Azertyuiop thriving 20 years on from Champion Chase glory

John Hales has been fortunate to own many top-class horses and this year marks the 20th anniversary of one of his very best, Azertyuiop, winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Before his current partnership with Sir Alex Ferguson and Ged Mason had evolved, Hales’ yellow silks with a red star were a very familiar sight on British racecourses.

Of course, they sprang to prominence thanks to another Champion Chase winner, One Man, who spent most of his career over three miles, winning the Hennessy Gold Cup, the King George twice and the Charlie Hall twice before finally ending his Cheltenham hoodoo when dropping back in trip in 1998.

Hales has also won the Grand National with Neptune Collonges, two Supreme Novices’ Hurdles with Noland and Al Ferof and a further Champion Chase with Politologue.

Azertyuiop, whose name came from the top line of a French keyboard, had either the fortune or misfortune, depending on which way you look at it, to be around in a golden age of two-miler chasers.

“Azertyuiop is still alive and well, he’s 27 now and I’m looking out of my window right now at him in the field with Neptune Collonges and Al Ferof, they all get on so well together,” said Hales.

“He’s still very fit and very well, he’s at a great age and it’s lovely to still have him.

“He was a very, very good horse. He might have only ever won two Grade Ones, the Arkle and the Champion Chase, but they are the right ones to win.

“Of course, he was around in that golden era with Moscow Flyer and Well Chief, and there was Flagship Uberalles still around, too.”

Azertyuiop and Moscow Flyer met in two Champion Chases, and it was a little unfortunate that in 2004 Moscow Flyer made a bad mistake and unseated Barry Geraghty four from home and a year later Azertyuiop left his hind legs in the water jump, costing him any chance of victory.

It meant their rivalry is usually best remembered for a titanic battle in the Tingle Creek at Sandown, but for a man as Cheltenham orientated as Hales, winning the Queen Mother for a second time was glorious.

“Moscow Flyer almost fell down the back straight and to be honest, once he’d got over the third-last, he looked the winner and he just had to stay up, which he did,” said Hales.

“Paul (Nicholls) wasn’t afraid to mix it up with him. That season, he ran in the Victor Chandler (now Clarence House) and he just failed to give lumps of weight to Isio, who was a good horse, and the following season we ran him in the King George, when he was third to a Gold Cup winner in Kicking King.

“Azertyuiop would certainly be in my top three, I think – him, Neptune Collonges and One Man.”

While Hales holds Azertyuiop in the highest regard, the inference was there that he might just cherish one horse above all others.

“Azertyuiop was very good the day he won the Champion Chase, but I wouldn’t want to answer who would win between him and One Man!” he said.

“They were both great horses but One Man had spent his life running over three miles.

“There was a famous reporter who said before he won, ‘if One Man can come down from three miles to two and win the Queen Mother, I’ll jump off the roof at Cheltenham’ – well, I’m still waiting for him to jump!”

Hales has some live chances at this year’s Festival but it is two of his horses that are not going to Cheltenham that excite him most, including recent €740,000 purchase Caldwell Potter.

“Kalif Du Berlais, who won at Kempton, is unbeaten, he beat a nice horse (Givemefive) in the Adonis and we think he is a very good horse. He’ll be going over fences next year and we just need to find out his best distance because he’s winning over two but will stay further,” said Hales.

“Caldwell Potter, the horse from Ireland, will be going to Aintree after we decided to give him more time to settle. He looks very good and will also be going chasing next year.

“The thing that clinched it for me to buy him, and it shouldn’t have done, was when Anthony Bromley (bloodstock agent) rang me about him, I asked what his colour was. When he told me he was grey, I shouldn’t have been influenced by that but I was because every major race I’ve won, at some point I’ve won it with a grey. King George, Queen Mother, Grand National – all with greys.

“I’ve got Sonigino (Martin Pipe), Monmiral (Pertemps) and L’Eau Du Sud (County Hurdle), with a few others going this year – and I quite fancy L’Eau Du Sud.”