Road To Cheltenham: Bravemansgame puts down an early marker

Buckle up for another journey around the racecourses of Britain and Ireland in pursuit of the best horseracing action all Jumps season long. We’re on The Road again. Listener warning: Ruby’s falsetto here has been known to crack binoculars.

We’re sticking with the established chasers in this week’s column – to be found here, along with back issues, every Wednesday – but a handful of notable hurdling performances and an in-depth look at the nascent novice-chasing division will follow in tomorrow’s Road To Cheltenham show.

Make sure you join us, please, this and every Thursday night on Racing TV at 9pm. Think of us as a comforting beacon of hope and familiarity in an increasingly alienating world of darkness. Or something to watch with your curry. Whichever, let’s kick on.

There is already plenty to go at in this division, with an encouraging sophomore performance from Bravemansgame in the Charlie Hall and sometime wunderkind Envoi Allen repositioning himself as a staying chaser in Down Royal’s Champion Chase. Contrastingly, both Ahoy Senor and Galvin were rocked back to square one as a result of thumping defeats in those respective races. Yet how much enduring meaning can be derived from these early skirmishes?

The King George is logically this season’s primary target for Bravemansgame following his fluent success over Kempton’s course and distance at the same fixture in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase last Christmas. Hence, you would reasonably have expected him to be more attuned for his seasonal debut than Ahoy Senor, whose most suitable ultimate target is the Cheltenham Gold Cup. That proved emphatically the case, even if Paul Nicholls’ subsequent comments appeared to temper such predictions.

Bravemansgame’s jumping technique is impeccable at its best and so it proved at Wetherby – the kind of flat track that suits his style ideally. Once Ahoy Senor – who’d raced over-exuberantly and jumped negligently – lost the lead to Paint The Dream at the start of the final circuit, the rest of the race became merely a question of when Harry Cobden would ask his mount for his winning effort.

As it happened, he didn’t even need to do that as Bravemansgame joined the leader on the bridle and remained on it as his rivals came under pressure. He was ultimately shaken up to surge clear approaching the last and won by three-and-a-half lengths.

Eldorado Allen shaped well for future targets just below the highest level when staying on into second, and trainer Joe Tizzard was prompted to conclude he would be ridden “more aggressively” over three miles in future.

Mudlark handicapper Sam Brown picked up where he left off, third place here resembling his career-best performance in victory at Aintree’s Grand National meeting last April. Race-fit Paint The Dream was below peak form and Ahoy Senor trailed in 40 lengths adrift of the winner.

Yet in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree last April, Ahoy Senor walloped Bravemansgame by 30 lengths, Brown Advisory hero L’Homme Presse by 18 lengths and Irish Grade One winner Fury Road – of whom, more later – by five. Bravemansgame has since undergone a breathing operation since that uncharacteristically scrappy round of jumping, when both keen to post and in running, and placed on a diet to address a stomach-ulcer problem.

“Since he came back in, I’ve not been rushing him and we’ve done things slightly differently as we have to try to have him as good in the spring as I hope he’ll be in the first half of the season,” Nicholls asserted in his post-Wetherby Racing Post stable tour, with a nod to the fact Bravemansgame’s form has tailed off in the latter part of his last two seasons.

While Cheltenham’s undulations can be blamed for exaggerating his losing margin behind Bob Olinger in the 2021 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, however, it’s harder to imagine the primary factor in Bravemansgame’s Aintree eclipses – both courtesy of Ahoy Senor – did not primarily hinge on ability. But that is Nicholls’ argument, further bolstered by the claim that the horse had recoiled from being primed for the Festival yet not running due to the heavy rain.

Trainer Lucinda Russell ascribed Ahoy Senor’s disconcerting comeback to being “just too enthusiastic… like a kid at a party”, citing his seasonal debut in a Carlisle intermediate chase – when unseating Derek Fox with a sprawling error two out – last season as further evidence that he improves with racing. Certainly, his mercurial jumping became more assured with match practice last term.

