If you’re a dyed-in-the-tweed National Hunt fan this time of year is particularly bitter sweet. Cheltenham, which the whole season has built toward, has been and gone and although the greatest single race in the calendar is just a week away, the beginning of the end is in full swing. Yes, there is still Aintree to come and Ayr, some Perth and of course Sandown. Punchestown will cram enough racing into five days to give the most desperate National Hunt addict their final hit of the season. However while this culmination plays out, focus on jumping is marginalised. The flat is back.
It starts with the stable tours of the flat yards in the Racing Post and on websites like Sporting Life and ATR, Channel 4 Racing on a Saturday afternoon doesn’t broadcast exclusively jumping but instead slips in a few flat races and then out of nowhere, before we’ve even arrived at Liverpool, a whole Saturday broadcast is on the level from Doncaster. The spotlight now shines on that uncomfortable concept; races that don’t require the participants to leave the ground, that can take anywhere from 50 seconds to 4 minutes, can be run in a straight line and even more bizarrely on race courses that have a start and a finish but never the twain shall meet. Premier flat racing tracks like Epsom, Goodwood, The Curragh and even HQ, Newmarket; they’re not even continuous!
The prospect of counting down until Charlie Hall Chase day, with only the Swinton Hurdle, Summer Cup, Summer Plate and Galway as oasis’s in the bleak monotony of horses getting from A to B the quickest without an obstacle in sight, can break many a jumps junkie. But fear not, there is a way to embrace the flat, to make those glorious summer months pass more quickly until we can get back to racecards starting at 12.30pm and being all done by 4 o’clock. All hail the DUAL PURPOSE HORSE.
There are hundreds of dual purpose horses but for the objective of enjoying the flat campaign then you need to be looking at the top end, the Cup horses or big handicaps over a distance. If you were happy enough to follow the low level flat racing then you may as well stick to summer jumping, right?
Now, if your idea of a horse race is the Sussex National, the Borders National or the Devon Marathon then it’s safe to say there isn’t going to be anything on the level to whet the appetite. Likewise if you like to see novice hurdles or chases where there’s a 2/5 favourite running against a handful of inferior animals then, again, you’ll struggle. However if you love big field handicap hurdles like the Ladbroke, the Betfair, Coral Cup and County then there’s plenty of opportunity to take an interest in the major flat meetings – and a lot of it is mid-week which breaks up the tired routine of the working week.
I propose breaking the flat season down into the following ten races:
- Chester Cup
- Yorkshire Cup
- Ascot Stakes
- Queen Alexandra Stakes
- Stayers Triple Crown – Ascot Gold Cup/Goodwood Cup/Doncaster Cup
- Northumberland Plate
- Lonsdale Cup
- Ebor Handicap
- Cesarewitch
- Champions Day Long Distance Cup
The Chester Cup
Chester’s May meeting is the first port of call in the quest to acclimatise and as luck would have it, it’s the quirkiest of the venues where you can lose the race before even stepping foot on the track with the draw. The Roodee is a one mile round course where they’re always on the turn and so you want to be drawn low. What, even over 2 miles two and a half furlongs? More often than not, yes…
In days past, just a few years ago when everything in the garden of Cholmondeley was rosy, the go to trainer was Donald McCain when his Overturn, fresh from filling the runner-up berth in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, finished second at Chester behind McCain’s other runner Ill De Re, himself having last run in Sandown’s Imperial Cup. Overturn was bidding to win back to back Chester Cup’s having bounced out and made all the year before. Donald’s two wins in succession followed a year after David Pipe’s Mamlook had been victorious. Over the years Pond House has never been far away from capturing one of these staying handicaps on the flat.
Flat or jumps there’s always a plot in the Tony Martin yard and it was his Quick Jack that was backed into favourite last season but he was unable to hold off Trip To Paris giving him 5lbs. It was some run as Trip To Paris subsequently won the Ascot Gold Cup.
The Yorkshire Cup
A week after Chester and it’s the first visit to York of the season for the Dante meeting and the race to watch here is on the final day of the three, the Yorkshire Cup over 1m6f. Being a conditions race the big guns of the flat are well represented on the honours board: bin Suroor, Cecil, Gosden, Dunlop and Stoute to name a few but Alan King hit the frame two years ago with the ill-fated Tiger Cliff before he’d had the chance to be sent over hurdles, Blue Bajan who featured in Totesport Trophys and Champion Hurdles, as well as winning the Swinton over sticks was second in the race, twice. If you go back a decade and Percussionist of Howard Johnson’s finished 2nd, 1st and 4th in successive years.
This year’s entries are out and though it features the ante-post favourite for the Ascot Gold Cup in Order Of St George it’s the first sign that Willie Mullins maybe about to step up his flat squad again with both Sempre Medici and Thomas Hobson entered, both having been last seen pulling up at the Cheltenham Festival.
