Lydia Hislop's Road To Cheltenham 7: Chacun Pour Soi, Altior & an ante-post bet

For those who doubted Chacun Pour Soi’s credentials as the pre-eminent chaser of this division, the events of Christmas have made such denials that bit more Laurence Fox.

Yes, you can argue that Politologue had some claim to this mantle following both his recent Champion Chase and Tingle Creek successes, but all other comparable petitions are looking a bit 2019, darling.

That’s not to say Chacun Pour Soi doesn’t still have plenty to prove. He’s yet to string together a full season – although the fact trainer Willie Mullins was able to risk a prep-race prior to this latest Leopardstown engagement is encouraging – and he is yet to face the particular challenges of Cheltenham, having been withdrawn on the morning of last season’s Champion Chase with an abscess in his foot.

But last Sunday’s unruffled six-and-a-half-length defeat of Notebook – rated the second-best two-mile novice of last season on the Anglo-Irish Classifications, his best form just 2lb behind Fakir D’Oudairies’s Arkle second – with the mare and Arkle winner Put The Kettle On back in third for good measure, was deeply impressive. Put simply, the next generation of two-milers didn’t cause him the slightest concern.

The most impressive moment in the Grade One Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase was vividly captured by the helmet camera (arranged by race sponsor Paddy Power and shown on RTE) worn by Sean Flanagan on Put The Kettle On.

It bore eloquent witness to the effortless manner in which the winner took a length out of his closest pursuer at what would usually be the third last, instantly putting Notebook under pressure. This happened again at the penultimate fence but served as the last due to a low-sun omission. Then, Chacun Pour Soi kicked clear on the bend and the race was over.

It was a passage of play reminiscent of his near four-length defeat of Min in February’s Dublin Chase – form that had already established his clubhouse lead in my book – only on that occasion, his stable-companion mustered a greater degree of resistance.

That’s how Chacun Pour Soi wins his races, with a big second-half move that no rival has hitherto been quite able to live with. The sobering thought for connections of Notebook and Put The Kettle On is that neither horse made a mistake when length-ed at each fence. On this evidence, the winner definitively has the greater scope and the larger engine.

This performance also illustrated the benefit he derived from taking in the Grade Two Hilly Way Chase en-route, having lacked match fitness against A Plus Tard in this race last year. At the time, Mullins was underwhelmed by that performance – needlessly, in my view, especially first time out in heavy ground – but the horse managed to catch his attention this time.

“I thought it was the Chacun Pour Soi that I wanted to see today,” Mullins told Racing TV’s Gary O’Brien afterwards. “I wasn’t impressed with him even though he won down in Mallow (Cork). Today he did everything I thought he could do – and can do.

“Last year, I certainly would have expected him to do something like that because everyone had so much confidence in the horse. But we missed Cheltenham and had the setback here last Christmas – things didn’t go right. But his performances at home and what we see at home… you were waiting for a performance like that out of him.”

Mullins signalled that Chacun Pour Soi would, as last year, take in the Dublin Chase next. It therefore seems likely, providing all is well, that this sets up another rewarding clash with Min – who reportedly won a fog-smothered John Durkan tenaciously prior to Christmas and has the Ryanair as his subsequent Spring target.

It interests me that the one blip in Chacun Pour Soi’s round came at what functioned as the third fence. It’s usually the fourth, positioned very shortly after you swing out of a left-handed bend. Positioned hard on the inside, Paul Townend’s mount activated the brakes and adjusted right in order to negotiate it cleanly after getting in too close, losing a position to Notebook in the process.

This made me wonder about Cheltenham’s tight, turning Old Course – host of the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase – and particularly the second last, which comes up quickly after a bend and is often crucial. Of course, it might have been a coincidence and the way that he jumped in the latter stages did suggest a stronger end-to-end gallop would likely elicit that better technique – and perhaps inspire the huge performance Chacun Pour Soi hints that he holds within him.

What I can’t have is the widespread perception of Chacun Pour Soi as a weak finisher. This was a view much bandied about after that defeat of Min in an outrageously good time because the eye told you he didn’t finish as strongly as he travelled in other parts of the race. I’ve read similar views about his latest Leopardstown success, too, accompanied by much chin-stroking about “getting up the hill at Cheltenham”.