There is enough in this theory to reserve judgment on his Gold Cup credentials until his next outing – likely to be Aintree’s Many Clouds Chase as he’s been removed from the Coral Gold Cup Handicap Chase (formerly the Hennessy). A positive ride at a sustained good pace on Cheltenham’s more suitably galloping New Course is surely what Ahoy Senor was born for.

Such a scenario would also ask a different question of the Gold Cup winner, A Plus Tard, who powered away from a homogenous bunch of rivals in March after the pace of the race had slowed markedly in the second half.

At Kempton, Bravemansgame will also face a wholly different test when pitched against the brilliant but relentless pace of Allaho, who emphatically proved himself over three miles in a deep edition of the Punchestown Gold Cup last April.

Envoi Allen is now unbeaten in four starts at Down Royal, the venue at which his campaign has been launched for as many seasons. This was the least one-sided contest by some way, as odds ranging from 4/11 to 1/14 for his previous course successes instantly betray. Strong in the market against worthy graded-class opponents for the Ladbrokes Champion Chase last Saturday, he succeeded in a career-best on just his second attempt beyond 2m5f.

First, the positives. He travelled strongly, jumped well enough – albeit he landed awkwardly to his left when switched two out, causing him to hang that way on the run to the last until corrected by Rachael Blackmore – and stayed well. He’s unexposed at this trip and has booked his place in the King George alongside Cheveley Park Stud’s more devastating weapon, the aforementioned dual Ryanair hero Allaho, as subsequently confirmed by director Richard Thompson.

Yet the sum of his four beaten rivals adds up to not much in the context of the season’s top-class chases that await.

With cheekpieces reapplied and after reportedly slipping into a couple of early obstacles, runner-up Kemboy eventually produced a better round of jumping than is often the case but last season’s form suggested a horse starting on the downgrade. The next stop for him is the Savills Chase over Christmas at Leopardstown – a course at which he consistently runs better than most.

Third-placed Conflated shaped well on his seasonal debut, undermining the argument he needs to race left-handed and putting him bang on course for the Savills, over the course where he recorded his speed-favouring success in last term’s Irish Gold Cup.

But stablemate and favourite Galvin disappointed in a race described beforehand by trainer Gordon Elliott as “his Gold Cup”. An ill-timed blunder six out, just as Kemboy pressed on, didn’t help but uniquely in this contest he had race-fitness on his side. The Grand National, his original target last season until early results persuaded connections to re-route to the Gold Cup, looks a more realistic long-term goal.

Beacon Edge, graduating into open company for the first time after failing to maintain a place at the top table as a novice last season, was the first beaten. A blunder at the second saw him on the back foot from an early stage and he is still unproven at three miles, but he seems unlikely to cut it as a Grade One chaser on this evidence. His jumping isn’t surefooted enough.

Thus, Envoi Allen is now fourth favourite for Kempton’s Christmas Grade One and will need to raise his game considerably again. Blackmore’s post-race comment that “he’s a funny horse that can come on and off the bridle, and you are constantly trying not to light him up too early” wasn’t the sort of tribute that should trouble fans of his more illustrious stablemate, A Plus Tard.

Also lining up for the King George will be its 2020 winner Frodon, whose victory in last Saturday’s Badger Beer Chase brought the crowds running from the grandstand to cheer him and rider Bryony Frost into the winner’s enclosure.

Paul Nicholls had rerouted him from Down Royal to Wincanton, tempted by the sounder surface and a 6lb drop in the ratings since his Ultima defeat last March when struck into at the first and unable to get to the lead before being steadily swallowed up on the inside. His primary instruction to Frost on seasonal debut was to get a clear run.

So, positioned on the outer, Frodon was always prominent and then left in a solo lead when El Presente made a mistake at the tenth. The famous partnership soon found its characteristic inexorable rhythm and, after being briefly threatened by Lord Accord in the straight until he made a chance-impairing mistake at the last, repelled a field of lesser rivals.

