Hennessy Gold Cup 2012 Newbury

[Hoof]

Bill ellesdaile

BILL ESDAILE PREVIEWS THE ACTION AT NEWBURY’S HENNESSY GOLD CUP MEETING
THE weather has played havoc with British racing this week and tomorrow’s Hennessy Gold Cup (3.10pm) will be a thorough test where only the strongest of stayers need apply.

Last season’s novice chasers are a special bunch and RSA Chase winner Bobs Worth could be the best of them. Nicky Henderson has won this race just once but it was with another RSA winner, Trabolgan. Bobs Worth has shown a clear preference for going left-handed and he looks a serious Cheltenham Gold Cup contender for March.

That said, this will be the softest ground he has encountered and his trainer seriously considered pulling him out of the race. If he handles the conditions he will go close, but I’m not willing to take the risk at 7/2 with Coral.

Paul Nicholls has plundered nearly every big Saturday race in the past month and Tidal Bay has been well supported. He shoulders top weight, but that proved no barrier to Denman (twice) or Trabolgan in the last seven years.

But Tidal Bay was 16/1 last week and is now as short as 7/1, so on value grounds I’m willing to leave him alone.

The two I’m interested in both contested the four-mile National Hunt Chase at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, the winner TEAFORTHREE and the fifth, ALFIE SPINNER.

AP McCoy is aboard the Rebecca Curtis-trained runner who will relish the conditions and step up in trip. His main target this season has always been the Welsh National but Curtis has stated how well he is at home. The 14/1 available with Coral is worth taking.

Alfie Spinner has won just three of 20 career starts but run some excellent races in defeat. The key to this seven-year-old is soft ground and a severe test of stamina, so tomorrow’s conditions should suit perfectly. He ran well at Ascot this month and Mark Quinlan’s claim means he will carry just 9st 11lb. Nick Williams won this race with Diamond Harry two years ago and his stablemate is a solid each-way proposition at 14/1 with Coral.

[mayo]

More brain food from Donn

You still have to start with the second-season chasers in the Hennessy Gold Cup, but you also have to think about it a little bit more these days. You only have an edge when you have figured something out that isn’t common knowledge. When the market and the handicapper seem to be coming around to your point of view, your edge has probably been eroded and you need to start looking for a different angle.

Six of the last 10 Hennessy winners were second-season chasers, and that is a strong statistic. It makes sense. The second-season staying chasers are the ones who generally have the most scope for progression, who have the greatest potential to be a step or two ahead of the handicapper. They are still improving as chasers, in theory, still learning their trade, they are generally still relatively young, still growing and strengthening. As a result, there is a real possibility that they are racing off a handicap rating that under-estimates their ability or their potential.

However, while six of the last 10 Hennessy winners were second-season chasers, three of the last four weren’t. More important than a dubious stat with a sample size of four, though, is the fact that the handicapper and the market may be cottoning on to this phenomenon, at least with the high-profile second-season chasers.

Trabolgan went into the 2005 Hennessy with a very similar profile to the profile that Bobs Worth has now. Trabolgan was a seven-year-old, a second-season chaser from the Nicky Henderson yard who had been beaten in the previous year’s Feltham Chase, who had won the previous year’s RSA Chase, and who was making his seasonal debut in the Hennessy. Bobs Worth shares all of those characteristics.

Yet Trabolgan was allotted a handicap rating of 151 in the Hennessy, and he was allowed go off a 13/2 shot. Bobs Worth has been allotted a rating of 160 by the handicapper, and he is a 4/1 shot.

When State Of Play won the Hennessy in 2006, he won it off a mark of 145 and he was sent off at 10/1. Even when the mighty Denman won it in 2007 as a second-season chaser, he raced off a mark of 161 and was sent off the 5/1 second favourite. Bobs Worth races off a mark that is just 1lb lower than Denman’s mark in 2007, and he is a shorter price.

Not that Bobs Worth couldn’t do a Denman. It is possible that he could morph into a Gold Cup horse, no question. But a Denman doesn’t come along very often, and he has a fair way to go yet.

Bobs Worth could easily win today’s Hennessy, and his chance is much better now than it was earlier in the week when we were staring down the barrel of a heavy ground Hennessy (and he is no bigger a price now than he was then). It is probably correct that he is favourite, but he will have to be Gold Cup class if he is to win a Hennessy off a mark of 160, and 5.5 is short enough.

First Lieutenant is a high-class horse, he won the Neptune Hurdle as a novice hurdler and he came clear with Bobs Worth in the RSA Chase last March. He is a second-season chaser and the drying ground is also in his favour but, like Bobs Worth, the handicapper hasn’t taken many chances with him in allotting him a rating of 159, just 1lb lower than Bobs Worth’s rating. At their respective prices, he is a more attractive betting proposition than Bobs Worth, but odds of 11 are probably just about right.

It might be that you have to look down the list a fair way before you get to the over-priced horses. Hold On Julio and The Package and Frisco Depot and Tidal Bay all have chances, but they have been high-profile Hennessy contenders for a while, and there isn’t much in them at respective odds.

