After a memorable weekend of Grade One steeplechasing in both Britain and Ireland, the Cheltenham Gold Cup has a new favourite in Fact To File, and the possibility that there will be a British-trained winner of jumping’s showpiece event in 2025 – or in the 2020s, full stop – seems increasingly remote.
If courage alone were enough to win a Gold Cup, then both Royale Pagaille and Grey Dawning, the one-two in Saturday’s Betfair Chase at Haydock, would go to the festival in March as obvious candidates. Their see-sawing, slow-motion battle over the final two fences at Haydock was a compelling spectacle for the packed stands, and a much-needed boost for fans and professionals alike after the miserable scenes at Cheltenham six days earlier.
However, a Gold Cup winner needs much more than a never-say-die attitude, Royale Pagaille has yet to reach the frame in three previous attempts and Grey Dawning, though he remains a 16-1 shot for the chasing championship, still has a great deal to prove.
To be fair to Dan Skelton’s seven-year-old, he might well have won on Saturday but for a slight, and understandable, mistake at the last, and his next race, which will probably be delayed until late January or early February to give him time to recover from Saturday’s effort, will tell us much more. He already looks like the best staying chaser in a British stable.
These days, though, that is akin to being the standout side in the Championship, and the John Durkan Memorial Chase at Punchestown on Sunday was a reminder of what is in store when he tries to mix it with the best that Ireland has to offer. Fact To File and Spillane’s Tower swept past Galopin Des Champs, the winner of the last two Gold Cups, at the last and Fact To File then showed impressive determination to hold off the runner-up’s sustained challenge to the line.
It was a two-and-a-half mile race on Sunday and Galopin Des Champs remains a very solid 4-1 second favourite to win a third Gold Cup in March. But Fact To File, like Grey Dawning at Haydock, was a Grade One-winning novice making his first start in open company, and is only likely to improve on Sunday’s level of form.
Ireland’s staying chase division is, quite simply, operating at an entirely different level to its British counterpart, and the gulf in quality is also apparent in the field for the Coral Gold Cup – the Hennessy, as was – at Newbury on Saturday.
For many punters, this is the most eagerly anticipated race in the first half of the jumps season, and possibly in the entire five-month run-up to the festival meeting at Cheltenham. Sixteen runners stood their ground for the latest running this weekend – the 68th in all – at the five-day stage on Monday, and around seven minutes of compelling drama is all but guaranteed before one of them joins Arkle, Mill House, Burrough Hill Lad, Denman and many more of steeplechasing’s greatest names on the roll of honour.
It is only eight years since Native River won the 60th and last running of this race as the Hennessy Gold Cup, and he was also the most recent winner to add a Cheltenham Gold Cup to his CV later in his career. Like Bobs Worth, who won both races in 2012-13 season, he was a highly promising second-season chaser who got into the race on a workable mark and his ability did the rest.
Doncaster: 11.55 Idefix De Ciergues 12.25 Adaay Forever 12.55 Newton Tornado 1.30 Rock My Way 2.05 Mole Court 2.40 No Risk With Lou 3.15 Hiero Sport.
Musselburgh: 12.08 Achnamara 12.38 Sea Legend 1.10 You Some Girl 1.45 Return Fire (nb) 2.20 All The Glory 2.55 Dance Thief 3.30 Swingingonthesteel.
Newbury: 12.15 Regent’s Stroll 12.45 Asta La Pasta 1.20 Miss Altea Blue 1.55 Johnnywho (nap) 2.30 Sir Psycho 3.05 Strong Leader 3.40 Woodie Flash.
But there is no obvious sign of a successor in Saturday’s field. Colonel Harry, the likely favourite, is a seven-year-old second-season chaser and has fine prospects of giving Jamie Snowden a second successive win in the race, but finished a long way behind the winner in two starts in Grade One events in the spring.
The days when the winner of Saturday’s big race at Newbury would get a quote – and potentially quite a short quote – for the Gold Cup are seemingly gone, for the foreseeable future at least. The last Saturday in November will remain an important, almost spiritual date, for many fans, but like the Betfair Chase last weekend, this will be a race to celebrate and savour in the here and now without worrying unduly about its long-term significance.