Judiciously campaigned these days, Frodon tends to start his season brightly – as he did this time last year in Northern Ireland’s Champion Chase prior to three lesser efforts, including when setting off far too fast in last year’s King George. He’d also undergone a second breathing operation prior to curtain-up this season.

Nicholls had warned in his Racing Post stable tour that Frodon is now “ten rising eleven”, adding that “whether he’s as good as he was, we’ll know when he runs”. This victory suggests he is, granted the right circumstances – but it’s hard to believe those will be found in a race likely to be dominated by Allaho, at least initially and quite probably throughout. Frost dictated a stop-start pace at Kempton two years ago; this year’s edition will surely be conducted at full gas from the outset.

Stablemate Clan Des Obeaux, a dual King George winner and better than his margin of defeat when second last year, won’t be joining him. He’s currently undergoing box rest after damaging a suspensory tendon. A scan early in the new year will determine whether he comes back for the Betfair Bowl at Aintree next April or sits out the entire season.

However, Nicholls may yet have another card to play at Kempton in the shape of Hitman, who “thrilled” him by finishing second to a revivified Riders Onthe Storm in Aintree’s Old Roan Chase last month after his third bout of wind surgery. Mind you, the spin his trainer put on that success was worthy of the late Shane Warne.

“It was his first run back following a summer breathing operation and represented another career best, just failing to concede 20lb to a Grade 1 winner, who was well treated,” the trainer told the Racing Post, events of almost three years ago clearly on instant recall.

That said, given Nicholls’ style of eking the best out of his horses over a number of seasons, you still wouldn’t dismiss his hope that – if placed with characteristic judiciousness – Hitman is indeed “a Grade One winner waiting to happen” given he’s still just six years of age.

“The way he’s been staying on over two-and-a-half miles suggests he might be well suited by stepping up to three,” Nicholls added. “To me, this horse is the mirror image of Frodon and Clan, in that they were also running big races at his age without winning, but look what they have gone on to achieve.”

Gordon Elliott believes Fury Road is best fresh and, although past results don’t fully bear out this theory, the horse did win a Down Royal Grade Two on his seasonal debut last Saturday. A market drifter running over a trip well shy of his optimum, it was on the line that he finally got the better of the too-keen mare Delvino – who nonetheless ran right up to her best, in receipt of 18lbs from the winner, on her first start since returned to Dermot McLoughlin’s stable.

Vanillier was under pressure from some way out and still hasn’t yet learned to attack a fence, albeit he was decidedly less hesitant than he once was. Operated on for a kissing spine after a spin back over hurdles at Punchestown last April, perhaps this experience will convince him the demands of jumping are no longer causing him discomfort. He’ll need stepping up markedly in trip, though.

Fighter Allen, a full-brother to Envoi Allen, was somehow sent off favourite here but ballooned several obstacles and finished a distant last of four. Paul Townend reported the race was needed and trainer Willie Mullins plans to step him up in trip.

This was an encouraging return for Fury Road, who won the Grade One Neville Hotels Novice last Christmas and chased Ahoy Senor all the way home at Aintree, despite beforehand crashing through some railing and afterwards showing signs of post-race ataxia.

Since he threw away the Drinmore last November, cheekpieces have focussed his effort. In getting in too close to the last here, he gave Delvino another chance and could easily have chucked victory away but instead kept going. Much more will be required to hit the mark in open Grade One company, however.

The next pieces of this jigsaw will be laid down on Saturday week when, against a mere handful of rivals headed by Gold Cup third Protektorat and fifth Royale Pagaille, A Plus Tard attempts to reprise last term’s brilliant Betfair Chase success. L’Homme Presse – reported not to have had the best post-Festival preparation for Aintree last April – makes his return in Ascot’s Chanelle Pharma 1965 Chase that same day.

