Getting back to basics

By James Condron

The importance of jumping fluently was seen at Cheltenham on Saturday with the performances of Little Josh in winning the Paddy Power Gold Cup Handicap Chase and Midnight Chase’s victory in the three miles and three furlongs Morson Group Handicap Chase earlier on the card. Backing horses that jump well and avoiding horses who struggle in this department seems a basic rule of thumb when backing horses in the National Hunt game but I amaze myself how often I give greater weight to other considerations when analysing a race.

Little Josh had gone into my notebook as a horse to note for the future after dead heating with Hennessy Gold Cup hopeful Weird Al at Carlisle a fortnight ago, when running on flat tracks and after a break. The Nigel Twiston-Davies gelding looked to have had an extremely tough race in the 2 ½ miles graduation chase, jumping boldly from the front before being joined on the line after being all out up the straight. I presumed that Little Josh would benefit from a short break to get over his exertions but to his credit, he returned only two weeks later to win one of the most prestigious and valuable handicap chases in the racing calendar.

No less brave was the performance of Midnight Chase in winning earlier on the card, who like Little Josh, made every winning post a winning one. It was especially meritorious as the David Pipe-trained Gentle Ranger was putting pressure on the Neil Mulholland-trained son of Midnight Legend from the drop of the flag until eventually settling in behind Midnight Chase after the sixth fence. Most observers must have expected the pace setting exertions to take their toll on the leader late on in the race but Midnight Chase actually picked up the gallop again to win by a distance of eight lengths.

Both horses really seemed to enjoy themselves, jumping boldly from fence to fence and appeared to increase their lead from the chasing field at many of the obstacles. The maintaining of a rhythm and quickness away from each fence must be of vital importance in competitive races, especially so on ground described as ‘sticky’ on Saturday, where those held up or tracking the pace, with the exception of Dancing Tornado (who has had his problems in the jumping department himself in the past) in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, found it hard to make in roads on the leaders.

A quick and accurate jumper gets from one side of the fence in as short a time as possible, losing little momentum, enabling the horse to relax on the level between obstacles conserving vital energy as the jockey does not have to kick on the horse to accelerate to get back on terms with his rivals.

While the fences at Cheltenham are said to be stiff, the pace at which the races are run at its major meetings accentuate the task that suspect jumpers face and the large field sizes for major races add to the importance of being able to hold a position. It cannot be a coincidence that the top jockeys on good jumpers always seem to go the shortest way around, confident in the ability of their mount to jump accurately at pace and not needing to give their mount a good look at their fences or ‘keep out of trouble’ on the outside, giving away vital ground.

Long Run on the other hand, without ever making a serious mistake, lacked fluency in his jumping in the Paddy Power Gold Cup and after niggly mistakes at a few of his fences needed to be kicked on by jockey Sam Waley Cohen to keep up the gallop. I noted the opinion of John Francome on Channel 4, regarding the jumping of Long Run, stating that he thought he was unable to move his feet quick enough if he got too close to a fence but was able to ping his fences if he met them on a good stride. As the saying goes, fences are there to be jumped, and one has to be sceptical as to whether his jumping will hold up in a King George where Tom George’s Nacarat will be likely to force a scorching pace placing pressure on the jumping of Nicky Henderson’s runner.

It is difficult to identify good or suspect jumpers from simply reading the formbook, as the level of detail contained is quite limited, with comments on each runner usually abbreviated due to space constraints, while the analysis of the race is based on the opinion of race analysts. There is no substitute for viewing races a number of times and forming your own opinions on how horses jump as no matter what other variables one takes into account, the ability to jump accurately at pace, stands horses in good stead particularly at tracks with notoriously stiff fences such as Ascot, Cheltenham, Fairyhouse and Newbury to name a few.

By James Condron