Novice chasers 2013/14

Nicky Henderson has attacked a lack of opportunities that he claims may force him to run his elite novice chasers against each other.

Asked about running plans for Oscar Whisky and Grandouet, two high-class hurdlers who both met with defeat on their steeplechasing debuts, the reigning champion trainer blasted the race programme, saying that he may be forced to return to Sandown with Grandouet, despite the horse unseating Barry Geraghty at the final fence after a couple of shaky jumps at the track earlier this month.

"I haven't made a plan for Oscar Whisky but he's fine," said Henderson. "Again, I'd just love to go and win a little race with him. I'd like to say Dai [Walters, the horse's owner] go and find it for me and I'll run him in it, but you can't do it - not with these 150-rated hurdlers. You're not allowed to.

"Grandouet desperately needs a confidence booster but there's only one race for him between now and Christmas - the Henry VII [back at Sandown in a fortnight's time]. The only race he can run in between now and Christmas! Is that really where I want to go back to? Of course it isn't but it's where he's got to go.

"There's a big danger. We've got four or five would-be novice chasers this season but we're not going to bother. We're going to leave them over hurdles because there's nowhere for them to go.

"One day you'll be wondering why there are only three horses in the Amlin Chase and it will be purely because the chasers aren't coming through, because they've stopped them at their novice chase point because there's nothing for them to do.

"Grandouet will be ruined if it goes as badly as it did last time. I hope he will be better. Oscar Whisky, well, we'll probably be brave enough to take him but if that horse doesn't get it right next time that will be the end of his chasing career and it will be the end of his chasing career because of the programme - not him.

"Grandouet didn't find Sandown very easy the other day and that's the only place I can go, he has to run in that. Everything else is a novice handicap and he can't run in those because they're 0-140s, this is the only race he can run in.

"Normally, you'd be able to let him go and have a nice couple of spins. And that's why there will be no chasers in three or four years time."

Henderson admitted that he was partly a victim of his own success, but said that running horses of that quality against each other would be "daft".

"It's easy for Paul [Nicholls] and I to be saying this because we've got these horses, but I've got eight horses rated over 140 going novice chasing and all they can do is meet each other," he continued.

"You ask them what can we do and they say 'Take each other on' - i.e. me run Oscar Whisky against my own horses. Amazing, it's just daft.

"You can see their point because you get a two-and-a-half-mile novice chase with only three entries but that's [down to] the handicapper because nobody wants to take them on, because they're frightened of finishing on top of the highly-rated horses."
 
For a champion trainer, Henderson appears to be utterly clueless about the race programme.

Grandouet has no penalty in novice chases, and bleating about him being a 150+ rated hurdler has bugger-all to do with anything. He can run him in any novice chase, at any track - he just doesn't seems to fancy a visit to anywhere outside Cheltenham, Sandown, Newbury or Ascot. He was forever trying to keep his top hurdling prospects apart to0 - that particular approach leading to Zaynar's Kelso humiliation at odds of 1/14.

It's a good job he has wealthy owners who can buy top prospects, because if training was down to race-planning for plodders, he'd have gone out of business a long, long time ago - either that, or he'd have been forced to adopt the much more pragmatic approach than trainers with less fire-power have to.

Zero sympathy from this quarter.
 
Diamond Geezer said:
"There's a big danger. We've got four or five would-be novice chasers this season but we're not going to bother. We're going to leave them over hurdles because there's nowhere for them to go."
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Chatterbox could quite easily have taken in the race Le Bec won the other day at Cheltenham and then the Feltham.
 
Much improved performance from Just A Par today and he'll be up there in the big staying novice chases this year

Another decent Nicholls novice in Wonderful Charm out at Newbury tomorrow. He looks a real stayer so expected him to step up trip, not down, so won't be getting involved at around evens
 
Speaking of Just A Par, how was stablemate Easter Day able to get a handicap mark for today's win in a novice handicap chase that was already 5 lbs below his hurdles mark after just one run?
 
Just a par's in my TTF, I was worried after his chase debut but good staying performance second time out.
 
PP sent me a missive a few months ago that said I cannot take advantage any of their special offers.
 
Nice performance from Valdez under a penalty. He jumped really well too; though perhaps just a touch more right-handed than one would like, insofar as the Arkle is concerned.
 
With the exception of balls up at the 2nd last, Eduard jumped & travelled really well last month and expect him to win this afternoon at Carlisle

The Drinmore is clearly the race of the day, but can't decide between Don Cossack & Sizing
 
Perpetual said:
With the exception of balls up at the 2nd last, Eduard jumped & travelled really well last month and expect him to win this afternoon at Carlisle
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on form there is little between Mwaleshi and Eduardo..but ...on the speed figure Mwaleshi ran last time makes him the one i'm going with today..imjokeking is also worth a watch next time on that wetherby run...the ohr ratings for mwaleshi & imjoking look at total odds with what they ran at Wetherby on the clock..so its probably the clock that means bugger all...if it was meaningful time though then Mwaleshi has little to fear from eduard today
 
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