Interestingly, in her Racing Post stable tour, trainer Venetia Williams observed that L’Homme Pressé has “always struck me as a three-miler, but I think he can be flexible on distance and can do shorter”. That opens up the notion that she may not see the more rigorous stamina test of the Gold Cup as his only Festival option. But that’s months away.

Conversely, as if the presence of stablemate Allaho in the Ryanair was not deterrent enough, any notion that Galopin Des Champs is anything other than a Gold Cup prospect in Willie Mullins’ mind have been allayed. “I never had a worry about the Gold Cup distance for him,” he told the Racing Post. “I’d be fairly worried about Allaho getting the trip, but I’m not at all worried about Galopin Des Champs. I have that sort of faith in him.”

Where he begins his campaign is more of a conundrum, with the John Durkan positioned only 17 days prior to the Savills Chase and 21 days prior to the Savills New Year’s Day Chase in this season’s calendar, perhaps suggesting Galopin Des Champs’ subsequent target might be the at the Dublin Racing Festival.

However, Henry de Bromhead has indicated the 2021 Gold Cup winner and last year’s runner-up, Minella Indo, will play the part of now-retired dual winner Al Boum Photo at Tramore.

Scintillating Allaho sets a daunting standard for those intent on the Cheltenham Festival, but there are many more races to be won in this division on both sides of the Irish Sea – and possibilities more tangible than L’Homme Presse have already been mentioned in despatches. It’s not even inconceivable that Shishkin could wind up here, given he was once second favourite for the 2022 King George… but we’ll save that debate for another time.

Alan King says Edwardstone’s clash with Nube Negra in Sunday’s Shloer Chase at Cheltenham should help him to determine whether to step up last season’s Arkle hero in trip. “He has a lot of stamina in his pedigree and, now he’s relaxing, he’ll definitely get the longer trip” he told the Racing Post. “He’s never been over-raced and may improve again this season.”

Seven months of cushioning has not persuaded King to err from his immediate post-race analysis that his stable star was only slightly below his best when beaten by Gentleman De Mee at Aintree last April – a highly rational view. “He was beaten by a sharper horse who was better suited by that track – he beat the third and fourth as well as he’d been doing all season,” he observed.

Other graduates from the novice ranks are less certain. Bob Olinger, who made an underwhelming transition to fences last season and only inherited the Turners Chase at the Festival due to Galopin Des Champs’s spectacular departure at the last, is starting his season over hurdles against Flooring Porter at Navan this Saturday. The plan at this stage is to stick to the smaller obstacles in the hope of relighting his fire.

Millers Bank, winner of the Grade One Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree, has already twice been sighted this season – carelessly unseating his rider at the first in the Old Roan and then failing by a steadily diminishing half-length to reel in the novice Beauport – to whom he was conceding 12lbs – in last month’s 2m4f Intermediate Chase at Carlisle.

Next stop for Millers Bank is Huntingdon’s Peterborough Chase, where he could meet Pic D’Orhy, who was denied a run due to the weather conditions at Sandown last Sunday. The same race could conceivably become a target for War Lord, who got outpaced when Greaneteen quickened away exiting the back straight in the Haldon Gold Cup pace and then stayed on for a 21-length third.

We never got to find out how good talented hurdler My Drogo ultimately was over fences last term – and we’ll have to wait a while to find out more. A comfortable winner at Cheltenham last December but perhaps best remembered for his last-fence exit when slipping on landing in a two-horse race there the previous month, he was sidelined weeks later with a tendon injury.

Although trainer Dan Skelton reported early last month that My Drogo had entered pre-training with Polly Gundry, he didn’t sound conspicuously confident of a swift return. “We are going to have to be patient with him,” he said. “He is phenomenally talented and we have got to make sure when he comes back to the track he is in as robust condition as he could possibly be. Hopefully, he could be back for the spring but you have to be sure with a leg injury.”

