Jamie Lynch Weekend Preview: Historical heights for an Altior soar

Upon completing a successful shift on ATR on Monday afternoon – only 37 messages of personal abuse nearly constitutes a ‘resounding’ on the success scale – I went up to the office to collect my bag and swag, to be confronted by Rich Ricci, preparing for his must-see On The Line appearance with Matt Chapman. And it was must-see stuff, though I got a preview in a brief conversation with the magnetic Mr Ricci, a self-made, man-made force of nature, whose passion and knowledge and passion for knowledge is all the more tangible at close quarters.

An added dimension to his dismay over Vautour, he explained, was that the horse had done an explosive piece of work on the Saturday, like a foreshock of a seismic seasonal earthquake. Vautour did so much, but he died with so much still undone.

In anyone’s list of most impressive Cheltenham performances in their lifetime, Vautour is in there. All three of his wins would be in mine. The Supreme, in 2014, was when he cleared his voice and shouted to the racing world that a star had arrived. It was the announcement – which resonated over the years – as much as the performance, though in ratings terms he was only the fourth horse (following Champagne Fever, Al Ferof and Hors La Loi) to break the 150 barrier in the Supreme since Montelado in 1993.

There are two snippets of racing trivia involving Montelado. First and foremost, he’s the only horse to win consecutive races at the Festival, the Cheltenham Bumper having been the last event on the last day in 1992. And, secondly, Montelado was a half-brother to Flockton Grey, who will ringer bell with everyone.

Almost ten years to the day before Montelado stole away with the inaugural Champion Bumper, Flockton Grey landed a gamble in a two-year-old event at Leicester. Only it wasn’t Flockton Grey, it was three-year-old Good Hand. Like a poker virgin, a good hand was played with sledgehammer subtlety, and ‘Flockton Grey’ didn’t win by a length, nor ten lengths, but by twenty. Cue consternation, cue remonstration, cue investigation, cue castigation.

From one identity thief to another, though it sounds like Henry de Bromhead may swerve Cheltenham on Sunday in favour of the Craddockstown Novice Chase back at Punchestown the following week. A thief and a robber, as his absence would rob us of a chasing doozy duel between two top hurdlers: Identity Thief and Altior.

On his projected flight path, with Henderson Airways, Altior should be back again on the Sunday of Cheltenham for the Shloer Chase in 2021. It was four years after his unbeaten novice campaign that Sprinter Sacre lit the fire of a riveting renaissance in the last edition of the Shloer, and the lesser-spotted Simonsig is seeking to do the same this time around, likewise a long four years on from his undefeated days as a novice.

As hurdlers, Sprinter Sacre and Simonsig were good, hitting 152 and 162 respectively on the Timeform scale, but they weren’t in the same league as Altior, whose 167 puts even Vautour in the shade amongst Supreme winners.

Altior is Champion Hurdle class, which is exactly why his straight-away switch to fences is so significant, and so exciting, following the perpetual path of Sprinter Sacre, with Simonsig’s fewer footprints as going the longer way around. All of Henderson’s other Supreme winners (River Ceiriog and Flown) and near-winners (Binocular, Darlan and My Tent Or Yours) chased the Champion rather than the Champion Chase, but he must have identified something in Altior, or Altior revealed something to him, that means, for plans and obstacles, they’re thinking big.

It’s already an anniversary of sorts for Altior, as it was the Sunday of The Open Meeting last year when he really began to de-robe to reveal the Superman-cum-Supreme-man costume underneath. Thomas Campbell and Khezerabad, first and second in a Cheltenham maiden last month, could represent Henderson this time, but the real grudge match here involves Moon Racer and Ballyandy, Champion Bumper winners both, who had an unseasonably early skirmish at Perth in September, which Moon Racer won on points in a fight that went the distance. There’s just a hunch that the marginal difference between them that day was fitness, and that Ballyandy may pack a bigger punch this time.

There’s one thing, though, that neither Altior nor Ballyandy can do, and that’s upstage Thistlecrack. However much schooling he’s had, the best preparation for Altior ahead of his chasing debut is to watch Thistlecrack’s at Chepstow, where, like the headline act he is, he put on a show, a full repertoire of jumping technique. Lesson number two is due to take place in the three-mile novice chase at Cheltenham on Saturday.

The BetVictor Gold Cup and the Greatwood are races for the brave, and fortune favours them, but cowards like me appreciate the finer and findable points of the novice events. The big tests and bigger testers lie in wait, but Sunday is vital for Altior, for making impressions, and for doing impressions of Simonsig and, dare we say, Sprinter Sacre. Fans of Identity Thief will be watching closely, as will Rich Ricci, who stressed in private what he said in public, that Min has manned-up. It already has the makings of an epic Arkle, and Altior needs to put down a marker.