Newsflash: racehorses are almost always slowing down at the finish. How much they’re slowing down depends on (a) their ability and (b) how hard they had to work during the race. If they win and had to work hard, it means they were good enough to be in the right place at the right time. Being nearer the right place a few moments later is called losing. For a horse to head Chacun Pour Soi late on, he has to be good enough to stay in touch three fences earlier.

Henry de Bromhead, who trained both the second and third in last Sunday’s Grade One, could offer no reason why either should reverse the form when encountering Chacun Pour Soi again. Hearteningly, this is likely to remain a “when” and not an “if” as he confirmed that their campaign plans still incorporate the same Festival target.

“The way it all changed on the day of the Champion Chase last year, you never know what’s going to happen,” de Bromhead said. “And that [two-mile chasing] is what their forté is, so I’d imagine we’ll stick to the plan.” Nonetheless, it will be interesting to discover next month whether either is also entered in the Ryanair or, in the case of Put The Kettle On, in the Grade Two Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase.

For Notebook, a rematch in the Dublin Chase is still his best short-term option because most of his leading form has come at Leopardstown, whereas he has functioned a good deal below his contemporaneous best the twice he has tried Cheltenham – when only sixth in last term’s Arkle and 12th in the 2019 Ballymore.

As a high-mettled horse, it is possible that the pomp and circumstance of the Festival has negatively impacted his performance there – he was one of the two horses who took longest to pull up after the Arkle’s false start, for instance. So, he would welcome a crowd-free environment at this year’s Festival as his pre-race behaviour has been noticeably improved under the Covid restrictions.

Put The Kettle On has no such issues. She has won all three starts at the track, all over the course and distance of the Champion Chase. Of course, her Christmas plan had been to take on Altior at Kempton but that was foiled by the Irish government’s travel ban, so she was re-routed to Leopardstown.

Interestingly, in his early-season Sportinglife.com stable tour, de Bromhead had suggested “Ascot after Christmas” as a possible option for her but, perhaps abashed by seeing his Christmas plans ripped up by Covid, he hasn’t entered her in the Grade One Clarence House.

That’s a shame because the particular accent that course places on stamina would have suited the mare. She was the first of the principals placed under pressure by Chacun Pour Soi last Sunday, but stuck to her task with characteristic determination to finish less than two lengths adrift of her stable-companion.

Less than 90 minutes later, the race in which Put The Kettle On was an intended runner took place at Kempton. The Grade Two Desert Orchid Chase had come to be the preferred stage for the career relaunch of Altior, formerly an all-conquering force in this division. Instead, it showcased the emergence of a younger, fresher talent in the Dan Skelton-trained Nube Negra.

Sourced from Spain by Skelton’s father, Nick, from his show-jumping friend Louis Cervera, this horse ran seven times on the Flat in Zarzuela prior to joining this yard in the autumn of his three-year-old season. He was a decent juvenile hurdler, finishing third in the 2018 Fred Winter when rated 135, but marked time during his second term over the smaller obstacles.

A switch to fences last season brought about immediate improvement. He won twice – at Warwick and Fakenham, prior to finishing second to Esprit Du Large in the Grade One Henry VIII Novices’ Chase and also to Rouge Vif – who reopposed here – in the Grade Two Kingmaker. He was subsequently sidelined with pus in his foot – an issue that would later reveal itself to be a pedal-bone fracture, meaning this was his first outing for 323 days.

The auspices were positive from an early stage on Sunday. Initially steadied in rear, Nube Negra took the first fence low, nimbly dealt with limited space at the second and then moved upsides Altior to outjump him at the third, getting away from the obstacle more readily.

Thereafter, he travelled strongly and jumped efficiently until shaken up after the penultimate flight and moving readily away. The last jump was his least impressive – stuttering in, getting too close and not landing running as he had at all the previous obstacles.

Although it slowed him briefly, he was well clear of the rallying Altior and rider Harry Skelton could even afford to ease down. This was Altior’s first defeat at two miles, over fences or hurdles, and Nube Negra made it look easy.

“I just thought that was a very, very deep race,” an incredulous Dan Skelton told Nick Luck on Racing TV afterwards. “I fancied him to run well but you’d be an idiot coming [here] thinking you’d just roll over Altior and those other horses that have got recent form, having your first run out of novices, having had a bit of an injury... it was just too much to ask for, to presume he’d win today.”

