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King George VI Chase - Boxing Day, Kempton

Aughex said:
Don and Cue Card would've beaten Valseur Lido and Apache by 20 lengths on their top day. Ruby used the whip at full capacity up to the line to beat them by 15 lengths. Faugheen heavily eased down beat VL by 12. Vautour at Cheltenham in the in his novice hurdling days beat Josses Hill and Vaniteux by 6 lengths with a perfect round of jumping, Faugheen beat those 2 by 22 and 28 lengths. Vautour will start the 2nd time in his entire career in open company, first time he beat Ptit Zig be 1 length and a half whilst receiving 5 pounds. Vautour will need to be way better over 3 miles to tackle adversaries like Don, he will need to be a monster to confirm the market expectations of second favourite. Good luck if you have faith because at the moment that is all its driving this horse odds. I think Mullins is putting him in the ocean full of sharks too soon but probably he knows more from the home gallops than we do.
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Anyone thinking Ascot is as good as Vautour is, should really have their food pulped for them.
 
reet hard said:
Conversely, that he's being trained for the Gold Cup is also a shot across the bows for those who reckon he won't stay the King George trip.
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he doesn't mention the GC in that piece...so its not a shot across owt from what i can see..maybe your imagination.

i hope he does stay..can't see it mesen..but it will make up for coneygree not appearing..because the way its going..if he don't stay..we have then lost two main players in the dream races we wanted

it matters little to me betting wise..i'll have 20 quid on Don in the KG..thats betting interest level for me..i'm more into watching these big twigs races than having me balls on like you guys do
 
Grasshopper said:
Anyone thinking Ascot is as good as Vautour is, should really have their food pulped for them.
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Ken Pitterson was asked again yesterday on will hill radio how big Vautour was at Ascot..he said he was massive..and will come on a ton. He watches hosses for a living and has seen Vautour before.
 
Frankel said:
You not impressed by him then?
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I can see how the conditions of the race will suit but I don't think his form alone entitles him to be favourite. Any form derived from grade 1's in April is only good for the nearest bin in my opinion.
 
TheBear said:
As for Don Cossack, I really don't see what form entitles him to be fav for this.
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The highest rated form in the field, the highest RPR and highest top-speed. His demolition job in the Melling, destruction of Djakadam in the Punchestown Gold Cup and the effortless of his victories this season.

I can see what you mean.

Who else would you have as favourite; a horse running over half a mile more than he's ever been before and has question marks to answer over his jumping on a RH track, a horse who was stuffed out of sight twice at the back-end of last season by Dopn Cossack and has failed to win this race twice before or a horse who has managed to won this race twice - in arguably weaker fields - but appears to be on the decline ?
 
TheBear said:
Aughex, reading the form that literally is not for me. Vautour won't lose because he beat the same horses as Faugheen by less lengths over hurdles, it will be because of the reasons outlined above.
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I was outlining the Cheltenham form that Kauto Abu said will take to beat Don and Cue, and that is not so great as its being made by Mullins and others. The latters have both displayed better performances in open company. It would take Vautour more than that to be competitive in the KG, let alone winning it. I do think one thing in his favour is that he'll be better over further because he's a thorough galloper which will find the trip suitable rather than pain like it did Champagne Fever but as Ruby says in his blog "It will be interesting to find out" how he'll go in its his first G1 in open company. His price is mostly based on faith, rather than substance, even for a Mullins horse(except probably Min?).
 
I'd have Cue Card as favourite. His performances this season suggest he's back to the form of 2013. That year ended with him in the process of thrashing Conti in this race before the injury struck. As I've already said I don't really value that form last April, especially since we know Cue Card was struggling with his breathing. It's all just opinion and what form you're willing to value and discard. That's just my viewpoint and I'll be the first to admit that I may well be completely wrong about DC.

When was the last time a NH race outside of Cheltenham generated 13 pages of discusion on this forum? Such a fascinating race.

*I'll just qualify that by not including the Grand National!
 
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Going into that race he was rated 174, which was at his peak, and even if he'd won the performance from 173 rated Conti might not be on par with the ratings Don Cossack or Vautour are capable of posting.

Everybody has to take a view at some point so fair enough if you're dismissing DC's spring runs but that Punchestown Gold Cup performance was as good as I've seen in a while and the form is rock solid. You could possibly argue that Djakadam had a hard race in the Gold Cup but DC had a tough one in the Ryanair too and had been to Aintree in the interim whereas the Ricci horse had a nice 6 week break.
 
Don of course
And he'll grind them into the ground Saturday too
1 DC
2 Conti
3 Vautour
 
Any chance of an upset ?
Having seen Nupsala win from a suicidal pace and See More Business an unconsidered 16/1 chance the King George can be that kind of race.
Given a free bet Don Cossack would be it but it is a race to watch and savour rather can go ball deep imo.
 
One to watch and go balls deep......

........on Don Cossack.

Can't wait. This feels like waiting for Kauto at Christmas all over again.
 

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