Christmas Preview: Festive A to Z

A is for Apple’s Jade, and ‘away’, as in the opposite of a home fixture, where most of her matches have been played, either in mares races or with certain advantages beyond the allowance against the bigger boys, such as the Hatton’s Grace last time in which she passed the fitness test against a reappearing Nichols Canyon.

The Christmas Hurdle, at Leopardstown next Thursday, is something different for her, and Nichols Canyon is saying to her ‘you’re in my wheelhouse now,’ because of his tightened screws, and because of the three-mile trip, the optimum for him and further – much further – than Apple’s Jade has ever gone before. She’s brilliant at her job, of getting the job done, but this overtime is underestimated by the markets which have her at odds-on.

B is for Buveur d’Air.

We’re watching Buveur d’Air,

He's floating in the Kempton sky.

It’s only 6/4, that Hendo starts to cry.

I’ve doubled with Might Bite

A special Unibet tissue,

I’m finding I can have a fiver on with you.

In the post-race throng,

The journalists put up green screens,

Cos one or two of them are dead meat so it seems.

C is for is Champions, specifically Future Champions, the name of the Grade 1 novice hurdle at Leopardstown next Wednesday, and it’s a very fitting title given Mengli Khan has it marked on his calendar to Cheltenham. The staying types are grabbing the headlines, such as Samcro and On The Blind Side, but amongst the speed novices Mengli Khan is out on his own so far.

D is for Douvan II, the new name for Min. Douvan is to chasers what Laurence Olivier was to actors: the doyen, the benchmark, even, for some, the greatest ever. In the production of Dance of Death at the National Theatre in 1966, Olivier’s called-up understudy was an unknown actor by the name of Anthony Hopkins.

And Min is already at the level that Hopkins was for Lecter, with the promise of reaching Nixon proportions. The point is that, with a Timeform rating of 170p, Min is more ready and able than you might think to fill those Brobdingnagian boots of Douvan, with a significant screen test for him in the Grade 1 at Leopardstown next Wednesday.

E is for Espoir d’Allen. There was some hot stuff strutted by various juveniles last weekend, all status symbols: Apple’s Shakira cemented her status, We Have A Dream’s status increased and Stormy Ireland upset the status quo with a sparkling debut for Willie Mullins. But none of those are out of ratings reach of Espoir d’Allen, who has barely come out of second gear so far, and his climate-change counterstatement – in the Grade 1 juvenile at Leopardstown on Boxing Day – could tip the table on its head, if he does what he’s threatening to.

F is for Faugheen, also for favourite, which he’s currently not on the Betfair exchange for the Champion Hurdle. We’ve been here before with the ear, nose and throat department – believing what you hear, with the uneasy feeling that someone knows something, which sticks in your throat – but until we see the decs for Faugheen’s due date over Christmas, in the Ryanair Hurdle next Friday, we have to take on trust what our eyes told us in the Morgiana, that Faugheen has returned as good as new, which puts him in pole position in the championship race, ahead of Buveur d’Air.

G is for Gilgamboa, and the start of a new chapter, engaged in a hunter chase at Down Royal on Boxing Day, clearly having the resources to rule that world as a former Grade 1 winner who was fifth in Vautour’s Ryanair and fourth in the following month’s Grand National.

H is for Harry Skelton, who probably overdid things on Shantou Rock at Warwick, but has the ideal opportunity, at the ideal course for the horse, to put that right in the Wayward Lad Novices Chase at Kempton next Wednesday. Together they had smashed up The Unit by nine lengths at Newton Abbot, and they’ll take some catching at Kempton, Shantou Rock promising to be some sight around there.

I is for If The Cap Fits, one of the most promising British-trained novices hurdlers around, beating subsequent winners at both Exeter and Bangor, with plenty in the tank. He has his sights set on Graded events for sure but may take the Altior route there, via carrying a double-penalty in the meaningful novice that kicks off Kempton’s Boxing Day card.

J is for Jacob, Daryl, and the problems of having too much to feast on at Christmas.

Good jock Jacob he missed out

On the feast of Stephen.

Two top horses, both his mount

Three hundred miles between them

Bristol prayed for rain that night  

Cos the ground was crucial

Footpad wins and what a sight

Leaving Daryl rueful.

It’s the King George, it’s Bristol de Mai, and it’s a million quid on the line, so Jacob can only go one way, but Footpad, in a Grade 1 novice chase on the same day at Leopardstown, is heartbreaking to hand over, like letting your mate borrow your Porsche, which is exactly what he looked like on his chasing debut Navan, the reason he’s already odds-on for his Christmas assignment.

