Equinties - calan-japan

Gm Equinauts

Our home track Newbury hosts it’s flat season finale this weekend and then it’s all attention on one race and one race only.

The Coral Gold Cup (or the Hennessy to fellow racing traditionalists) is one of the early-season highlights in the Jumps calendar.

DENMAN, ARKLE, MANDARIN, BOBS WORTH, MANY CLOUDS, ONE MAN, MILL HOUSE, and NATIVE RIVER have all won the race.

That is, quite simply, a great roll of honour.

Only month until the big event and we can’t wait.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

PREP

Will a horse of DENAMAN’s calibre win the Hennessy this year?

Probably not, as to do so, you would be talking about a potential Gold Cup horse. That being said, there are a few exciting chasers who are getting prepared for the £200,000 handicap chase, and they are all having slightly different preparations.

Let’s start with a horse who produced one of the most impressive handicap chase wins of last season: MYRETOWN. He won (absolutely hosed up in) the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival off 127 under Patrick Wadge, and the market knew. He was coming into the race on the back of a similarly impressive Kelso success, and he went off a well-supported 13/2 on the day of the Ultima.

He beat THE CHANGING MAN that day, and he did so by 11 lengths. Take MYRETOWN out of the race, and THE CHANGING MAN wins the race by a comfortable three-and-three-quarter lengths, so that just shows how impressive MYRETOWN was that day. The handicapper also agreed with this assessment, as he chucked him up 15lbs to a mark of 142, so it’s fair to say he was well-handicapped that day.

Keen not to have his mark changed with a run over fences, Peter Scudamore (assistant trainer to Lucinda Russell and his son Michael) is keen to run him over hurdles if the timing/ground is right. He said: “Obviously he is amongst the favourites for the Coral Gold Cup and that’s his aim.

“Whether we take him to Wetherby to run him over hurdles first – I wouldn’t want his mark to change too much before – that’s something in the back of our minds.

“He had a racecourse gallop the other day and he actually went very well. He went with Ahoy Senor and actually went better than Ahoy Senor, which surprised me.

“That’s where we are really. We are on course, it’s just how we get him to the Coral Gold Cup.”

Now, we may have said that we’re pretty sure there are no ‘Gold Cup horses’ lurking in this year’s race, but we might have to back track. If, and this is leaning into the world of hypotheticals here, MYRETOWN is working better than the 162-rated AHOY SENOR, then he must be showing that he is a Graded horse at home. Yes, AHOY SENOR’s rating is probably a bit too inflated based on his good work in previous seasons, but he has run in two Gold Cups and one Ryanair.

MYRETOWN could be a Graded open chaser, and the Hennessy will tell all. So, who else is there to mention on the Coral Gold Cup list? PIC ROC is entered for a 2m4f novice chase at Worcester on Wednesday alongside WENDIGO. Ben Pauling’s plan for this horse is to get a run into him and then head to Newbury for the Coral Gold Cup, so watch for how he runs later this week.

GA LAW could be heading to the Grade 2 Charlie Hall Chase, though he is entered for the Grade 1 BetVictor Champion Chase at Down Royal in early November. He probably isn’t good enough to win either of these fto, but these will be nice preps for the Coral Gold Cup.

Also, HAITI COULEURS is on track for the Coral Gold Cup, according to Rebecca Curtis, and he will probably have a spin over hurdles in October. Even though that’s the target, Curtis is going against advice she has previously had, as she said: “I’ve had such mixed advice with that race. I remember JP McManus saying to me years ago that if I ever have a horse who I think is good enough for the Gold Cup, don’t ever run in the Hennessy. It’s a hard race early in the season, but at the same time Denman, Native River and Bobs Worth went and won Gold Cups after winning that race.

“If he can win a handicap like that, then you’ll be thinking about a step up in grade. The Betfair Chase is always a gruelling race on quite heavy ground a lot of the time and the King George is definitely too speedy.

“A good race to test him would be the Cotswold Chase in January because we know he loves Cheltenham and he’d probably have some tough competition. That’ll probably be a big decider [for the future] but for now he’d still go the Grand National entries route and things like that. I think he’ll tell us how good he is and it’s not really for me to decide.”

These are the ones we know of at the moment, but we’re sure more will come out over the next few weeks.

CALAN-JAPAN

Just a bit of Champions Day fallout to mention - CALANDAGAN is set to run in the Japan Cup. Love this.

Not only will it be great to see the Champion Stakes winner again this year, but based on previous quotes from John Gosden (dating back to September 3rd), he could also face up against OMBUDSMAN, which would be great to see. On the Nick Luck Daily Podcast, Francis Henri-Graffard said: "Definitely, that was the target we had. I have the horse able to win this race this year, I think he will be suited there.

"It's a long journey, it takes a lot out of them, so we really need to discuss it but I think we will probably stick to the plan and go there. He came out of the race really well. Fast ground, a mile and a half... shouldn't be a problem. Then we'll skip Hong Kong and wait for next year.

"If we have one more run this year it will be this race (Japan Cup)."

Not much to add here, but it will be cool to see the Gosdens send OMBUDSMAN over. Would they send a pacemaker as well? Frustratingly, we can’t find an up-to-date interview where John Gosden says anything about OMBUDSMAN’s rest of the year (if there is one), though he did definitely mention the race over a month ago.

As for FIELD OF GOLD, he doesn’t think there is a race left in the international programme for the grey three-year-old because he’s not keen on sending him to the Breeders’ Cup. Speaking of Juddmonte horses, it seems like no decision has been made on either KALPANA or FIELD OF GOLD regarding the rest of 2025 or indeed their racing careers.

We must say, if Juddmonte retire FIELD OF GOLD, that would be mildly surprising on the back of two below-par runs in Group 1s. If they still think the world of him, why not come back next year and try to revive a bit of his stud value? John Gosden was keen post-race to say how FIELD OF GOLD was lacking match practise on Saturday, so if that’s the case, are they still seeing good things at home to warrant him winning another Group 1 if he’s given the chance?

Retiring him would smell a little bit like a lack of faith in the horse, but Juddmonte aren’t afraid to do that. As for KALPANA, she’s won two Group 1s against her own sex and finished second in a King George against the boys. No one can really blame them if they retired her.

NICE NOVICES

And finally, with a bit of a dry day on the news front, we just want to highlight a race for all of you to keep an eye on today.

It may only have three runners, but the 15.00 at Perth sees TRIPOLI FLYER, a Grade 2-winning novice hurdler, take on KINGSTON PRIDE, a wildly unexposed horse for Olly Murphy, and JET TO VEGAS, the Grade 2 Premier Novices’ Hurdle winner.
Small field, but a great race.

Both TRIPOLI FLYER and JET TO VEGAS were tried in the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle at the Aintree Grand National Festival, but they were both well-beaten. TRIPOLI FLYER actually went off favourite that day!

As for KINGSTON PRIDE, he is now with Olly Murphy and the Whateleys after Olly Harris sold up shop at the end of last season. He cost €200,000 in 2023, though the Whateleys took him on for £285,000 in May. He was always well thought of by Nicky Henderson and Harris, so much so that he went off an unbackable 6/4 for the Grade 2 Winter Novices’ Hurdle at Sandown in December when he pulled up. We think the ground was the issue that day. He put that behind him to win a novice at Kempton in March on good ground, but he hasn’t been seen since.

All are having their first runs of the season, and all should be fine at this 2m4f trip and of the runners, we think TRIPOLI FLYER should take all the beating - he’s already smashed up KINGSTONS PRIDE before in a bumper.

It isn’t all about today for any of these horses, but what happens this afternoon will likely affect races like the Grade 2 John Francome Novices’ Chase, Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase, and maybe even the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase, if any of the three steps up in trip.

Also, let’s not forget about the Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase at the Festival in March. Novices need just three runs to qualify, and this is an early enough run for all three horses in today’s field.

Eyes on!

RISK ON

A tough days racing with perhaps only one good looking bet today:

13.40 OAKLEYS WAY

Well bred but disappointed in his first season. A step up in trip on quick ground could see the best of him against weak opposition. Yard land 1 in 4 over hurdles at course. Standard bet at 6/5 relying on him being fit.

15.35 HEAVEN SMART & ATHAIR MOR

Well handicapped and looks back on the up for his new yard. Morgan has a good strike at track and the step up in trip should prove an excellent decision. 2/1 in our eyes looks generous given the opposition and the fact the ground has turned soft. Something stinks a bit and we’re wondering if ATHAIR MOR is a plot. With the money coming for him, stake hedge at 7’s.

We’re eyeing up a rare Irish bet based purely on pedigree but just trying to get a thumbs up that is in fact useful first.

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