Royal Ascot: Ascot Stakes and Queen Alexandra Stakes
The flat rolls on into June and although still in the first months of the season, arguably the most prestigious and high profile meeting of the flat campaign takes place in Berkshire, the five days of Royal Ascot. On the first day is the ‘National Hunt Trainers Benefit Stakes’ or Ascot Stakes to give it it’s official name on the racecard. A veritable who’s who of the winter game appears amongst the winning trainers of this handicap over two and a half miles; both Martin and David Pipe, Nicky Henderson, Tony Martin, Willie Mullins, and Jonjo O’Neill with a JP McManus horse – you can’t get more National Hunt than that! Two years ago Charles Byrnes, no stranger to laying one out at any of Ireland’s jumps tracks was in the winners enclosure at the Royal Meeting with a horse whose name sums up perfectly the success national hunt trainers enjoy in this race; Domination.
The fifth and final day of the meeting, the last race of the week is the Queen Alexandra Stakes run over an extra furlong than the Ascot Stakes and Gold Cup, unlike the opening day’s handicap it’s a conditions race but Nicky Henderson landed it in 2009 with Caracciola and Willie Mullins has won it twice with Simenon in 2012 and Pique Sous in 2014 both sent off 11/4. However last year the Master of Closutton had one even shorter. Wicklow Brave, for the same owners as Simenon, was the banker of the week for many and he was 5/4f at the off but he stumbled out of the stalls and never really recovered although it’s likely that he didn’t get the trip. He finished 4th.
The Stayers Triple Crown – Ascot Gold Cup / Goodwood Cup / Doncaster Cup
Okay, so these are three races and therefore my neat little narrative of ten flat races to follow goes a little skew-whiff. The Ascot Gold Cup is the only Group 1 race on the list, run over two and a half miles and held on the Thursday of the Royal Meeting, it’s obviously more unlikely to have a horse who’s been hurdling pitch up and capture flat racings most prestigious prize for stayers. However that doesn’t mean there’s not an interest there as plenty have tried. In recent years Willie Mullins’s Simenon was second, Missunited after winning the Galway Hurdle in 2013, the following season the mare was third in the Ascot Gold Cup and although he’s yet to jump timber, Dermot Weld’s Forgotten Rules, 3rd last year started his career in a Punchestown bumper so he’s claimed by the jumpers too. Dermot Weld, dual purpose trainer extraordinaire has won the Gold Cup in 2010 with Rite Of Passage, the first of the post Yeats era.
The other two in the Triple Crown are Group 2 races; the Goodwood Cup is run during ‘Glorious Goodwood’ over two miles at the height of summer, whilst the Doncaster Cup is at September’s St Leger meeting and run over two and a quarter miles. The Goodwood Cup has eluded the dual purpose horse as has the Doncaster Cup although last September Clondaw Warrior for Willie Mullins was second. Clondaw Warrior is remarkably versatile not only in discipline but in trip as well. Following on from last summer’s Ascot Stakes win over two and a half miles, his next start saw him win at the Galway Festival six weeks later over a mile less. He’s just kicked off his 2016 season with a victory over hurdles at two miles at Fairyhouse and now rated 108 on the flat it looks like he’ll be a regular fixture in the Cup races this summer.
Northumberland Plate
Sadly this entry has to have a big question mark against it. The Pitman’s Derby over two miles was a highlight of late June and Newcastle’s premier race of their flat season. However that was before they ripped the turf course up and replaced it with the synthetic. So a race that has seen Martin Pipe win it twice, Donald McCain win it with the same two horses he won the Chester Cup with, Tony Martin and Jonjo O’Neill as well as Willie Mullins’s Max Dynamite last year announcing his qualities on the level finishing second from a bad draw, has changed beyond all recognition and nobody can say whether this will see a marked decline in the race but you can confidently opine that it certainly won’t enhance it by running on the sand. Eshtiaal of Gordon Elliot’s could be one to have on the radar for this.
Lonsdale Cup and Ebor Handicap
August and as the jumping fraternity start to back a Mullins trained, Ricci owned unheard of for the Supreme Novice’s seven months away so the flat arrives back at York. The Ebor Meeting is the favourite meeting of the summer for many and the stayers are well catered for, firstly with the Group 2 Lonsdale Cup over an extended two miles and then the heritage handicap the meeting takes it’s name from, over 1m6f the following day, The Ebor.
Last season saw Max Dynamite win the Lonsdale Cup for Willie Mullins with Peter Niven’s beaten favourite, Clever Cookie in 4th. Clever Cookie has been a massive success since he first mixed flat racing with hurdling to the extent his career over timber has gone on hold. Last season he won the Ormonde Stakes at Chester, the Grand Cup at York, took his chance in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes before finishing the season second in the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day. He’s amongst the entries for 2016’s Yorkshire Cup.
A day later in the Ebor the Mullins double was foiled as Wicklow Brave was second at 9/1 in a race that had joint 5/1 favourites, Clondaw Warrior and Quick Jack. National Hunt represent on the Knavesmire.