Three horses who look over-priced, by contrast, are Magnanimity, Soll and Saint Are. There is a chance that Magnanimity is a little under the radar. It looks like First Lieutenant, the mount of Bryan Cooper – with Davy Russell staying put in Fairyhouse – is the number one Gigginstown House horse, but there may not have been that much in it, given that First Lieutenant has to concede 16lb to his compatriot.

The drying ground is in First Lieutenant’s favour and not necessarily in Magnanimity’s, but the Dessie Hughes-trained horse was a high-class staying novice chaser two seasons ago. He was a little disappointing last season, admittedly, but so were a lot of Hughes’s horses, and he has shaped much better in two runs this season, in common with a lot of his stable companions.

He gets to race today off a mark of 143, 7lb lower than his peak, and the talented Mark Enright takes off another 5lb. There is a chance that he is a fair way ahead of the handicapper, he has headgear back on today for the first time this season, and an extended three and a quarter miles on easy ground is probably just the thing for him. Odds of 22 look big.

Soll also looks big at 46. As with Magnanimity, softer ground wouldn’t have been a handicap to him, and there is a chance that, with just four runs over fences under his belt, the white-hot heat of a Hennessy might just be a bit too much for him.

But that is a chance that you can take at a massive price. He was a really interesting horse for Willie Mullins last season, he was as short as 8/1 for the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, and the Hennessy has been on new trainer Jo Hughes’s radar for him since she got him a couple of months ago. He is 1lb out of the handicap, but time may show that he is a better horse than a rating of 139 suggests.

Saint Are is only six, but so were three of the last nine Hennessy winners. He appears to be at his best on a flat galloping track, he handles good ground and soft ground, and Tim Vaughan’s intention since the start of the season was to have him make his seasonal debut in the Hennessy. There was no point in winning a small race, he figured, and getting another 7lb or 8lb for the Hennessy.

[Lester]

A most satisfactory day ... Tidal bay upset the forecast though !

[Old Vic]

Scottish Herald


Bobs Worth was billed as the one horse in the Hennessy Gold Cup field capable of developing into a championship-level performer and his star quality shone through in the famous Newbury handicap yesterday.
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Barry Geraghty drives on Bobs Worth to the finish line Photograph: Getty
Barry Geraghty drives on Bobs Worth to the finish line Photograph: Getty

Already a dual Cheltenham Festival winner in the Albert Bartlett and last season in the RSA Chase, his three-and-a-quarter-length defeat of top-weight Tidal Bay means Bobs Worth, ridden to victory by Barry Geraghty, is now available at no bigger than 5-1 to take the Gold Cup next March.

Surprisingly, in a big field not short of jumping mistakes and fallers, very few featured prominently and Irish raider First Lieutenant, who had pushed Bobs Worth all the way home in the RSA, was quickly into the lead and still travelling well in the home straight.

The 4-1 favourite, once owned by Geraghty, was not really spotted until the turn for home, prompting Bryan Cooper to conjure a phenomenal leap from First Lieutenant at the third-last.

It was not enough, and in spite of warnings at the start of the week from trainer Nicky Henderson over the dangers of potentially soft ground, Bobs Worth drew relentlessly clear as Tidal Bay stole second from the weakening First Lieutenant.

"He was potentially the classiest horse in the race and if he's going to get to the top, he had to win here," said Henderson, whose only other Hennessy triumph came from a similar type of horse in Trabolgan.

"He's so tough, but he makes you sweat as he doesn't do an awful lot. It was only three days ago when I went round evening stables that I thought he was right – it was like a rose coming into bloom. He's owned by some of my oldest friends, and it's for them and Barry more than anything."

Henderson recently mentioned the Lexus Chase at Christmas as an option for Bobs Worth and his main aim will be to keep the seven-year-old apart from stablemate Long Run.

"Barry has said before that he does need to go left-handed," he said. "So I would say the King George is out of the equation and it's just a matter of plotting a gentle route back to Cheltenham. We've been getting a lot of seconds this week, but then good old Bob comes to the rescue."

Geraghty said: "He's not overly big and you can't ask too much during the race. You just have to let him build and build. I was under the collar a lot of the way, but I knew going to the last I had plenty of horse.

"He has a very good pedigree of Jim Bolger's and I bought him as a yearling with my brother. He was not far from the top there. He loves loves it round here."

[Old Vic]

Classy Bobs Worth leaves no doubt as to his quality in taking Hennessey Gold Cup at Newbury
There was a suggestion before the 56th Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury that it might be a rare, ordinary edition but the extremely popular winning favourite, Bobs Worth, could yet turn out to be extraordinary.
There is little striking about Bobs Worth until he gets to the business end of a three-mile chase when he is becoming increasingly difficult to beat.

Compact and neat he does not stand out physically in the paddock like the mountainous liver chestnut First Lieutenant or the more petite Carruthers, last year’s winner.

On Saturday, Nicky Henderson’s relatively inexperienced seven year-old hunted round in the middle, insignificant, unobtrusive, unremarkable until he and Barry Geraghty crept into contention

five out when he seemed to grow two hands.