This was undoubtedly a surge of improvement from Nube Negra, who looked well suited by this speed-favouring track and boasts a skimmingly efficient jumping technique that should serve him well. In form terms, however, he was lowering the colours of an aged and perhaps troubled Altior, plus a sub-premiership horse in Duc De Genievres.

On the clock, Nube Negra was also left trailing by the earlier performance of the novice Shishkin, who went through his race at a broadly similar tempo but then covered from three out to the line in a time about two seconds faster. Both Shishkin and Nube Negra were eased nearing the line, although the latter had made that mistake and was also lacking race-fitness.

The upshot of that comparison is that Nube Negra will need to find a further burst of improvement to pose a threat to Chacun Pour Soi or even Politologue (at his best), but such a trajectory cannot be dismissed about a relatively lightly raced horse. His previous Festival form at least removes one area of doubt, however, because he battled on well up that hill.

Skelton plans to go “straight to the Champion Chase” – a decision he ascribes to Nube Negra’s belated seasonal debut due to that injury. The Clarence House will come too soon for a horse whom he prefers to run fresh; similarly, the Game Spirit is positioned a bit too close to Cheltenham for the same reason.

“If he’d started cantering the third week in July like all the others [in the yard] did, he’d definitely have run before now – perhaps twice before now. I’m not being precious about our horses. I’m just being sensible... And if they’ve had an injury, you start later,” Skelton said. “We’re not afraid to run them but when you start a bit later, you have to adjust that. We all hope that next year I can give a horse like him five or six runs.”

The ascent of Nube Negra is not without complications for the Skeltons because Harry has struck up a firm partnership with Politologue, owned by their dear friend and supporter John Hales. When asked by Nick Luck on Racing TV whether family would win out in this decision, Harry declined to be drawn. He doesn’t yet need to pin his colours to one particular mast, after all.

Firstly, he’ll reacquaint himself with the Champion Chase titleholder in the Clarence House next month. There, they could encounter the steadily-progressive First Flow, whose success in Wetherby’s Castleford Handicap Chase off a mark of 154 Over Christmas was his fifth on the bounce. Defi Du Seuil also has this race marked as a potential step in his retrieval mission.

Back in third at Kempton, Duc De Genievres failed to build on his second to Put The Kettle On in Cheltenham’s Shloer Chase last month when debuting for Paul Nicholls. A market drifter here, his jumping lacked fluency and a crucial mistake when still leading two out, Nube Negra breathing down his neck, had an element of inevitability about it. He’d even surrendered second to the gritty Altior approaching the last. It is now plainly evident that he is not quite top class.

The fall of Sceau Royal at the fifth was shocking – as I exclaimed to my TV at the time – as it was his first in 34 starts over obstacles. It’s simply not something he does and came two fences after he briefly lost his back legs on landing at the third. His departure appeared to be caused by standing off too far in vain attempt to maintain parity with his old rival, Altior.

Both Rouge Vif and Global Citizen were outclassed. The former’s season has regressed since his bright start in handicap company at Cheltenham. The latter has now worryingly failed to complete his last two starts.

That leaves Altior, who bravely battled his way into second despite struggling to hold his position in the back straight and receiving two reminders to stay in the game as far out as the home turn. A number of factors conspired against him here – his advancing years, a setback-scattered profile in recent seasons, this speed-favouring track and some relatively substantial rivals. All that surely contributed to him drifting in the market beforehand and not being sent off at odds-on for the first time in his last nine starts.

He actually jumped straighter than has been the case at Kempton, his mind concentrated by the scale of the task at hand. Seeing him hanging tough whilst slightly outpaced was also not wholly unfamiliar, if you consider the flat spots he hit in his latest Champion Chase and Game Spirit successes.

The difference here was, however, that he was under pressure at a far earlier stage and plainly labouring. His trademark finishing surge was also wholly absent – yet not for want of trying. Altior has never been a shirker. He didn’t build up a Jumps record of 19 straight wins, including four successive Festival triumphs, without putting in the hard yards. Having looked a banker for third on the home turn here, he grimly regained second on the approach to the last and was gaining on the winner after it.