Haut En Couleurs promised much at the start of last season, too, and trainer Willie Mullins plans to step him up in trip this time, but he failed to cut it at Grade One level in three attempts as a novice over fences. His fragile but talented stable companion Jungle Boogie – “a huge horse with a huge engine” – is another for this division, but with only a trio of starts to his name at the age of eight, it’s no surprise Mullins says he’s “hard to keep right”.

The Closutton trainer intends to be “more adventurous” with Chacun Pour Soi this season, however. “We’ve always kept him to two miles because he’s such a good jumper but I think at this stage in his career I’ll go out in trip with him,” he said. “We could make more use of him over two-and-a-half miles or two-and-three-quarters – maybe even three miles.”

Now ten years of age, Chacun Pour Soi has not yet ventured beyond 2m2f but underwhelmed last season, bar for bossing inferiors and an injured Greaneteen in the Dublin Chase. A weak finisher to the eye – albeit, at his best, he broke his opposition with a powerful mid-race move – the added complication is whether he retains the ability to feature in his new top-level assignments.

Of the more established horses in this division, Fakir D’Oudairies could be relied upon last season when not encountering Allaho, adding two Grade Ones to his tally. His latest campaign pivots on attempting a third Marsh (a.k.a. Melling) Chase at Aintree, via a clash with his old adversary in next week’s Clonmel Oil Chase and defending his Ascot Chase crown in February.

Another stalwart of this division was in action over hurdles at Aintree last Saturday. The admirable Dashel Drasher didn’t need to be anywhere near his best to see off Voix De Reve and Langer Dan, but he showed he’s still willing in a scrap. His task was made easier when maddening odds-on favourite, Brewin’upastorm – relieved of cheekpieces but running for the first time since a third operation to correct his breathing – jinked left at the first flight and unseated his rider.

Trainer Jeremy Scott indicated that the Grade One Ascot Chase, in which Dashel Drasher was pulled up on his previous outing but had won with a career-best effort in 2021, is the primary target of this campaign. With Ascot’s Chanelle Pharma 1965 Chase on Saturday week coming too soon, instead he’s next going to dabble in the staying-hurdle division.

It's an option worth pursuing since the now-nine-year-old registered a best-yet performance over the smaller obstacles when winning a Newbury handicap hurdle off a mark of 149 last December. He is as yet untested at three miles, however.

We should know more about some key novice graduates for this discipline after Edwardstone has been pitted against Nube Negra in Cheltenham’s Shloer Chase on Sunday, and Gentleman De Mee and fragile stablemate Ferny Hollow have contested either the Poplar Square or Fortria Chases in Ireland this weekend.

Their stable companion Blue Lord will have to fit in later because he was entered in neither event, contrary to the plan pencilled in via Willie Mullins’ Racing Post stable tour. Unlike Haut En Couleurs and Saint Sam, with whom he contested the top two-mile novice events for his trainer in the absence of Ferny Hollow, he is still considered a “Champion Chase type”.

Yet one more established star has already placed his opening bid on the table. Greaneteen’s fluent Haldon Gold Cup success at Exeter last Friday – in which he gave upwards of 15lbs all round and dished out a seven-length defeat to stable companion, Dolos – was at least as good as his best efforts last season, when making the grade at the highest level.

Pronounced prior to Exeter by trainer Paul Nicholls to be fitter for his seasonal debut than for the same race last season – when he still briefly hit the front approaching four out but was ultimately beaten more than 20 lengths by Eldorado Allen – Greaneteen was ridden accordingly by Harry Cobden. The partnership set off in front, jumping slickly (bar for being untidy at the third last), ratcheted up the pace exiting the back straight and won pretty much unchallenged.

Favourite Third Time Lucki, sporting a first-time tongue-tie, travelled with characteristic zest under an anchoring ride from Harry Skelton but folded quickly after a mistake four out. The accent on stamina was unlikely to suit him as well as the winner, but the immediacy of his capitulation raises concerns that may go deeper than the race conditions and his comparative fitness.

