Announcement

**Old Vic** · 3 December 2012, 08:55 PM

http://www.fatjockey.com/festivals/racing_festivals.php?Becher-Chase-Trends-125

**Old Vic** · 3 December 2012, 08:57 PM

CHAMPION trainer Paul Nicholls will bid to continue his golden run of Saturday successes in the Betfred Becher Chase at Aintree after Join Together was revealed among 23 entries for the Grand National trial on Monday.

The sponsors reacted by making the seven-year-old their clear 8-1 favourite, although Problema Tic, Ballabriggs, Alfie Sherrin and West End Rocker are all snapping at his heels at 9-1.

Nicholls said: "He's in good form and will run in the Becher. I was a bit disappointed with him at Ascot but hopefully with different fences and a different day, he will do better.

"I don't think he is particularly well handicapped but he will probably be suited by the fences and, if he is, I will give him an entry in the John Smith's Grand National."

Nicholls is seeking his fourth victory in the race following Silver Birch (2004), Eurotrek (2006) and Mr Pointment (2007).

David Pipe could rely on Problema Tic and Swing Bill, and said: "Swing Bill ran in the race last year (when pulled-up) and is not getting any younger but he ran in the John Smith's Grand National and seems to like Aintree, though I wouldn't want the ground too soft for him. He is an intended runner at this stage.

"Problema Tic may also run but he is another who does not want conditions too soft. I was pleased with him at Cheltenham on his comeback."

The going on the National course was on Monday described as soft and the track's clerk of the course Andrew Tulloch did not rule out the possibility of conditions worsening before Saturday.

**Statto** · 3 December 2012, 09:11 PM

5 of last 6 137-148 And 7 of last 10 aged 9 or more leaves

5 F447/U Big Fella Thanks42 10 Tom George 145 -1 —
22 00P-P1 Swing Bill22 11 David Pipe 142 106 147
23 P1FP-3 West End Rocker28 10 Alan King 142 90 117
17 1-1133 Mumbles Head42 11 Peter Bowen 140 130 145

Not a bad short list IMO

**mayo** · 3 December 2012, 09:13 PM

I really am done with big fella thanks ...

**Statto** · 3 December 2012, 09:16 PM

Originally posted by mayo View Post

I really am done with big fella thanks ...

Each way material ...depends on prices. Maybe Swing Bill but like Bowen around here.

**Statto** · 3 December 2012, 09:19 PM

Favourites:Alfie Sherrin (9), Ballabriggs (9), West End Rocker (9), Join Together (10), Problema Tic (11), Any Currency (14), Big Fella Thanks (14), Planet of Sound (14), Swing Bill (14), Hello Bud (16), Mumbles Head (16), Saint Are (16), Fabalu (20), In Compliance (20), Poker De Sivola (20), Desperate Dex (25), Midnight Haze (25), Captain Americo (33), Dashing George (33), Gullible Gordon (33) Show all

**Old Vic** · 4 December 2012, 06:04 PM

"Saint Are has come out of the Hennessy absolutely fine," said Vaughan. "We are going to school him on Wednesday morning and Thursday morning to see how he jumps and, if that goes well, we will definitely give the Betfred Becher Handicap Chase serious consideration.

"It was very frustrating on Saturday because everything had gone really well in the build up to the Hennessy and we were anticipating a big run from him. It was a soft fall as he just nudged the top of the fence but couldn't get his legs out.

"He jumped brilliantly at Aintree last season and after that Dougie (Costello) said we should look at the Grand National with him because he will jump around there all day long. Dougie was bemused why he fell on Saturday as he said he is normally so nimble and careful but it's just one of those things.

"We might need to give him a couple more runs for experience before we look at a race like the Grand National but it's one day at a time and we are grateful he has come back in one piece."

**Sefton** · 4 December 2012, 08:55 PM

JOCKEY Sam Twiston-Davies has hailed veteran chaser Hello Bud as "a legend" ahead of a big date at Aintree on Saturday.

The duo are set to team up for the 17th time in the Betfred Becher Handicap Chase over the famous Grand National fences.

dream team: Hello Bud and Sam Twiston-Davies jump the last fence on their way to victory in the Becher Chase two years ago

At markedly different stages of their careers, Twiston-Davies and Hello Bud won the race in determined fashion two years ago, beating Royal Rosa by just over a length.

