Racing Post

THE NOVEMBER MEETING THE SEASON IGNITES

Robbie Wilders analyses the first big fixture of the jumps campaign – one that marks the beginning of the road to the festival

SUMMER and early autumn is a quiet time of year for the jump racing world, despite the season officially beginning in April, but the noise ramps up once Champions Day on the Flat is out of the way in October and you’re ready to scream by the time Cheltenham’s November meeting comes around.

The sport’s biggest names have been wrapped in cotton wool until this point, and this meeting often gives punters a first look at not just the established stars, but the aspiring ones too.

The significance of this three-day fixture is there for all to see. It is the jumps season’s first flagship meeting and regularly provides clues for the four days of the festival in March.

Friday’s action is headlined by the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, a race that provides a unique test for a staying chaser with various unusual obstacles to overcome.

The Paddy Power Gold Cup is probably the second best handicap chase of the winter behind the Coral Gold Cup (formally the Ladbrokes) and takes centre stage on the Saturday, while Sunday’s highlight, the Unibet

Greatwood Handicap Hurdle, is another standout early season contest and has a history of producing Champion Hurdle contenders later on in the season.

This is a meeting to pay close attention to because stacks of future big-race winners will emerge across the three days.

KEY RACES Paddy Power Gold Cup Saturday

Grade 1 horses running in handicaps are hard to find nowadays, but this race produced one last season – and he didn’t even win.

Protektorat made a bold bid under top weight when a close second to Midnight Shadow on his seasonal debut, before slamming 2018 Gold Cup hero Native River by 25 lengths on his next start in the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree in December.

Taquin Du Seuil scored at the highest level earlier in his career before winning this in 2016, and 2012 scorer Al Ferof went on to be placed in two King Georges at Kempton.

However, this is always an ultra-competitive handicap and seven of the last nine winners carried 11st or less. Class is not always enough and Frodon proved that when finishing second in 2018 en route to landing the Ryanair at the festival.

You need to wind back the clock to 2015 to find the last winner who arrived without a prep run, and targeting lowerweighted runners with the benefit of race fitness is clearly important nowadays.

Unibet Greatwood Handicap Hurdle Sunday

Another huge handicap in the racing calendar, this time over hurdles, and not many races rate as high as last season’s Greatwood. The race produced 11 subsequent winners, and the seventh-home Marie’s

Rock bagged a pair of Grade 1s at the Cheltenham and Punchestown festivals later in the season.

We also had a Betfair Hurdle winner, a Galway Hurdle scorer, a National Spirit winner, a Betfair Exchange Trophy victor and another who went on to score at the Punchestown festival.

There are few stronger twomile handicap hurdles in Britain and it is vital we study this season’s race with a view to the future.

We have seen a shift in the profile of a typical Greatwood winner in recent years. Four victors defied top weight of 11st 12lb from 2002-2010, but 2014 scorer Garde Le Victoire remains the only horse to have obliged in the past decade when carrying more than 11st. Like the Paddy Power Gold Cup, it generally pays to side with lower-weighted contenders.

Shloer Chase Sunday

Who can forget the great Sprinter Sacre bringing the house down when reviving his career with a first success in two and a half years in the 2015 Shloer?

Sprinter Sacre provided one of Nicky Henderson’s two successes in the last decade, while Philip Hobbs, Alan King and Colin Tizzard have also been trainers to follow with two victories apiece in that timeframe.

Arkle winner Put The Kettle On took this as a warm-up for the Champion Chase in 2020, and course form seems to be the key when looking for the winner.

The last ten winners had either won or been placed at Cheltenham, with nine of those running at the previous festival.

Nube Negra produced a sparkling display for Dan and Harry Skelton in this last season and boasts an excellent record fresh, so would be an ideal candidate to follow up in this race in November.

Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase Friday

It is well worth savouring this idiosyncratic event. Cheltenham’s cross-country course is the only one of its kind in Britain and there are limited opportunities to witness a field of chasers tackling cheese wedges, ditches and railed hedges over a marathon trip.

Friday’s highlight became a handicap in 2015 and has become harder to predict as a consequence with winners at 22-1, 13-2 and 14-1 in the past five seasons.

Those successful in that timeframe carried 10st 11lb or less, but found life tougher in the equivalent cross-country contest at the festival in March against classier opponents off level weights.

Despite the fact Easysland and Tiger Roll found it impossible to concede the weight in this in 2020, the pair went on to fill the first two positions at the 2021 festival.

They plundered four of the last five festival Cross Country Chases between them, and clearly this race was a sighter for bigger targets.

JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle Saturday

The Triumph Trial Hurdle is an essential race for establishing the early pecking order in the juvenile hurdle division.

Hurdling is a relatively new experience for these youngsters and results are mixed between

proper jumps types and those with battle-hardened with Flat experience.

Last season’s winner Knight Salute belonged in the latter category and proved an outstanding find by Milton Harris out of the Andrew Balding yard.

Knight Salute completed a Grade 2 hat-trick with subsequent successes at Doncaster and Kempton, and while he failed to follow up at the Cheltenham Festival, normal service resumed at Aintree. He deadheated with Pied Piper in the 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle, before been awarded the race in the stewards’ room, to deliver Harris a first to-level win.

This was also the race in which Defi Du Seuil announced himself in 2016 and he went on to win seven Grade 1s for Philip Hobbs. From The Horses Mouth Podcast Novices’ Chase

Saturday running of this Grade 2 was hardly vintage, but did shine a light on the talents of Dan Skelton’s easy winner Third Time Lucki.

That performance prompted Third Time Lucki to go off favourite for the Grade 1

Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown on Tingle Creek day. While he could manage only third behind Edwardstone, subsequent events prove he bumped into a superstar.

This is always a contest worth noting and frequently goes to a young, classy hurdler. Nine of the last ten winners recorded a Racing Post Rating of 143 or higher over hurdles, and two of the past ten scorers went on to achieve Champion Chase glory at the festival the following season.

The Paul Nicholls-trained Dodging Bullets (2013) and Henry de Bromhead’s Put The Kettle On (2019) were the two who advertised their Grade 1 talents in this event.

THE BIG JUMP OFF

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