Yet as ever, in what may come to be considered Altior’s twilight years, it’s separating the signal from the noise that’s preoccupying so many of us. Immediately after the line jockey Nico de Boinville dismounted, later reporting to the stewards that he took this precaution because his horse “appeared to be very tired”. At that stage, a post-race examination by the BHA’s veterinary officer “failed to reveal any abnormalities”.

Later, de Boinville spoke to Nick Luck on Racing TV. “We’re disappointed – who wouldn’t be?” he said. “But we can look at it with a bit of perspective. He hasn’t run for nearly a year and there’s a lot to mull over in the coming days before we make any decisions...

“I don’t think he’s lost anything in defeat because he laid it all out on the table there. We’ll give him the full MOT when he gets home and we won’t make any rash decisions, but decisions will have to be made... he’s given us some absolutely fantastic, wonderful days... that won’t be the last we see of him, anyway.”

Despite that final pay-off line, these comments teetered on the brink of handing Altior his carriage clock, so I’m not really surprised that the retirement question was popped to connections – even if the value and context of what Altior had just done didn’t really merit such a reaction.

“Don’t let’s write off poor old Altior just yet, because I don’t think he’s anywhere near writing off,” Henderson responded. “We sat through these sessions with Sprinter [Sacre] but look what he gave us at the end... If I’d retired him, we wouldn’t have had that emotional rollercoaster of those last two days at Cheltenham – they were two of the great days’ racing we will ever see – so thank goodness we did persevere.

“I’m not going to ask Altior to do it, aged 12. If he hasn't risen above it by then, we’ll have to say thank you and live on memories – but I don’t think we should write him off just because he’s met defeat for the second time in his life [as a jumper].”

Referring to being asked to explain his reasons for withdrawing from the Tingle Creek – since characterised in de Boinville’s Unibet blog as “the over-reaction to us doing the right thing by the horse at Sandown” – Henderson argued that Kempton’s soft ground was against Altior and again raised the factor that seems to weigh heaviest on his mind.

“I go back to Ascot last year, he was almost unconscious at the end of that,” he said. “We got to the bottom, we emptied the bucket that day and the ref was about to count him out. Whether that’s left a scar on him... it’s all about getting his confidence back now.

“He did come back and win the Game Spirit and we were very happy in the run-up to Cheltenham, but I’m the first to admit he hasn’t been galloping all over everything this time around. It’s not until you turn him into a fence, then he takes off and you know he must be all right – it’s still all there.”

If Henderson is the first to admit this, it must have been within his circle because this was the first time I’d heard him say it in public. For good measure, he also mentioned it on Racing TV on the same day.

“When you put a fence in front of him at home, he is genuinely as good as he ever was. He’s off and gone. He comes up from crazy places,” Henderson told Nick Luck. “Two or three years ago, I would have said this horse works like you could run him in the King's Stand, not the Champion Chase, but I’d probably say he doesn’t work like that [now].

“In that sense, I think he probably has got older, wiser and more sensible. He’s not as naturally fast in flat work as he was. But he’s been doing it for a long time now.”

After the race, de Boinville agreed that he recognised what Henderson had meant. “Sure. That’s what we’ve been seeing at home and that’s what we saw here today. I was just niggling from going past the stands, even.”

So, we all left Kempton knowing that bit more about Altior than we have done for the past year or so. We discovered that he’s lost a bit of speed and doesn’t work as well as he once did, but that the competitive fire still burns brightly within and that both trainer and jockey believe it is worth persevering.

Many of us, of course, had discerned much of this by noting the gap between warm words and absent actions, but it’s helpful for racing fans to be trusted with such insights first-hand and to have the opportunity to weigh them accordingly.

“He’s got to run again if he’s going to get to Cheltenham,” Henderson said, in conclusion. “He’ll have to come back and do something in the Game Spirit. I was rather thinking that might suit Shishkin, but I might need it for Altior.”

Yet that wasn’t the end of it. The following morning, Henderson spoke to the Nick Luck Daily podcast and revealed that preliminary investigations had produced an unsatisfactory scope and evidence of a possible underlying bug. These as-yet-unconfirmed suspicions were also cited as a retrospectively good reason for not running at Sandown.