Twiston-Davies said Hello Bud, trained by the jockey's dad Nigel and who turns 15 on January 1, had been a big part of his career so far.

"He's a legend and I love him – he's one of my favourite horses," said the 20-year-old.

"He's always run well in the Becher, bar me falling off him last year.

"He owes nobody anything, he's a legend to ride, a real gentleman.

"He can be a bit keen at times but he just enjoys life.

"It's a pleasure to ride a horse like him that jumps so well.

"Jumping any obstacle on him seems to be no problem.

"He's not blessed with speed but he's blessed with stamina and the ability to jump fluently and quickly."

Hello Bud has proved himself a popular member of Twiston-Davies senior's stable in Guiting Power.

Formerly trained by David Wintle, he has won eight of his 41 races and earned more than �260,000 in prizemoney.

His main rivals in what could be potentially the last race of his career include Jonjo O'Neill's Alfie Sherrin, who provided jockey Richie McLernon with the first Cheltenham Festival win of his career in March.

Any Currency, who finished fourth at Cheltenham last time out, could represent Martin Keighley's stable in Luckley, near Moreton-in-Marsh.

Tom George could run two horses from his in-form stable in Slad, Big Fella Thanks, who was fourth in the 2010 Grand National, and Desperate Dex, who has won his last two races.

**Lester** · 6 December 2012, 07:22 PM

The four experimental fences on the Grand National course at Aintree will receive a thorough examination on Saturday after 16 horses were declared for the Becher Chase, to be run over three-and-a-quarter miles of the world's most famous jumps circuit. A total of 24 horses are still possible runners in the Grand Sefton Chase, to be run at over the same obstacles at the end of the card, ahead of Friday's final declarations.

Four of the fences on the National course will be fitted a new "core", designed to be softer if it makes contact with a horse's legs, in particular if the spruce covering the fence has become dislodged. Two will have a core made of birch, while the middle of the remaining two fences will be synthetic.

The experiment with a new design for the National fences follows criticism after the latest renewal of the race in April, in which two horses, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Synchronised, were killed. It was the second successive year in which two horses lost their lives in the race. Other changes to next year's race which have already been announced include a new position for the start, about half a furlong closer to the first fence.

One measure of success for the new obstacles will be if both races over the big fences take place without the spectators, either in the grandstands or on television, noticing the difference.

All four obstacles with the new cores will be the same height as the ones they have replaced, and if the new design is deemed to have been a success, all the fences on the National course, including Becher's Brook and The Chair, could receive a softer core by the time of the Grand National meeting in April 2013.

Ballabriggs, Donald McCain's 2011 Grand National winner, is the top weight for the Becher Chase, while other declared runners include Join Together, who is trained by Paul Nicholls and will be ridden by Daryl Jacob, who teamed up to win this year's race with Neptune Collonges.

^ Greg wood

**Lester** · 6 December 2012, 09:22 PM

Keighley said: "Any Currency has been in really good form since his run at Cheltenham.

"He had a wind operation over the summer which seems to have really helped him because he used to hit flat spots in his races. He was impressive when he won the Desert Orchid at Wincanton and then was a good fourth at Cheltenham in a competitive race.

"The testing conditions will be fine for him as he stays so well and Aidan Coleman gets on really well with him, so he must go there with a big chance. He has his own way of jumping but I think that will really suit him around Aintree.

"He has an entry at Sandown, which is probably the easier option, but I am very keen to see him over those Grand National fences and I'm looking forward to it."

**mayo** · 8 December 2012, 06:06 AM

Donn

Strange that the modifications they have made to the fences on the Grand National course at Aintree have been made with the objective of making them easier to jump.

Intuitively, you would think that, by making the fences easier, it woud mean that there would be fewer fallers, therefore fewer injuries, fewer chances for equine fatalities. That is obviously the theory on which the modifications are based.

But that is to not listen to some highly respected people who say that they think it might be safer if they made the fences higher and stiffer, more difficult to jump. They say that it is the speed at which they race and jump that causes the difficulty in the Grand National, not the height of the fences, and that, by making the fences easier to jump, you increase the speed at which riders will try to jump them, thereby increasing the danger.

