Winter officially started at midday here on Friday, as Cheltenham opened its doors and set the clock ticking down towards the National Hunt Festival in March, and Al Dancer was the first horse to put down a serious marker before the championship event in five months’ time with a winning debut over fences in the card’s two-mile novice chase.
Al Dancer was one of the best novices over hurdles last season and set off as the 9-2 joint-favourite for the Supreme Novice Hurdle at the Festival on the back of a four-from-four record which included a convincing win in the re-arranged Betfair Handicap Hurdle at Ascot in February. He let his backers down badly, trailing home 10th of 13 finishers, but they had clearly either forgiven or forgotten on Friday since he started at odds-on to beat three opponents.
The third fence nearly brought Al Dancer’s afternoon to a premature end, but he survived a serious mistake there and was much more fluent over the remaining obstacles on the way to a four-length win.
“There was just one slightly noticeable sketchy jump,” Nigel Twiston-Davies, Al Dancer’s trainer, said. “A faster pace would suit him and he will improve for this. When he came here for the Supreme after winning at Ascot, it was quite close and it definitely showed on him. We don’t want to do that again. It’s only three weeks [to the next meeting at Cheltenham] so something like that [the Henry VIII Novice Chase at Sandown in December] would be a good target.”
Al Dancer was available at 33‑1 for the Arkle Trophy on Thursday night but is now top-priced at 14-1 second-favourite behind Willie Mullins’s Melon, the runner-up in last season’s Champion Hurdle.
Plenty of the winnings from Al Dancer’s success rolled on to Twiston-Davies’s Wholestone, the favourite for the three-mile novice chase, and the eight-year-old looked in command on the turn for home.
His strength drained away on the climb to the line, however, allowing Mulcahys Hill to grind out a narrow success which suggested the National Hunt Chase next March will suit him well. The race distance has been cut from four miles to three miles and six furlongs following a review after this year’s Festival, and Warren Greatrex’s chaser is an early 20-1 chance with Paddy Power.
Champagne Well, who took the first race of the new season here, will also be steered towards a return next spring, and left Fergal O’Brien, his trainer, grateful for a disqualification from first place at Ludlow last season that preserved the six-year-old’s novice status for another campaign.
Paddy Brennan got him home by half a length in the Ballymore Novice Hurdle over 21 furlongs, but the Albert Bartlett, over three miles, is a more likely target in March.
“It was frustrating at the time at Ludlow but that has probably been the making of him,” O’Brien said. “He looks a proper Albert Bartlett horse and that’s what Paddy said, as he is a year stronger.”
Cheltenham’s card on Saturday could yet prove to be the day’s main attraction in Britain as the valuable Flat meetings at Newbury and Doncaster will both be subject to early inspections with heavy rain forecast overnight. The going was heavy at both tracks during racing on Friday.
“Based on feedback from the jockeys about how the track has been riding today, and given we’ve got more rain forecast from mid-morning onwards, we’re going to have a precautionary inspection at 8am,” Keith Ottesen, Newbury’s clerk of the course, said on Friday.
“To say the jockeys are happy with it isn’t correct. They’re happy to carry on today, but they’ve all resoundingly said that if we got much more rain on that ground overnight, we could be in trouble.”
Doncaster will inspect the track at 7.30am before a card which includes the Vertem Futurity Trophy, the final Group One of the British Flat season. “Some forecasts suggested we were on the edge of it,” said Roderick Duncan, the clerk of the course, “but as the morning has gone on we seem to be more in the centre of the rainfall. We’ve in excess of 10mm forecast from midday today with the potential for getting on for 30mm overnight and into tomorrow on top of that.”
Kelso 1.15 Highway Companion 1.50 Warendorf 2.25 Skyhill 3.00 Blue Flight 3.35 Think Ahead 4.10 Treshnish 4.40 Aptly Put 5.15 Get Help
Newbury 1.40 Apollinaire 2.20 Morando 2.50 Kinross 3.20 Merryweather 3.55 Peaceful 4.30 Majestic Dawn 5.05 Luna Magic 5.35 Grandscape
Doncaster 1.45 Troubador 2.15 Lost In Time 2.55 Future Investment (nap) 3.25 Mogul 4.00 Came From The Dark 4.35 Al ahwa 5.10 Howzer Black
Cheltenham 2.00 Cogry (nb) 2.35 Torpillo 3.10 Duke Of Navan 3.45 Gunfleet 4.20 The Butcher Said 4.55 Secret Investor 5.30 The Newest One
Chelmsford 4.50 Lyricist Voice 5.25 So Claire 6.00 Camelot Rakti 6.30 Filles De Fleur 7.00 Good Luck Fox 7.30 Midport 8.00 Edinburgh Castle 8.30 Tops No