“We had him scoped and we have reason to continue investigation,” he said. “We need to do a trachea wash, which then needs to go to the laboratory. Simon Knapp [Henderson’s vet] said he wouldn’t be surprised if we find there was something amiss. We scoped him Christmas Eve and he was 100 per cent clean, but 48 hours is a long time in a horse’s life.”

It’s not uncommon for a horse to produce an unsatisfactory scope immediately after a race and Henderson later elaborated that “there was some mucus in his scope, but there always is after a race, which brings everything up from the bottom of their lungs”.

“You seldom get a zero scope, whereas when we’re scoping at home you hope they are all zeroes,” he said. “He has got a bit dreamier in his races – that is a bit of age and a bit of this and that. For all the world it looked as though he wanted two-and-a-half miles because he finished his race very well.”

That sounds a lot like Henderson considering cheekpieces and/or stepping Altior up in trip. The radio alarm had just clicked to 6am at the time he said it, waking him to Sonny and Cher singing I Got You Babe. “I haven’t really thought about the Ryanair,” he added.

I don’t need to see the lavish breakfasts, the robbery, the poncho or the truck heist – nor the inevitable high-speed car chase, with de Boinville and Charlie Morlock squeezed in the passenger seat. Hold the coffee. I know how this story ends.

Santa was clearly feeling generous when making his list for Jonathan Moore. Not only did the jockey ride a progressive young stayer in the Leopardstown Christmas Hurdle, but he was also gifted eight lengths’ start over his rivals.

He didn’t need to be checking that twice – he thanked them and made off with a Grade One on Flooring Porter.

It’s not as if the winning combination hadn’t advertised their modus operandi – they did the same when winning a Navan handicap by 12 lengths from a mark of 136 earlier in the month. It’s just that nobody with the power to do anything about it believed the horse was remotely good enough to make the leap in class and maintain his lead to the line.

Most of the jockeys were probably expecting Rachael Blackmore to be up there, too, on board French Dynamite – or at least to bridge the gap to the ‘real’ contenders. They’d made the running the previous twice but got beaten by Sire Du Berlais that way in the Lismullen Hurdle. While all these thoughts were percolating, Flooring Porter eased further clear.

Moore was then able to conserve his mount’s energy by slowing down, still with a comfortable lead, so when his rivals had inched closer approaching two out, he was able to kick and catch them leaden-footed. Apart from that brief moment after the last when he lurched left before being straightened with the help of the rail, Flooring Porter never actually looked in danger.

This horse will only turn six years of age in 2021, but he gained extensive experience as a novice and has been steadily improving since – especially when stepped up to staying trips. This was a big ask but you have to take your opportunities when they’re presented to you and that’s what Moore did. He’s now tricked them twice, so you’d doubt he’ll be given free lengths again.

Yet that’s not to discount the idea of Flooring Porter improving again – age and canny trainer, Gavin Cromwell, are on his side. This is the franchise that produced the much-missed Espoir D’Allen to win a Champion Hurdle by 15 lengths at the age of five, after all. But once you unpick the tactics of this race, the bare form needs upping.

The Storyteller had been choicely campaigned by Gordon Elliott to win four of his last five starts, three of them over fences, and he was ridden with similar assurance by Denis O’Regan here, picking up the pieces steadily from after two out. There wasn’t much between him and Sire Du Berlais at Cheltenham last March and, at a glance, there wasn’t again here.

But whereas The Storyteller has been busy since late summer, his stable companion is being explicitly aimed at the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle – over a course-and-distance at which he’s twice been triumphant in the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle.

On the last occasion, his time compared favourably with the main event winner, Lisnagar Oscar, and 12 months earlier it was pretty much identical to that of Paisley Park. He’s a thorough stayer, who likes a gallop but doesn’t completely lack versatility – as demonstrated in his Grade Two success at Navan last time, when he cut down the leaders from (for him) an unlikely position.

Here, he would not have been suited by the race developing into a sprint from two out – tactics that can disable a stayer’s main assets, even when tactically pressing on might be the right thing to do. Moreover, while I can understand why the fierce competitor in Mark Walsh sought to box Sean Flanagan in on Fury Road approaching that hurdle, if I’ve backed either horse (which I hadn’t) it’s not something I want to see.

In my opinion, that sort of roughhousing is only slightly more unhelpful to the victim than the perpetrator because, as in this case, it usually commits the latter to making his move sooner and more suddenly than he would otherwise choose.