The new fences will not be properly tested under Grand National conditions when they jump them in the Becher Chase at Aintree on Saturday. The ground will be soft, so the riders will be going more slowly than they do in April, even though Saturday’s race distance is a mile and a quarter shorter. On Saturday, you won’t see the speed that you often see in the good ground Grand Nationals that we have been having in recent years. I don’t suppose you could have the fences easy in December on soft ground and stiff in April on good ground, could you?

West End Rocker has a chance. He won the race last year with much more in hand than the 5lb higher mark off which he races on Saturday, and he didn’t shape too badly on his only run this season when a staying-on third in the Badger Ales Chase at Wincanton. He was miles behind The Package and Michel Le Bon that day admittedly, but those two are good – as The Package proved when he finished fourth in a red-hot Hennessy off an 8lb higher mark – and the ground was faster than ideal for West End Rocker. However, he is no better than 11/2 now, and that is short enough.

By contrast, there is probably still a little left in Big Fella Thanks at 8/1. Like West End Rocker, he has really good form over these big fences. His record in the Grand National, in which the four-and-a-half-mile trip just stretches his stamina beyond its limit, reads 647. He jumps these big fences well, he goes well at the track, he handles soft ground, and he is handicapped to win a decent handicap chase on a mark of 145, 6lb lower than he was when he ran in the National last year.

It isn’t ideal that he unseated his rider on his most recent run on the Mildmay course at Aintree in October, his first for Tom George, his first in over a year and a half. It was early enough in the race, but he was travelling well at the time, and he was strong enough in the market to suggest that he was showing plenty at home. He is a really interesting runner in Saturday’s race.

Join Together is also interesting. Second-season chasers don’t tend to win this, but Join Together shaped last year like a real stayer with a hint of class, and he hails from the Paul Nicholls yard, which has produced three winners of this race in the last eight years.

In Compliance is also interesting as a Dessie Hughes representative, the trainer having won this race twice in the last four years, while Problema Tic was a progressive novice last term, and should step up on his seasonal debut run behind Moonbeg Dude in the Henrietta Knight Chase at Cheltenham’s November meeting.

**mayo** · 8 December 2012, 08:47 AM

More donn

The Becher Chase at Aintree obviously has a much more open look to it at this stage, as befits a three-and-a-quarter-mile handicap chase over the Grand National fences, set to be run on soft ground. Betdaq don’t have a market on the race yet but, at current ante post prices, the two who stand out for me are West End Rocker and Big Fella Thanks.

West End Rocker won the race last year with plenty in hand off a mark of 137, and he is just 5lb higher this year. He ran just twice after the Becher Chase last season, he fell at the second fence in the Grand National, which was a little frustrating, given that his whole season had been geared towards the race, and then he was pulled up in the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown.

He didn’t run at all badly on his only run to date this term, staying on well, as he did, to finish an admittedly remote third behind The Package and Michel Le Bon in the Badger Ales Trophy at Wincanton last month off a mark of 146. The good to soft ground there just didn’t place the emphasis on stamina that Alan King’s horse needs. He will be much happier on genuinely soft or heavy ground on Saturday, we know that he handles the track and that he has been trained for the race, and the 4lb drop in his rating is undoubtedly a help. He is joint-favourite, but odds of around 8.0 are fair.

Big Fella Thanks looks even more generously priced, mind you, at 13.0. Sixth in the Grand National itself as a mere seven-year-old (and seven-year-olds just don’t win the Grand National) in 2009, he was fourth in the race in 2010 and seventh in 2011, each time travelling really well to the home turn and then just running out of stamina over the last two fences.

Three and a quarter miles should be ideal for him, he loves this course, he jumps the big fences really well, and he handles soft ground well. He was off the track for over a year and a half, from the 2011 National until he made his debut this term for Tom George in the three-mile veterans’ chase over the Mildmay fences at Aintree’s October meeting. Nicely backed that day, he was travelling well when he unseated his rider at the eighth fence.

George has confirmed that the Becher Chase has been his target for a while now, and the fact that he has been dropped 6lb to a mark of 145, because of his absence, is in his favour. It seems like he has been around for ages, but he is still only 10, which is not a disadvantage in this race (four of the last 10 winners were 10 or older, and only one of the last seven winners was younger than nine).

