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Updated: 28th October 2008 - GG.com

November's Jumping Fireworks

November’s jumps action strikes a familiar note with the Charlie Hall Chase on the 1st of the month ushering in the start of the National Hunt season proper. There has been much disquiet about the adequacy of Wetherby’s jumps track since major course changes but trainers gave the newly-aligned circuit the green light at a recent meeting and everything should be in place for the first big staying chase of the season.

Over at Down Royal on the same day Kauto Star, the 2007 Gold Cup hero, may well start his campaign on Irish soil in the James Nicholson Chase and connections will expect him to land this race with ease before going on to face tougher assignments. Kauto Star was a damp squib in last season’s Gold Cup and gave a laboured performer at Aintree too and it will be interesting to see if he starts this season with more verve than a year ago.

The following weekend sees the curtain fall on the turf Flat campaign and it has been a largely disappointing one for British horses. Ireland’s Aidan O’Brien dominated the top end of racing and the French produced the very best Flat horse in Zarkava, the top miler in Goldikova and the best sprinter in Marchand D’Or. The British trainers will need to roll up their sleeves next year if they aren’t to fall short yet again.

Thankfully the Doncaster card features more modest fare with the November Handicap occupying pride of place and here Clive Cox’s progressive Electrolyser can land the spoils after his fine success at Leicester last time. Brimming with untapped potential, the three-year-old can progress further and looks an ideal sort for the November Handicap. Over at Wincanton on the same day jumps racing picks up a step or two with the Badger Ales Trophy Handicap Chase while local trainer Paul Nicholls will be looking to land the Elite Hurdle with the supremely talented Woolcombe Folly.

The National Hunt season reaches full stride on the next weekend with the three-day Paddy Power Open meeting at Cheltenham. The main action of the three-day fixture takes place on Saturday November 15 with the staging of the BetVictor Gold Cup. Traditionally the winner of this valuable prize is a young horse, in its second season over fences that has preferably won or been placed at the previous Cheltenham Festival and that brings Ireland’s Finger On the Pulse and the Paul Nicholls-trained Silverburn firmly into the picture. The former landed the 2008 Jewson Chase at Cheltenham and has already landed a decent chase in his native Ireland while the latter finished affair fourth in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at the Festival.

On November 16, the third and final day of the Paddy Power Open meeting, the novice chasers come to the fore in the Independent Newspaper Novices’ Chase, traditionally a stepping stone to a bid for the Arkle Trophy in March while in the Greatwood Hurdle, Champion Hurdle aspirants could have their say with Snap Tie prominent among their number. Sizing Europe, last year’s Greatwood hero, flopped in the Champion Hurdle and given that his trainer Henry de Bromhead had been struggling for winners, I wonder whether the business of preparing a Champion Hurdle horse was all too much for the young handler.

The weekend of November 22nd and 23rd sees plenty of high-class jumps racing at a variety of venues beginning with the Amlin 1965 Limited Handicap Chase that is often won by a second-season chaser while over at Huntingdon, Racing Demon might well be bidding to score again in the Peterborough Chase. The day’s main action can be found over at Haydock Park where the hugely valuable Betfair Chase is in its third year and any horse that Paul Nicholls sends out for this top prize should be noted. At Aintree on November 23, the big Grand National fences will need jumping to decide the outcome of the Becher Chase over 3m 3f.

November’s excellent jumping action reaches an appropriate climax with the three-day Newbury Hennessy fixture. On the Friday, November 28, backers should pay close attention to the result of the Peugeot 308 Novices’ Chase, a 3m contest that has often supplied a leading candidate for the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at Cheltenham in March.

On November 29 the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup is one of the great races of the jumps season and Denman’s recent heart problem has meant that last year’s winner will miss the race, therefore opening up the competition and making the Hennessy more of a betting medium for punters. Once again Pula Nicholls is determined to have a big say in the race’s outcome courtesy of Big Buck’s, a smart novice chaser from last season.

Over at Newcastle on the 29th there will be a hugely competitive field for the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, one of the season’s leading Champion Hurdle trials and trainer Nicky Henderson may well have the answer here in the shape of Punjabi or Binocular, two likely contenders for top hurdling honours this season.

Malcolm Heyhoe writes weekly horse racing articles for GG.COM-Horse racing betting, information, news, results and free daily tips

Archive October 2008