Given all these details, plus Sire Du Berlais’s Cheltenham record and the fact that we know what his Festival target will be, I was surprised to see him pushed out to 10/1 for the Stayers’ Hurdle. He was even 12/1 in a place for a while. That’s longer than he began the season and that makes him worth a bet, in my book. Throw in Gordon Elliott’s relatively subdued – by his standards – festive haul and we have ourselves an inviting overreaction.

As the closest-positioned horse to the winner for much of this race, Fury Road should have ended up with more in his favour but he got trapped against the rail and was hampered prior to sticking on. He’s better than this bare form, too, and last year’s Albert Bartlett third shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand, as 20/1 rather suggests. However, Bacardys and Bapaume, who’ve both hit the frame in Stayers’ Hurdles past, ran poorly.

Prior to Christmas, Ascot served up a smasher of a contest that by no means disappointed. It was Round II of Thyme Hill v. Paisley Park, with the mare Roksana and fast-progressive Main Fact thrown in free. Sadly, former Stayers’ Hurdle and King George VI Chase winner Thistlecrack missed this comeback opportunity due to falling lame after the declaration stage.

Thyme Hill had received 3lbs from his main rival when beating him by a length and a half in Newbury’s Long Distance Hurdle in November but – like last term’s Albert Bartlett, in which he finished fourth – that was a steadily run affair. This was not. And the chief protagonists met at level weights.

The Worlds End, gifted this race last season due to withdrawals and misjudgements, has always looked happiest when making the running and was allowed to do so here, on his first start for Olly Murphy. Portrush Ted, the other potential pacesetter once Lil Rockerfeller was withdrawn at the declaration stage, was given a more patient ride on the wide outside and ultimately weakened disturbingly quickly the instant the pace cranked up a gear.

That’s what Jonjo O’Neill Jnr asked The Worlds End to do on the downhill stretch towards five out, making it a drawn-out test of stamina from that point. Prior to this, I had been wondering about whether Thyme Hill was more suited by relative speed tests but he clearly stayed and was not beaten for that reason.

But beaten, he was – and in circumstances that make the case for him turning around the form at Cheltenham with Paisley Park harder to make than for the status quo. Afterwards, Aidan Coleman was thanking his mount for bringing him back from “the brink of disaster” as he allowed Roksana to nip up the winner’s inside entering the home turn, shuffling his mount back to second last.

Of course, he lacked the tactical speed to hold his slot but it is remarkable that Paisley Park was then able to win this from the position from which he began his charge in the straight, having received reminders as far back as the home turn. Even at the last, he’d only hauled himself into fourth but he’d engaged his afterburners by then and gamely ran Thyme Hill down.

For Thyme Hill, you can argue that he’ll do better as a stayer if learning to race less animatedly in the early stages. He’s also a bit airy at his hurdles and, from a tactical perspective, was needlessly asked long three out and got checked for his troubles on landing.

In the straight, Richard Johnson delayed his challenge as he ranged up alongside the solid Younevercall but, having played stalker round the bend Roksana was trying to mount a challenge, so he made his move at the last. Having got the lead, Johnson then clearly felt Thyme Hill idling under him, but in an empty racecourse, everyone could hear him scream. Thyme Hill rallied slightly for vocal encouragement as Paisley Park sailed past, but the gap was widening at the line.

Johnson will therefore be fighting his innately forward instincts in an attempt to hit the front later at Cheltenham – something that the New Course very much demands that you should do anyway. That’s surely his best option because I can’t see him being able to slow the gallop to disadvantage Paisley Park, as Thyme Hill wouldn’t want to lead himself and would need the rest of the field telepathically to collude in a dawdling pace.

Maybe this and all the other opportunities for marginal gains I’ve listed could add up to success, but I doubt it. I certainly don’t like it at 4/1 relative to Paisley Park’s 3/1. They’re too close together.

After this creditable third, it is surely now a truth universally acknowledged (red light NOT illuminated for irony this time) that Roksana is better at three miles than shorter. The Liverpool Hurdle is surely her primary target – where she may meet her narrow conqueror of two seasons ago, Ifthecapfits, if how much he hated chasing in the Kauto Star is anything to go by.

Main Fact – placed to win nine races on the bounce, Flat and hurdles, by trainer David Pipe, found this one question too many and was the first beaten.

