Hilly Way will determine if Banbridge defends King George crown

Banbridge will seek to set up the defence of his King George VI Chase crown when following the same path to the Boxing Day showpiece with an outing in Cork’s Hilly Way Chase early next month.

Joseph O’Brien’s Kempton hero looked poised to give Energumene a real race in the Cork Grade Two before unseating jockey Richard Deegan at the final fence, but he proved none the worse when stepping up to three miles for the festive feature, hunting down the front-running Il Est Francais for a memorable success.

Unbeaten in two starts at the Sunbury venue, O’Brien concedes Kempton would be the “logical place” to spend Christmas providing he comes through his intended December 7 return unscathed. He said: “He will probably go to the Hilly Way at Cork first and after that we will confirm plans.

“If he ran a big race in Cork, Kempton would be the logical place for him to go next.

“It was great to win the race last year and he has always been good at Kempton. If he had a good start to the season at Cork, it would be nice to go back there.”

Although the defending champion, Banbridge finds himself as big as 14-1 for the December 26 Grade One, as a host of King George ‘first-timers’ put themselves towards the top of the betting with impressive performances last weekend.

Both The Jukebox Man and Jango Baie dazzled at Haydock and Ascot respectively with their trainers Ben Pauling and Nicky Henderson both confirming the Kempton main event will be their objective, while in Ireland, Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File served up a John Durkan thriller to bring a Christmas raid into view.

O’Brien is respectful of the potential opposition Banbridge could face and said: “There’s always some new faces and the race will take shape over the next month.

“There will be plenty of good horses that look like they might turn up as real live contenders and are unexposed, but there will also be those more proven older guys as well, and at this stage you would be looking and thinking it will be a strong renewal.”