Betfair Henry VIII Novices' Chase
Grade 1, Sandown 13:50
£100,000 guaranteed,
4yo plus,
1m 7f 119y, Class 1  
Saturday 6th December 2025

1 Lulamba 2/5F
2 Be Aware 8/1
3 Lump Sum 6/1
4 ran Distances: 9½l, hd
Time: 3m 53.51s (slow by 3.51s)

Lulamba, cool as you like, stretched his unbeaten start over fences to two with a polished success, the manner of the win suggesting he may yet have plenty more gears to find. Sent off the 2-5 favourite for Nicky Henderson and Nico de Boinville, he’d already brushed aside his rivals at Exeter on his chasing debut last month. Here, after taking a little time to warm into his jumping rhythm, he was travelling like the winner a fair way from home.

Be Aware tried to make the running, but the tank was emptying when Lulamba glided past at the second last. He met the final fence a shade untidily yet never looked in danger, stretching clear to score by nine and a half lengths with plenty left.

Henderson, ever the measured assessor, reflected: “It’s always been a question of how good could he be and we didn’t learn a lot over hurdles. He was a bit unlucky not to win a Triumph Hurdle but this was always going to be his game whether it was now or we waited another year.

“The feeling across the camp was that he might just want another half a mile but he showed there that is not necessary which is nice and having looked very effective at two miles, we can now stay at two.

“He’s still a baby and he only had three runs over hurdles last year and he’s now had one chase and we’re here. His life is in front of him but on the other hand he’s now at the head of the picture.

“He enjoys it and he’s not the sort of horse you want to sit on on a Monday morning, he’s so fresh and well and the horse just loves life. That’s what I enjoy about him and every morning he comes out happy and if he never came out with a buck and a squeal, you would know there is something wrong, he talks to you.

“It was a bit brave to go chasing and it’s two years running we have done this with four-year-olds after going chasing with Sir Gino last year.

“It was never fashionable but that allowance is kind to them and our opinion on him was he just wasn’t a Champion Hurdle horse, which meant we could switch him.”

With Lulamba now listed among the Sandown greats to have taken this prize – Fondmort, Altior, Jonbon – Henderson’s thought is to keep the experience-building mission ticking along ahead of March. “He went into the Triumph Hurdle on the back of one run and I’m not going to do that and experience will help him,” he added.

“We’ll watch the Arkle picture and I’m sure Kopek Des Bordes will soon reappear, much like Exeter that day where we went home thinking this is good and then Kopek Des Bordes turns up and we’re thinking ‘here we go’.

“It was easy to go from Exeter to here and we now need to think again. I was going Game Spirit with Sir Gino last year and he wouldn’t run again before the Game Spirit I would think and that could be an obvious place.

“It was quite quick, three weeks from Exeter to here, so I’m not sure I would want to do it again (and go to Kempton at Christmas).”

“He’s going to keep learning but he doesn’t need bullying at the same time, he’s still a big, big baby and we’re thinking his life is in front of him.”

Henry VIII Novices' Chase (Grade 1)
£100,000 guaranteed, 4yo plus, 1m 7f 119y, Class 1
4 ran
Going: Good to Soft, Soft in places

POS. DIST HORSE AGE WGT TRAINER JOCKEY SP
1    Lulamba 4 11-1 Nicky Henderson Nico de Boinville 2/5F
2 9½ Be Aware 6 11-7 Dan Skelton Harry Skelton 8/1
3 hd Lump Sum 7 11-7 Sam Thomas Dylan Johnston 6/1
PU Alnilam 6 11-7 Olly Murphy Sean Bowen 8/1