The Primitive Rising gelding is a highly-talented staying handicap chaser – he is a winner of the Skybet Chase at Doncaster and of the Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury – who goes well on a flat left-handed track (his best runs have been at Aintree, Newbury and Doncaster). His trainer’s horses are in fine form, and it is easy to see him running a big race. It wouldn’t be at all surprising were he to go off a fair bit shorter than the 13.0 at which you can currently back him.

**mayo** · 8 December 2012, 08:49 AM

Daqman

2.10 Liverpool (Becher Chase) The handicapper has given West End Rocker a chance here. Though he incurred a 12lb penalty for winning the race in 2011, he is down half a stone for his subsequent failures including a modest run back a month ago.

Big Fella Thanks has also been eased a few pounds: ignore his form on park tracks, and you should reckon him for finishing three times in the first seven in the Grand National; this trip will suit him better, while the fences hold no fears.

In Compliance and Hello Bud also like these big jumps. Any Currency, Poker De Sivola and Gullible Gordon all need better ground. Ballabriggs has required a run back four times out of five: he is well forward this season but also wants a sounder surface.

With any other trainer but Paul Nicholls, Join Together would be deemed too inexperienced for this, with just half a dozen chase runs on his CV. The stats say that a candidate for this massive run over the (today modified) Grand National jumps is not solid without at least 13 races over fences but Nicholls scored with Eurotrek and Silver Birch after six each and Mr Pointment with only four.

Join Together has remained an in-and-out performer, despite a wind operation, and Nicholls today admits that he needs to bounce back.

Midnight Haze is massive this morning at 33.0 on BETDAQ. He got round in the Grand National only a month after a good sixth in the Cheltenham Cross-Country. He would have been a force in either race at today’s trip and Kim Bailey’s yard is having a great season.

Fabulu has also jumped these fences well before, likes the ground and is tasty at 21.0 for the McCain stable, which knows how to win at Aintree but rarely has one this low in the handicap.

**mayo** · 9 December 2012, 07:44 AM

Golden Hello for Aintree's safer track

The rousing reception given to the splendid veteran Hello Bud, the winner of his second Becher Chase at the age of 14, notwithstanding, the most significant sound at Aintree yesterday was probably sighs of relief. The first two races run over the track's signature obstacles – the Becher and the Grand Sefton Chases – since April's ill-starred Grand National passed off without any more than routine incident.

After Synchronised and According To Pete suffered fatal injuries in separate freak accidents in the National, the course underwent several modifications, including softening the core of some fences and further levelling of landing areas. Of course, a couple of relatively small fields competing round one circuit in heavy ground bears little relationship to the cavalry charge of the National, and the real test will come in the spring, when eyes focus once again on the world's most famous steeplechase.

The consensus, though, was that the latest tinkering with the jumps was a success. "They rode great and are well-presented," said senior rider Robert Thornton, who finished third on Tranquil Sea in the Grand Sefton. Seven horses fell or lost their riders in the two chases but happily all were safely tucked up in their boxes last night.

And there could hardly have been a more serendipitous advertisement for the thrill of Aintree's unique challenge than yesterday's results. Two races after Hello Bud rolled back the years around his favourite course, his stablemate Little Josh took the Grand Sefton and in the process put trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies into the record books as the first to saddle winners of all five races run over the National fences: the National itself, the Topham, Foxhunters, Becher and Grand Sefton Chases. "Just incredible," he said. "But Aintree is what the jumping game is all about."

Both yesterday's heroes were ridden by Twiston-Davies's 20-year-old son Sam, who had instigated a treble for the Naunton yard on hurdler Master Of The Sea and who particularly worships Hello Bud. In seven tries over the National fences, the gallant old gelding has now jumped round five times, including fifth and seventh places in the National as well as his two Becher Chase wins, this one coming two years after the first. "This horse is an absolute legend," said Twiston-Davies Jnr. "He just loves this place, jumps for fun and is a lot cleverer than me."

Hello Bud, as usual, blazed most of the trail, holding on by a neck at the line from the fast-finishing Join Together. "I just set him at a gallop that I thought he could maintain," added Twiston-Davies. "He just kept going and grinding, getting over the fences as economically as he could. The last half-furlong seemed to take forever and I could hear them coming at us. He was out on his head, but I cannot tell you just how big his heart is."

Announcement

Crowdfunder - Fat Jockey Forum upgrade

Fat Jockey Patrons

Becher Chase 2012

Becher Chase 2012

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment