Equinties - Pauling interview

Gm Equinauts

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HEADLINE ROUNDUP

BEN PAULING INTERVIEW

We’re picking today’s newsletter off in the same way we ended yesterdays, and that’s with more jumps talk. If you can’t beat them, jump in and join them, ay.

A-paul-ing pun there.

Ben Pauling should have a great season this year. This obviously isn’t a cold, hard fact, but just a quick look at some of his novice hurdlers/chasers is enough to excite anyone. VANDERPOEL, FIERCELY PROUD, MEETMEBYTHESEA, JIG’S FORGE, and DIVA LUNA are all set to go novice chasing, and the likes of DIG DEEP (£120,000 purchase at the Goffs April Sale) and STARMOUNT (STAGE STAR half-brother) could be quite useful in either novice hurdles or bumpers.

He also has a number of handicappers to send to some top races, but the obvious two horses for Pauling this year are THE JUKEBOX MAN and HANDSTANDS, two Grade 1-winning novice chasers last season. The former had his season cut short after the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase due to injury, and while the latter picked up the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase in February, he was very unlucky to get impeded when DANCING CITY fell in the Grade 1 Mildmay Novices’ Chase.

Well, they’re both back, and as was expected, they will have different campaigns, though it’s potentially not the way around you may be thinking of.

Let’s start with THE JUKEBOX MAN. Having won a three-mile Grade 1 novice chase at Christmas, he was going to go to the Brown Advisory before his injury. However, when he picked up the Grade 2 John Francome Novices’ Chase at Newbury in November, Pauling made a big point about him being speedy, and if the old Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Chase was still around, that would have been the target.

So, for this season, he is Pauling’s two-and-a-half-mile chaser, as he will start off in the Grade 2 1965 Chase at Ascot before ultimately heading towards the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, all being well. Along the way, he will stop off at the Grade 1 King George VI Chase over three miles, but considering he won the Kauto Star last year, this makes sense.

As for HANDSTANDS, a horse who won a Grade 1 over 2m4f last season and has only raced over three miles once (when pulling up at Aintree), he is their potential Cheltenham Gold Cup horse.

Did we ever think that HANDSTANDS would be mentioned for the Gold Cup? No. Did you ever really think he’d be a future Gold Cup horse? Let’s be real, no.

But, it’s the race Pauling thinks could be for him at Cheltenham in March, and he will potentially take in the Colin Parker, Coral Gold Cup, and Cotswold Chase along the way.
Pauling clearly thinks he will stay, and we’re actually a little bit surprised at just how bullish he is regarding this horse. Then again, he always has been this way about HANDSTANDS, so we shouldn’t be too taken aback by this.

There is obviously a future where we get to January and HANDSTANDS has blown his own chance of being a Gold Cup horse out of the water because he isn’t good enough, but if there is even the slightest chance of him being of that ability, Pauling has to try. He is six (seven next year), so if it doesn’t work, they can regroup next season and have a new set of targets, like the Betfair Chase or Grand National.

THE FORGOTTEN HORSE

We are quick to write horses off in this game, and we are equally quicker to hype a horse up to stardom fame before they have proven to us that they truly deserve it.
Take, for example, a few horses from this season. ALBERT EINSTEIN and TWAIN are two Ballydoyle horses that were talked up like the next FRANKEL when the season was starting, but due to setbacks, we haven’t seen them yet.

Let’s also not forget THE LION IN WINTER, who was Ballydoyle’s big Derby hope coming into the season. He was sent off 8/11 for the Dante (6th) and 7/1 for the Derby (14th) before running in (and not winning) the Prix Jean Prat and Prix Jacques le Marois on his next two starts.

We’re also guilty of doing it from time to time. Just this week, we were a bit downbeat on LAMBOURN after his run in the Great Voltigeur, even though he has won both the Epsom and Irish Derby. It’s the nature of the game. Horses can become flavours of the month, and none more so than Ed Walker’s ALMAQAM.

In case you have forgotten about this horse, he smashed up OMBUDSMAN in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown in May, a piece of form that looks epic, before finishing second of seven in the Group 2 York Stakes last month at 6/4.

For the first half of this season, he was a horse that everyone wanted to see for obvious reasons, but since that York run, there has barely been a word about him.
The one thing that has always surrounded this horse is his lover for softer conditions. He doesn’t need it bottomless, but Walker has never wanted to run him on good to firm, and he has some nice bits of form on soft in the book.

So, as we head towards the autumn of this Flat season, ALMAQAM could start to get some races with his preferred conditions, and there is one race in October that Walker is keen to try if he passes a bit of a litmus test next month. He said: "I'm delighted to say that Almaqam is in as good a form as I've had him all year and the plan is to run him in the Prix Foy on Arc trials day at Longchamp next month.

"The thinking behind that is we want to know whether we're heading for the Arc or the Champion Stakes in October. And I don't want to go into the Irish Champion on the back of his defeat at York.

"The Foy will answer some questions, most importantly whether or not he stays 1m4f. I think he'll get it, especially around Longchamp, as he switches off so well. His jockeys are adamant he'll stay."

Is he a forgotten horse in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe market? Probably not, because he has never tried 1m4f before. However, if you think he might excel at this trip, he is 50/1 in places, and that could be huge price.

ASSET GONE

And finally, Aidan O’Brien will be looking for a new second rider at the St Leger and Irish Champions meeting this season as Wayne Lordan has been handed a 10-day ban for his ride on PRECISE at Goodwood on Sunday. The Ballydoyle number two was less-than-precise (pun intended) onboard the STARSPANGLEDBANNER juvenile in the Group 3 Prestige Fillies’ Stakes on the weekend, as he was found to have used his stick in the incorrect place on three occasions.

This is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, and we may have just completely missed this up until now, but seeing a jockey get banned for using his whip on the wrong area of the horse in a Group race looks fairly new to us. Usually, when we see a whip ban, it’s for the number of strikes and not where the strike actually occurred. This has always been a ruling, obviously, but is this something the BHA Stewards are going to be more stringent on going forward, especially with Irish jockeys?

And secondly, this does have a bit of an effect on Aidan O’Brien for these meetings.
Lordan is a very useful asset in the Ballydoyle team. He rides all the second string horses if he is available, and this can see him either on horses with good chances (SCANDINAVIA in the Goodwood Cup) or on horses who are being used as a pacesetter.

O’Brien will be able to find jockeys to ride his second-string horses, but will they know as much as Lordan when it comes to setting a perfect pace for Ryan Moore in behind? Probably not. O’Brien can’t exactly go to William Buick and ask him to set sub-12-second furlongs in front until the three-furlong pole, can he?
This will be something O’Brien has to navigate, but he will surely find a suitable way.

RISK ON

A good winner yesterday as MY FERMOY got third for our nice 2/1 place bet. Today we’re punting live at Newbury and a favourite Ffos Las. Check out our X account and have notifications on!

14.10 GOUKEN

We’ve had our eye on this lad since his Newbury debut. At the start of the season HIGH APPROVAL was touted a star but he looks shot to bits now. Despite his lack of page, we think GOUKEN can win this poor maiden.

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