K is for Killultagh Vic, the not-so-forgotten horse, as barely a month of the 23 he’s missed went by without some reference to either his defeat of Thistlecrack over hurdles or his miraculous recovery over fences. A gift that has kept on giving, he’s back this Christmas, easing himself in, but with Cheltenham on the agenda.

L is for Limerick, in the shadow of Leopardstown but drawing some big guns itself, particularly the Grade 2 novice chase which is on the agenda for one of the best in the division so far, Death Duty. If Willie Mullins send one or both of Invitation Only or Al Boum Photo into battle against him, then all eyes will be on Limerick at around 2.10 on Boxing Day.

M is for Might Bite. Things couldn’t have gone any smoother for him since he carried a sandwich board that read ‘KING GEORGE WINNER 2018’ for 95% of the Kauto Star Novices Chase at this meeting last year. He strutted his stuff – with a swagger and a swerve – in the spring, and Whisper strutted stuff on his behalf this autumn, while Might Bite completed the ‘hop’ part with ease in his designated hop, skip and jump to Kemptonthis season.

It’s one of those cases where 11/8 looks short, too short, at a passing glance, but a deeper dive into him and the rest tells you it’s about right, given his Kempton-friendly style and his ever-developing substance.

N is for Neville Novice Chase, known by some as the Fort Leney and more widely as the race that Monalee is going to run in this Christmas, at Leopardstown next Friday. Justifying his short odds is a process of joining dots, but they are significant dots to join, from his background in points, his ability over hurdles and his impression of a tip-top chaser at Punchestown. The hype machine is in overdrive, but he looks the sort of machine that has got an overdrive to legitimise the hype.

O is for Orchid, Desert Orchid, and the race at Kempton named in his honour, a potential meeting of old and new: the old warrior, Special Tiara, who has twice blazed a trail in this race, and the new pretender, Politologue, busy bursting bubbles this season. But this may be the weaker of the semi-finals (see ‘D’).

P is for Paul Townend, whose Christmases have all come at once, finding himself playing the Maverick role when for so long he’s been Goose, a sidekick to Walsh, but now making the most of unlimited access to all of Mullins’ fighter jets.

Q is for Qualifiers, because nothing (bar Kempton and Leopardstown and The Wizard of Oz) says Boxing day quite like a Pertemps Qualifier at Wincanton, though, sadly, gone are the days of when a jog around the back would suffice, now needing to finish in the first six to book a Cheltenham ticket.

R is for Real Steel, another French flyer for Mullins based on his scintillating win (in a fast comparative time) at Thurles, making him a danger man for Mengli Khan in the Future Champions.

S is for Sizing John, the winner of three different Gold Cups last season who now has the rating to match, after his most comprehensive performance yet in dealing with Djakadam and co so disdainfully in the John Durkan on his comeback. As chip leader, the pressure is off him to some extent, affording to sit back and watch the King George before playing his hand two days later in the artist formerly known as Lexus. He’s new on the staying scene, but the danger is newer still (see ‘Y’).

T is for Thistlecrack. When he surged his way to the King George last December, it would have been hard to believe he’d be 6/1 for the same race 12 months on, but the 3D problem since – defeat, disservice and disappointment – naturally begs the make-or-break question of what version of Thistlecrack are we going to get this Christmas? Even at his odds, the negatives outweigh the positives for me, as if he needed it at Newbury he badly needed it, and Colin Tizzard is too good a trainer to have left him so short with the King George coming so soon.

U is for unseated rider, which Rocklander did last time, and at least it gets us into the Kauto Star (for which he’s entered). 35 days on, I still can’t quite work out how Ballyoptic was overrun by Black Corton at Cheltenham, regardless of his mistake at the last, but he was brilliant at Exeter, in a race that has been boosted time and again, and on that he’s very tempting in what looks a winnable Grade 1.

V is for Vintage Clouds, my ante-post play for Chepstow, so I’m really hoping he swerves the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby in favour of the…

W is for Welsh National, a muddy marathon tailor made for Vintage Clouds.

X is for, erm, pass

Y is for youth, the exuberance thereof, as displayed by Debuchet in the Champion Bumper, the fourth four-year-old to finish runner-up in the race this century, Cue Card the only one of tender age to win it in that time. He’s had to sit on his hands through the first half of the season, but numerous entries over Christmas suggests Debuchet is ready for action, and he has the makings of a crack novice hurdler.

Z is for Zaidiyn, partly because he’s a livewire for the closing handicap at Kempton on Boxing Day (showed that he’s still got it when second to Golden Birthday on the Flat at Doncaster in October), and partly because we’re very thin on the ground for Zs.