Donn McClean: Options Aplenty For McManus's Top Chasers
We used to play a game called Whist when we were kids.
Sometimes you’d pick up your cards and you’d see a few aces a couple of kings and a few queens. You'd then need to figure out the best way to play them.
JP McManus must feel like that now with his staying chasers. The champion owner has myriad options including Fact To File, Spillane’s Tower, Corbetts Cross and Inothewayurthinkin, who were last year’s top staying novice chasers.
You can also put Limerick Lace in there too, as the Mares’ Chase winner is till only seven.
Then there's I Am Maximus, who is still only eight, an Irish Grand National winner and Aintree Grand National winner.
Don’t forget Iroko. He’s a little under the radar and isn’t Impervious due back at some stage soon?
The difficulty comes when you try to split them up, find the best races for each horse, the stepping stones that will steer them through the season and take each horse to the pinnacle of his or her potential.
It’s a delicious difficulty though because, as much as these horses have achieved already, each one of them still has the potential for more.
Fact To File and Spillane’s Tower both returned this season in the John Durkan Chase at Punchestown last month and they finished first and second.
It was a brilliant result for the owner, reward for pitching two of last season’s top staying novices into the Premier League so early in the season.
We didn’t know before then how last year’s novice chasers would measure up against the established brigade. You never do, from one year to the next.
The John Durkan Chase was a deep, deep race this year.
The fact that it was moved back two weeks in the racing calendar, so it is now run the week before the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle meeting at Fairyhouse, not the week after, means that horses can now run in the John Durkan Chase.
There is a big enough gap now for them to run again comfortably at Christmas.
Before last year it was essentially one or the other. John Durkan Chase or Christmas, but the moving of the race in the calendar got the reward that it deserved.
It served up a fantastic race this year and we got our answer, with dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs and dual Punchestown Gold Cup winner Fastorslow finishing third and fourth respectively: the sophomores are up to scratch this year.
So where do Fact To File and Spillane’s Tower go from here?
Neither horse holds an entry in the King George as things stand, but there is the option for the owner to pay the supplementary entry fee and put them into the race on December 20. Either would be a fascinating inclusion.
Spillane’s Tower could be a real player in a King George if he were to take his chance. The Jimmy Mangan-trained gelding had the pace to win the Grade 1 WillowWarm Gold Cup at Fairyhouse over two and a half miles.
Yet he proved that he could stay three miles too when he won the Champion Novice Chase over that trip at the Punchestown Festival.
A flat three miles on good to soft ground could be ideal for him at this stage.
Fact To File could be supplemented. The Poliglote gelding was very good last season in winning the Brown Advisory Chase at the Cheltenham Festival and he took the step into open company in his stride in winning the John Durkan Chase.
He is favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup now in most lists, in front of his stable companion, the reigning champ Galopin Des Champs.
If Spillane’s Tower is supplemented to the King George, then that would leave the Savills Chase at Leopardstown as the obvious race for Fact To File.
Obviously, if Fact To File goes to the King George, Spillane’s Tower has the option of going to Leopardstown.
Or, if the ground came up very soft, he has the option of skipping Christmas, maybe going to the Kinloch Brae Chase at Thurles at the end of January.
Possibly even the Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown in February, before going on to Cheltenham, for the Ryanair Chase or the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Corbetts Cross already holds an entry in the King George and he doesn't need to be supplemented.
Last season’s National Hunt Chase winner, Emmet Mullins’ horse acquitted himself well in Grade 1 company next time when he finished third behind Gerri Colombe and Ahoy Senor in the Aintree Bowl.
He didn’t jump well on his debut this season, however, when Heart Wood beat him at Wexford, and he is going to have to improve his jumping if he is going to be a King George horse.
The Savills Chase might be a better fit for him, although he also has the option of the Grade 3 New Year’s Day Chase at Tramore, the race that Al Boum Photo used to win with metronomic regularity.
He hasn’t won a Grade 1 chase yet, so he would only have to carry a Grade 2 penalty in that race.
Inothewayurthinkin was well beaten in the John Durkan Chase, he is going to have to bounce back, but that was always going to be a big ask for him on his seasonal debut, into the big league.
The Gavin Cromwell-trained gelding was a seriously impressive winner of the Kim Muir at Cheltenham in March, and he took the step into Grade 1 (novice) company in his stride when he stayed on strongly to land the Mildmay Chase at Aintree.
He is only six, so he has bags of scope for progression as a staying chaser.
A handicap rating of 158 tells you that he doesn't have an awful lot to find with the top staying chasers and, if he can improve the fluency of his jumping as he gains more experience, he could take a big step forward.
The Savills Chase is the obvious race for him too over Christmas.
Iroko finished second behind Inothewayurthinkin at Aintree, and he is a little bit of a forgotten horse.
Trained in Britain by Oliver Greenall and Josh Gurriero, the Cokoriko gelding had a truncated time of it last season, running just twice after he had impressed in winning a novices’ chase at Warwick in November last year on his chasing bow.
He ran well too on his debut this season to finish second behind Trelawne in a graduation chase at Haydock over a trip that should have been far too sharp for him.
It looks like the Grand National may be his ultimate aim this season, but he will be of interest on the way there and winner of the Martin Pipe Hurdle in 2023, he could be a lively outsider in the Cheltenham Gold Cup if he is allowed take his chance there.
It looks like I Am Maximus also has the Grand National as his ultimate objective again this season. He was really impressive in winning the race last April, under a masterful ride from Paul Townend.
A 10lb hike for that leaves him on a handicap rating of 169, and that is obviously very high for a Grand National.
Even so, he won with so much in hand last year, it is difficult to argue that he wouldn't have won the race with 10lb more on his back.
He could run in the Savills Chase as well over Christmas. Maybe lead with the King and go from there?
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