I'd like to see Chatterbox take his chance in the Supreme. Apparently Nicky Henderson does not see him as a Cheltenham horse and even though he still holds entries for the Supreme and the Neptune, it sounds as though he is going to miss Cheltenham altogether.
After his win in the Betfair novice’s hurdle, the focus was on the interference that La Fontana met with and Jonathan Neesom on Racing UK commented that Chatterbox “keeps being lucky”. But he did beat La Fontana 2 lengths easing down and giving La Fontana 16lbs.
I know the time of the race was 8.9 seconds slower than the Betfair hurdle but the early pace in the novice’s hurdle was pedestrian in comparison with the Betfair hurdle. MTOY covered the first half of the race 8 seconds faster than Chatterbox completed the first half of his race. Chatterbox is by the sire Poliglote whose progeny have quite an impressive Cheltenham record.
Spirit Son, 2nd in his only run at Cheltenham, the 2011 Supreme with the likes of Sprinter Sacre and Cue Card behind.
Lingo, an easy winner of his only race at the Cheltenham, the Greatwood hurdle over 2m½f.
Spirit River, winner of the Coral Cup and a 17f hurdle race at Cheltenham. 2 from 4 over hurdles at Cheltenham and was running a big race in last year’s Coral Cup when coming down at the last.
Far West who is 2 from 2 at Cheltenham having won two Triumph hurdle trials
Hinterland who has finished 1st , 2nd and 3rd in his 3 runs at Cheltenham, having won a Triumph hurdle trial there.
And Butlers Cabin who won a handicap chase at the Festival.
So plenty of Cheltenham and Festival form amongst his sire’s progeny and of course Poliglote is now the sire of an Arc winner.
Poliglote’s progeny appear to excel over 17 furlongs and although they have a better strike rate on soft ground, it is not much worse on good to soft or good going.
On the dam’s side, Ney Will, there is not much to go on but the 2nd dam, Gleep Will, was the dam of My Will, 5th in an Arkle and a Gold Cup and 4th in a Ryanair.
I haven’t referred yet to the hurdle race in December when Chatterbox did beat MTOY when receiving 5lbs. This race is generally written off as MTOY getting stuck in the heavy going and Chatterbox getting the run on MTOY. However, MTOY was going every bit as well in that race as he was in the Betfair hurdle – “breezing along” 2 out and “happy just to sit there” at the final fence according to Simon Holt in the commentary. Chatterbox was about 2 lengths up on MTOY at the last but won 4½ lengths easing up whereas MTOY had to be ridden out for 2nd place. This is not dissimilar to 3 other races where MTOY has been absolutely cantering along but not finished with the same authority that you would have thought he would. This includes Ascot when he beat Taquin Du Seuil and a couple of his bumpers. Admittedly, his last 2 races have looked great but some of MTOY's previous races make me think that there may be a chink in him.
Anyway, this is probably all meaningless because the vibes are that Chatterbox will miss Cheltenham but I wish Nicky Henderson would let him take his chance in the Supreme – not least because I don’t want to lose my ante-post bet !