Afterwards, Nicholls reminded all Racing Tv viewers (watch above) that he’d said Greaneteen had been “working better than ever and was stronger than ever” before this reappearance – and nothing about this victory detracted from that assertion. “He’ll go straight to the Tingle Creek now, then we might go to the Champion Chase,” his trainer added. “He was only beaten two lengths in it two years ago and he’s twice the horse now.”

Given Greaneteen is still only eight years of age, again, you couldn’t dismiss that either. He suffered an eye injury when travelling over to Leopardstown for the Dublin Chase last February, necessitating three weeks’ treatment at the vets and causing him to miss Cheltenham. But he came roaring back in Sandown’s Celebration Chase, with Cobden replacing the then-injured Bryony Frost, to beat Sceau Royal by 12 lengths and Nube Negra by 15. Sandown clearly suits him ideally.

It's possible he could encounter Shishkin in the Tingle Creek, as trainer Nicky Henderson has reported him “quietly on course” for that Grade One on the first Saturday in December. A belated starter last term due to “some health problems”, he was imperious in the Desert Orchid against Greaneteen before rallying to beat Energumene in an epic Clarence House.

He checked out prematurely in the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase, stretching awkwardly over the first and being niggled along already on landing. Nico de Boinville persisted, his mount jumping scratchily, only as far as the eighth fence before pulling him up.

“I knew before the first something was amiss and it wasn’t just the ground. A body scan revealed a rare bone condition, which caused intermittent lameness,” Henderson stated in his Racing Post stable tour, before adding the encouraging news that “his latest scans were good and I’m told he’s not prone to it”.

Going into Cheltenham, many – myself included – had concluded that Energumene would do well to reverse his Ascot form with Shishkin, given the latter was proven at the track and the former had suggested he might be better racing right-handed.

After much discussion on how to play the race within the walls of the Closutton Order, Paul Townend changed tactics and dropped Energumene out. However, plans to stalk Shishkin rather than lead him also had to be thrown out of the window mid-race when it became palpable that rival would pose no threat on this occasion. The race then further imploded at the very next fence when stablemate Chacun Pour Soi got in too close and unseated Patrick Mullins.

With titleholder Put The Kettle On running as abjectly as the rest of her season, the venerable Politologue finally showing his age (he was retired with a paddock lap of honour post-race) and Nube Negra having been withdrawn due to heavy rain falling on watered ground, there was then little left to beat.

His ultimate eight-and-a-half-length defeat of Funambule Sivola – an improving horse, delivering a career-best – was nonetheless an utterly convincing performance on the eye and also via subsequent sectional analysis. He did hit the second last – a fence that comes up quickly after the left-handed home turn – but he was under no pressure at the time and it scarcely slowed him. Back in a 13-length third, Envoi Allen performed adequately and now looks to need further.

So, the form can be unpicked but not to the extent that undermines Energumene’s huge ability. For those in any doubt, he then humbled Chacun Pour Soi by eight-and-a-half lengths on the latter’s manor in Punchestown’s Champion Chase – shadowing the then-titleholder (who didn’t set a strong pace), putting him under pressure from three out, handing him a brief advantage with a two-out error, but then surging past approaching the last.

In the Anglo-Irish Classifications – agreed between the British and Irish handicapping teams at the end of the last season – Energumene was ranked the joint-third-best chaser with Shishkin on 176, behind Allaho on 177 and A Plus Tard on 180. Other handicappers quibble with that hierarchy – for example, Timeform has Shishkin 181, Energumene 180, Allaho 179 and A Plus Tard 178. Many place Allaho at the top of their tree – and I would agree with them.

Whatever, these are some brilliant horses that the next generation will be seeking to oust from their podiums in the coming months. Energumene resumes in the Grade Two Hilly Way at Cork, scheduled for the weekend after the Tingle Creek this year. I’m looking forward to him already.