At that stage First Lieutenant had taken over the running and when Bobs Worth joined him two out there appeared only two dangers to the winner; the loose and somewhat wayward Alfie Spinner in front of him, and Tidal Bay who had ghosted into it behind him.
From there on, though, Bobs Worth suddenly looked all class. He had too many guns for First Lieutenant who tired at the last and though Tidal Bay picked up with a customary late spurt, quite apart from giving the winner 4lbs and a four-length head start, he was clearly not dealing with any ordinary handicapper here.

He narrowed the gap to three and a quarter lengths but the simple truth is Bobs Worth won with Geraghty easing up, a lot in hand and, given his record at Cheltenham, looking like a prospective Gold Cup horse.

“He’s not big and you can’t ask him too many questions early on,” said Geraghty, who also sold him to Henderson. “You have to let him build and build.

"I had him as a yearling until Nicky robbed him off me as a four year-old. He loves Cheltenham and he loves here. He’s game, he loves it, he is what racing’s all about.”

The trainer had endured a frustrating run of seconds at the meeting but this was a mood-altering result.

“He looked on paper to be the young pretender and possibly the class horse in the race. And if he’s going to be living at the top level he probably had to win today.”

It had not been plain sailing, however. Until earlier in the week Henderson had not been convinced everything was going

to plan with Bobs Worth. “He makes you sweat. I hadn’t been happy with him but it gradually started to fall into place and suddenly I looked at him at evening stables three nights ago and thought ‘hello’. He was like a rose starting to bloom.

“He’s an adorable character and what makes it all the better for me is that he’s owned by some of my best mates. He’s not a show-off like Sprinter Sacre. In a race he’s not off the bridle or hard on the bridle.

"You’d hardly know he was there then, suddenly, two out it’s ‘hello, Bob’. I’ll talk to the boys about what we do next when they settle down – which might not be tomorrow. But I’d like to plot a quiet, gentle road to Cheltenham.”

Bobs Worth is now vying for Gold Cup favouritism with Sir Des Champs and last week’s Betfair winner, Silviniaco Conti, all at around 5-1. For Malcolm Kimmins, head of the syndicate of owners, former wine merchant and a director of Newbury until he retired aged 70, it was just reward for a lifetime supporting the winter game.

“I had a few decent horses with Fulke Walwyn,” he said, “but nothing nudging top notch. It seems like an eternity since then but this is serious.”

[Old Vic]

Steeplechasing's golden oldies are, it seems, being replaced by a gilded generation of emerging young talent. Yesterday Bobs Worth became the latest of last season's novices to put a marker down for this term's senior championship contests with a smooth success, as 4-1 favourite, in the Hennessy Gold Cup.

The seven-year-old was racing for the first time since taking the RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March and he has now leapfrogged Sir Des Champs, who has yet to reappear, and Silviniaco Conti, an equally taking winner at Haydock eight days ago, to the top of the Gold Cup betting.

There is nothing flashy about Bobs Worth; he is plain bay in colour and small enough for a top-level jumper. But he is tough, honest, straightforward and enjoys his job, qualities that cannot be judged from the outside. His rider, Barry Geraghty, famously spotted them early, though, having bought the gelding at auction as a yearling and traded him on to trainer Nicky Henderson three years later.

In testing underfoot conditions over an extended three-and-a-quarter miles, Geraghty was content to bide his time as the outsider Fruity O'Rooney and old rival First Lieutenant, the RSA Chase runner-up, cut out the pace. In the home straight First Lieutenant's bold bid included a tremendous leap at the third-last obstacle, but Bobs Worth had him covered by then and forged to the front before the final fence.

In the end, the final challenge came from the veteran top-weight Tidal Bay, but Bobs Worth's youth, class, stamina and 6lb pull were three-and-a-half lengths too good. First Lieutenant stayed on to claim third prize, in front of never-nearer The Package and Hold On Julio.

"He's not overly big, so you can't ask him too many questions through the race," said Geraghty of the horse he knows so well. "You have to just let him build and build. And by the time we got to the last, I knew I still had plenty of horse under me."

Henderson faced an anxious build-up, in terms of the condition of the ground and his charge. "It wasn't until I looked at him at evening stables on Wednesday that I thought he was ready," he said. "It was like a rose coming into bloom. He was thought to be the classiest young horse in the race and in a way he had to win it. But I am mighty relieved he has."

Bobs Worth, now as short as 7-2 for the Gold Cup, is unlikely to take in Boxing Day's King George VI Chase, for which his stablemate Long Run is favourite. "I don't think three miles round Kempton is for him," Henderson said. "From now on it's a matter of plotting a gentle path to Cheltenham, and one more run would probably do."

Geraghty paid €16,500 (£13,380) for Bobs Worth when he bought him, and resold him for £20,000 to carry the colours of a group of friends headed by Malcolm Kimmins. "Nicky robbed him off me," said the jockey with a smile, "but at least I get the bonuses by riding him." The son of Bob Back won £85,425 yesterday.