Something was eating Epatante. I didn’t clock it while I was at Kempton for Racing TV on the day, but I later saw it via the ITV Racing shots of her shaking her head agitatedly on the walkway, out from the paddock and onto the track.

This was a change to her usual demeanour – the kind of information that people paddock-watch for, back in the halcyon days when this was permitted – and presaged a below-par run.

Yet true though this is, the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle focus belongs to Evan Williams and Adam Wedge, who conceived and executed a set of game-changing tactics that turned this race upside down. The rising-eight Silver Streak had never before made the running for this yard, although he used to tug his way into the lead a long way out in his early days when refusing to settled. He once led on the Flat for his previous trainer, Ann Duffield, but that was over six furlongs!

It’s quite remarkable – what he started out as and what he now is – and, again, take a bow, Evan Williams. At Kempton, Silver Streak took a good but not unmanageable hold during his unchallenged lead and this carefully-laid plan was amplified by Wedge’s reactiveness when Epatante made an uncharacteristic mistake at the third last.

Hearing one of his pursuers crash through it and correctly deducing it was the favourite, Wedge nudged his mount to extend his lead exiting the back straight. It meant Epatante had to work hard to get near Silver Streak’s heels at two out – and that was the closest she got.

The winner may have started life as a sprinter-miler, but he has come to be a thoroughly likeable, professional and consistent performer who stays two miles strongly. Jonathan Neesom, Racing TV’s Boxing Day pundit at Kempton, is a big fan of the horse and he maintains that a sounder surface – which that track comparatively provides in winter – is also important.

I also wondered whether a horse who’s been second as often as Silver Streak – admittedly at the highest grade – was also suited by making his own running rather than being asked to run on pass horses. Whatever, you would think his connections would be minded to deploy him similarly in the Champion Hurdle – a Faugheen-like ride, if you will. Make no mistake, this was a career best – yes, even on his 25th start over hurdles – and he is a live place player at 12/1.

Beforehand, I had expected Ballyandy or Floressa to make the running but they were both content to let Silver Streak get on with it. This was surely to the former’s disadvantage and he produced a lesser performance than his three preceding, slightly improved starts. Floressa didn’t build at all on her seasonal debut on this first start in deep.

Which brings us back to her stable-companion Epatante, who fluffed the first and walked through three out in a manner utterly estranged from her usual deadly accuracy. A year ago, she beat Silver Steak by five lengths; this time, she was six-and-a-half lengths in his debt. Clearly, she was well below her best and, when beaten, rider Aidan Coleman spared her a hard time from the last.

The following morning, speaking to Nick Luck on his daily podcast, trainer Nicky Henderson acknowledged the mare’s troubling pre-race demeanour. “She was doing an awful lot of head-shaking and a lot of people noticed it, particularly going down to the start,” he said. You know, something was getting at her – no doubt about it at all.”

Asked whether Epatante could have been in season, Henderson replied: “That is being investigated, yes... Some horses it doesn’t affect, some it does. But that wasn’t her. She was technically beaten before the mistake and she didn’t give [Coleman] the feel at all. Take nothing away from the winner – he set a proper gallop – but that shouldn’t have worried her. She has got all the pace in the world.”

It’s highly unlikely we will get to see Epatante again before Cheltenham and learn whether this was a blip or something more concerning. She had been pushed out from something like 6/4 to a still-available 9/4 at the time of writing and it’s unlikely she’ll get any bigger than that between now and the minutes before the Champion Hurdle, when her wellbeing will likely be expressed via the medium of betting.

“I’d be surprised if Epatante runs before Cheltenham,” Henderson confirmed. “We didn’t last year and I see no reason to run her again. I’m perfectly happy with both of these horses [meaning also Altior] and that we know – that we have evidence – that there are reasons behind it.”

This sounds like a man who believes he knows what the problem with Epatante was – and therefore how to put it right. You’ll recall that Binocular, also trained by Henderson in the colours of JP McManus, took a trip to Ireland for a bone scan prior to his resurrective 2010 Champion Hurdle success, despite having been written off – even by his trainer – and drifting to 999/1 on Betfair’s betting exchange.

We are not in this territory. It doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination that Epatante will bounce back after one below-par run. Punters will have to take that on trust, however.

