The first Grade One card in Britain since March with paying spectators in the stands was robbed of one of its main attractions on Friday evening when Altior, the odds-on favourite for the Tingle Creek Chase, was taken out of the race by Nicky Henderson, his trainer, owing to concerns about the testing ground at Sandown Park.
Altior surrendered an unbeaten 19-race winning streak over jumps when he was beaten on soft ground at Ascot on his seasonal debut in November 2019, and Henderson said he had watched the racing at Sandown on Friday before taking the decision to scratch the 10-year-old.
“It is with a heavy heart we have decided that Altior is not going to run,” Henderson said. “We simply don’t want to bottom him again given what happened last year. Everyone has seen how testing the ground was today and we’re not going to ask him to do it again.
“We’re very sorry to everyone who was looking forward to seeing him and it was a very tough decision for the Pughs [Altior’s owners], but we’ve got to do the best thing by the horse.
“It’s tough, and if there was any further rain forecast we may have left the decision until the morning, but it will be very holding ground and very hard work.”
Altior’s abrupt removal from Saturday’s big-race field followed several suggestions from Henderson that he was looking forward to running one of his stable stars for the first time since February. Altior’s performance in a recent schooling session was described as “electric”, and the ground at Sandown had deteriorated only slightly since Thursday, from good-to-soft, soft in places to soft, good-to-soft in places.
In Altior’s absence, Politologue, last season’s winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, is expected to start favourite for the Tingle Creek ahead of Greaneteen, his stable companion at the Paul Nicholls yard.
Nico de Boinville, who was due to ride Altior, registered a Grade Two success on Friday aboard a possible star of the future when Star Gate quickened clear of two opponents to win the Grade Two Ballymore Novice Hurdle.
Three-runner races on heavy ground do not always produce form to rely on, not least when, as here, the pace is moderate to slow. Star Gate, though, appeared to win despite the conditions, taking command between the final two flights before quickening further clear of Valleres up the hill.
The winner was de Boinville’s first ride for Evan Williams, who was at Exeter to see Bold Plan snap the stable’s 45-runner losing streak since Coole Cody’s victory in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham in mid-November, less than half an hour before Star Gate completed an across-the-cards double.
“I was really impressed,” De Boinville said. “We didn’t go much of a gallop early on, but he certainly quickened up well and he was very impressive over the last and quickened all the way to the line.
“I do this job because of horses like that, they get you out of bed in the morning. He’s still such a raw horse and there’s so much more to come from him, it was very much about looking after him, getting him jumping and away we went.”
Star Gate was cut to 25-1 (from 40-1) for the Grade One version of the Ballymore at Cheltenham in March, though Williams does not seem inclined to plan any further than the winner’s next race.
“He’s a nice young horse, but he’s one for the future,” the trainer said. “It was a muddling type of a race, and you can read lots into these things but the reality is that he got the job done and it’s all part of his education.”