Christmas isn’t all about presents and eating turkey and drinking lots of alcohol, it is about the huge amount of good quality racing over that period too, with a couple of the more important jumps races of the season taking place.
The first of those sees all eyes on Kempton Park on Boxing Day for the King George VI Chase, so often an early indicator as to who could triumph in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham later in the campaign. Here is our full preview of the Kempton showpiece.
Boxing Day – 3.00 Kempton: King George VI Chase
Preview
With the 5 day declarations done, we now know there’ll be a maximum of 10 for the Boxing Day feature at Kempton Park, the King George VI Chase over 3 miles. Paul Nicholls has won 9 of the last 14 runnings of this but with only 3 different horses, the brilliant Kauto Star winning the race 5 times & both Silviniaco Conti & Clan Des Obeaux winning twice. The latter named is favourite this time around bidding to make it a hat trick in this festive cracker. It has certainly been a race for the fancied runners with the only winner going off at bigger than 11/2, that being Clan Des Obeaux when winning at 12/1 2 years ago.
Favourites
Sticking with the favourite, he’s hard to knock. The current champion, he’s raced only twice since winning here a year ago. The first of those was a poor run in the Gold Cup but, on reappearance, he was a good 2nd to Bristol De Mai in the Betfair Chase at Haydock. He’ll be spot on for this & it looks a straight battle on paper between him & Cyrname, who prepped for this last year by brushing aside the superb Altior. However he was no match for Clan Des Obeaux but arguably holds more solid claims this time around after jumping well & comfortably landing the Charlie Hall Chase on reappearance this time. With both horses trading at less than 2/1, I just cannot get involved.
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Contenders
Santini has been supplemented for this by Nicky Henderson but his trainer has been vocal that Cheltenham is his track & he’ll hate Kempton. It could be mind games but I’m not sure he has the speed for this, a comment I can also lay at Lostintranslation’s door. He’s an admirable type but disappointed badly at Haydock in the Betfair Chase when the heavy ground went against him. For me, it’s simple; if the rain comes, his chances will be washed away & it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him bypass the race. Monalee is the sole Irish challenger and holds solid claims if he makes the race. With travel restrictions in place, there’s a doubt whether horse, jockey or both will be here come Saturday & that’s enough to put a line through his chances.
Having won his first 6 starts over fences, we thought Waiting Patiently would be a superstar. We’ve waited very patiently for that but it’s never materialised & he falls just short of top class but of more concern is an absence of over a year. Frodon is Nicholls’ least fancied & isn’t good enough, whilst Saint Calvados is a Cheltenham specialist & Black Op is outclassed.
Betting
It leaves us with the youngest horse in the field & another from the Nicholls yard, Real Steel. This is only his 2nd run for the yard after coming over from Willie Mullins where he won 5 of his 11 chase starts, including a pair of Grade 2’s, the most recent when accounting for Footpad at Thurles back in January. Going off at 50/1 in the Gold Cup in March, he travelled well & hit around 5/2 in running before running out of steam on the run in to finish 7 lengths 6th. That run put him firmly in contention for this. On his only run for Nicholls, he was 3rd of 4 to Imperial Aura at Ascot but was giving weight all round, hit a couple of fences & looked in need of the run. This trip will suit, he loves going right handed & he has the speed for this given his chase wins have all been around two & a half miles. He certainly needs to step up but given the serious question marks over 3 of the 5 horses above him in the betting, he is the best value here.
Tips
Back Real Steel (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 17.00 William Hill (⅕ odds 1-3)
Back him here:
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