemingly turn his nose up at Nicky’s advances for a congratulatory handshake. 

I look back after today and wonder if there was anything in it – have any of you seen the footage from Haydock? – Paul Nicholls comes bounding up the gangway towards the winners' enclosure, delighted with Kauto Star’s return to brilliance.  Henderson approaches to say “well done fella” and gets, well, gunned!  

In retrospect, I think to myself “that was a bit out of order Paul!”  I find myself feeling sympathy towards Henderson, his big wet eyes resembling a likeable amphibian, just showing some affection for his victorious competitor on the day.  It’s making me think that tomorrow, when I would usually shy away from backing Henderson's horses, I should consider that he is absolutely flying at this year’s festival, and act accordingly.

Therefore, although I'll stick with Medermit in the Ryanair (in which Henderson's Riverside Theatre leads the market), first up is the Jewson Novices' Chase, in which Peddlers Cross is favourite, but where Solix is priced up at 9-1, and I'm going to do it - show some respect for Henderson and the pink-armband-wearing Barry Geraghty - and back the leading jockey / trainer combo with a pt e/w.

Our Father  (5-1) is my choice for the 3m Pertemps Final and is well fancied.  Then after the Ryanair comes the World Hurdle.  Watching this in a Cheltenham pub last year was one of my most memorable sporting events ever.  Ruby dropped his whip and using the reins alone, powering Buck's up the hill to beat off a genuine challenge from Grands Crus.  The choice for tomorrow is still there to be made: either lump on big-style for a 16th consecutive Big Buck's win ...or go with Oscar Whisky - trained by Nicky Henderson and undoubtedly a class act - who is trading at 5-1.  That may be a leap of faith too far! 

Thinking Hector's Choice or Notus de la Tour in the 16:00 handicap and will be interested to see what Pricewise says in tomorrow's paper.  Finally, I'm really looking forward to see if, like last year with Junior, there will be another monster gamble in the 16:40, and if Sir Henry Cecil can win the charity race again - does anyone even know if he has a runner? Plato's victory in the "Derby" was a nice way to finish St Patrick's Thursday a year ago.

If anyone's in Cheltenham tomorrow night - do say hello!

DP