Three days later in Ireland, the horse who ran Epatante closest in her pomp of last season made a winning return in the Matheson Hurdle. This was the third time on the bounce that Sharjah had triumphed in this Grade One contest and it was probably the best of them.

He travelled strongly in his usual position in rear and was produced at the last – the only obstacle he slightly fluffed – upsides stablemate Saint Roi, and then ran down long-time leader Aspire Tower shortly afterwards. As his rider Patrick Mullins observed afterwards, Sharjah had the best form and it was up to the younger horses to try to improve past him.

He’s likely to head to the Irish Champion Hurdle next – where he was well beaten last season – and then on to Cheltenham and a challenge his rider is relishing. If his mount is a shade better than last season and Epatante is even slightly off her game, let alone her Kempton level, it’s one hell of a rematch – and yet Sharjah is a long-looking 8/1.

“I’d love another go at the Champion Hurdle,” Patrick Mullins said afterwards. “It was a big field last year and when you’re riding a horse that has to drop out, that puts you three or four lengths further back than you should be.

“In a normal year for the Champion Hurdle with a smaller field, I should be able to be closer for nothing. And does that get me past Epatante? Maybe it does. I have to believe it does, anyway.”

Aspire Tower stuck on for second and continued his steady trajectory of improvement, but he’s going to have to brush up his jumping. He seemed to have a good technique in juvenile company last season – before the wheels fell off with his February fall onwards – but made critical mistakes at two of the final three flights here.

Doughty near-veteran Petit Mouchoir was not asked to lead on his first start for Gordon Elliott and new owners Noel and Valerie Moran. He lost his position approaching the second last but rallied all the time in the straight to chin Saint Roi for third. Team Mullins all clearly expected more from the latter, last term’s County Hurdle winner, but he is yet to prove himself in this class.

Stable-companion Saldier, having his first start for 409 days, surprised Paul Townend by being keen and pulled himself through to press Aspire Tower at an early stage, only to have nothing left late on. Mullins observed that the horse’s demeanour is “quite the opposite” at home and, in the context of a horse who’s only managed to get to the track once in each of the past two seasons, professed himself happy with that run. Saldier just needs to continue to pull out sound.

Elliott has reported that Abacadabras came back with mucus in his lung and it was interesting to note that the horse wore a first-time tongue-tie, after pulling himself up suddenly in front when apparently coming to win smoothly at Punchestown on his previous start. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that his breathing will be tweaked prior to Cheltenham, where I still expect him to run well. 16/1 is a fair each-way price if you like him.

Finally, this is the time of year when we need to beware of switchers. I’m going to give this further thought because the two horses who immediately came to mind as potential discipline changers from chasing to hurdling – last year’s Supreme third Chantry House and the 2019 winner Klassical Dream – come with readymade objections.

The former because Henderson and McManus already have both Epatante and (hopefully) Buveur D’Air in this division and the latter because I’m told chasing remains the plan after a “minor” muscle problem caused him to miss his Christmas engagement.

Concertista is very nearly already a dual Cheltenham Festival winner, having won the Grade Two Daylesford Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle last season and been nutted on the line in the same race on – remarkably – her hurdling debut 12 months earlier.

On the evidence of her Grade Three success at Leopardstown over Christmas, she’s still improving. Held up in mid-division, she started making her move from the last in the back straight, ranged alongside leader Minella Melody – stable companion to Mares’ Hurdle titleholder Honeysuckle – approaching the last and straightforwardly drew away on landing.

Willie Mullins reflected that Concertista had disappointed him in the early part of last season, so the team had changed her training regime and it had quickly borne fruit. Now, he wonders whether she might still have also been growing at the time because she’s a big, rangy mare.

Hopes that Mullins might pitch her into the Champion Hurdle seem far-fetched, especially as she looked very comfortable at 2m4f here and even her Cheltenham form is on the stamina-testing New Course rather than the sharp Old Course, which hosts the Champion Hurdle.

Her trainer will doubtless also reason that she appears at this stage to have one key rival to beat among the mares, as opposed to a whole host of geldings and Epatante in the open Grade One. He will always play that percentage game. It’s served him well, after all.

_Selections: _

Advised 02/12/20: Zanahiyr at 5/1 (general) for the JCB Triumph Hurdle