Pauling: "last Saturday was one of the worst days of my racing career"

Ben Pauling’s fine season continued at Ascot on Saturday, where The Jukebox Kid starred in a treble for the trainer with victory in the Injured Jockeys Fund Ambassadors Programme Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase.

It was the King George VI triumph of The Jukebox Man that is the highlight of Pauling’s season so far, but his younger stablemate, who was sent off the 4-9 favourite, put in an assured display of jumping in the Grade Two contest to come home a cosy five and a half lengths clear in the hands of Ben Jones.

The Jukebox Kid could now swerve an outing at the Cheltenham Festival, with the Naunton Downs handler eyeing a trip to Ireland to take on the old enemy in their own back yard at Fairyhouse over Easter.

Pauling said: “His jumping is his asset and this horse can be cold early so I was really pleased to see him jump off and attack his fences.

“I was a bit concerned with it being a three-runner race that it could be a muddling affair, but Ben set out to make it and he keeps getting stronger and stronger as the race goes on.

“I don’t think he will go to Cheltenham and maybe a tilt at the Irish National could be on the cards. I think he’s improving, at the right end of the handicap and I think he would stay every yard of the trip.

“As time goes on the more novices take on the more senior handicappers as they are unexposed. The Nationals used to be won by whichever experienced handicapper was right on the day, but now they are won by novices more and it’s certainly a race we will look at.

“He doesn’t always come out of his races brilliantly, he’ll get an entry in the National Hunt Chase, but I wouldn’t be certain he goes to Cheltenham.”

Pauling and Jones had earlier taken the opening Betfair Novices’ Hurdle with exciting prospect Mondoui’boy, who could now be set for his own high-ranking assignments having obliged as the 8-11 favourite.

“He had to take a step forward today and he was very quick in and out,” added Pauling. “Ben has just got off and said he’s a lovely horse for the future.

“Cheltenham is three weeks on Tuesday so we’ll only go there if we think it’s genuinely an option. Ben did get off and say he wouldn’t be going back in trip as he was flat out early doors so I would be leaning towards the three mile rather than the two and a half. Trouble is I can also be stubborn in that I like to keep horses to the shorter trip as long as I can, so we’ll see.

“He finished like a fresh horse and doesn’t look tired now, but we’ll see how he comes out of it. Aintree would be perfect timing, Cheltenham is a question mark and he will tell us when we know how he comes out of this. If we went Aintree on a flat track he would definitely go three miles, I think.”

It was course regular Fiercely Proud (8-1) who brought up the hat-trick in the Betfair Exchange Handicap Hurdle under Kielan Woods, with Pauling delighted not only to eclipse his achievement on this very day two years ago, but also erase the memory of last weekend where he suffered some gut-wrenching reversals.

He said: “It’s great – last Saturday was one of the worst days of my racing career.

“Everything we ran didn’t enjoy it, it was a disaster on bottomless ground. We’re not a yard who operates on desperate ground and they are trained to be classy, quick horses, not sloggers, and last Saturday I was gutted.

“I purposely didn’t run anything this week because the ground has been desperate and we just had to take the opportunities this weekend for the prize-money, so I’m delighted.”