Mullins has won this in the past, in 2009 when his mare Sesenta held off Aidan O’Brien’s Changingoftheguard. The following year it was the turn of Gordon Elliot with his gelding Dirar who’d warmed up with a 3rd behind Overturn in the Galway Hurdle. Dirar was sent off sixth choice of the punters at 14/1 and after a patient ride in the first half of the race, Jamie Spencer weaved through to find the nearside rail and won cosily. Two races later Dirar was running in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham as he did the following year. Galway Hurdle, Ebor Handicap, County Hurdle; that’s dual purpose.
Cesarewitch
If the Ascot stakes in June is farmed by the jumps trainers then the Cesarewitch at Newmarket in October isn’t far behind in yielding a good harvest. The last ten years got under way with Detroit City winning for Philip Hobbs. Part of an eight race winning sequence his two previous starts had been his victories in the Cheltenham Festival’s Triumph Hurdle and Aintree’s Anniversary Hurdle and a month after the Cesarewitch he was back at Cheltenham winning the Greatwood. The following year National Hunt horses filled the first four places; John Queally’s two time winner of the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle, Al Eile was 4th, Fair Along for Philip Hobbs was 3rd five months before filling the same berth in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Nicky Henderson’s Caracciola was 2nd with Tony Martin’s Leg Spinner winning, two seasons after the same horse had won the Ascot Stakes for Martin. The next season, 2008, jumps trainers again filled the podium; Mamlook was 3rd for David Pipe – he would be second the following year too, Tony Martin this time was runner-up with Arc Bleu whilst Nicky Henderson and Caracciola had their revenge in 1st (at the grand old age for a flat horse of 11.)
In 2012 another crack trainer of a dual purpose horse, John Quinn sprung a 33/1 shock in the Triumph Hurdle at the Festival with Countrywide Flame. Later that year his gelding was on the receiving end of a 66/1 surprise in the Cesarewitch when sent off 7/1 favourite but beaten half a length by Brian Meehan’s Aaim To Prosper, who was winning the race for a second time having first scored in 2010. Jonjo O’Neill’s Tominator was 3rd (he’d win the Northumberland Plate the following summer.) That 2012 Cesarewitch was Aaim To Prosper’s swansong on the flat as he was sent novice hurdling and ran in that season’s Albert Bartlett Novice’s Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Countrywide Flame meanwhile went straight to Newcastle and landed the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle.
Nicky Henderson hit the frame again in 2013 with Lieutenant Miller and the following year the jumpers were first and third with Tony Martin’s Quick Jack the 5/1 favourite, but arguably he didn’t truly stay the 2m2f trip in 3rd but Philip Hobbs’s Big Easy certainly did when landing the race for the same owner, Terry Warner as Detroit City. Last season Quick Jack was again 3rd, Willie Mullins’s enigmatic Renneti was in 4th having got going a shade too late whilst it was the turn of Alan King to win his first Cesarewitch with the 50/1 shot, former Triumph Hurdle favourite and Anniversary Hurdle winner, Grumeti.
Champions Day Long Distance Cup
Formerly the Jockey Club Cup, the Group 2 Long Distance Cup is over two miles run on British Champions Day. The flag has been flown here by Dermot Weld with his two winners, Rite Of Passage and Forgotten Rules. Forgotten Rules started favourite last season but couldn’t repeat his 2014 win, instead flat powerhouse John Gosden was successful with his Flying Officer but it was Clever Cookie and Wicklow Brave who filled the minor placings. British Champions Day is in mid-October and Cheltenham’s Showcase Meeting is the following weekend so you can be forgiven if you’re past caring by this point.
The above itinerary should help with what appears a barren period from May to October and as well as those listed which are run in this country, there’s plenty of fare in Ireland as those dual purpose stayers prep to be sent across the water to plunder the prizes. Pretty much the trainers to look out for with the fire power to figure when taking on their flat counterparts, have all got a mention somewhere or other in the race recaps but certainly keep an eye out for Gordon Elliot (Taglietelle, Eshtiaal, Bayan) Tony Martin (Quick Jack, Ted Veale, Heartbreak City, Elishpour and Thomas Edison – he’s being plotted up for something, possibly the Galway Hurdle again but he’s definitely got a big flat pot in him off 92.) Nicky Henderson (Cardinal Walter, Hurricane Higgins and particularly Sign Of A Victory.) David Pipe (Low Key.)
Of course, towering above all, just as he dominates National Hunt racing so his posse he runs on the flat looks ever stronger. Willie Mullins has always run horses on the level but now, in conjunction with his leading owner, Rich Ricci who you gather really enjoyed his Melbourne Cup experience has a little more of a taste for the summer game. Max Dynamite who went from strength to strength last summer, headed Down Under and finished 2nd at Flemington is now rated 117 which would have been joint top rated in 2015’s Ascot Gold Cup so he’s a stayer in the very top division but is likely to also take in the Galway Hurdle in July. Wicklow Brave belongs in the top echelon too off 112 and will replace the same owner’s grand servant, Simenon. Clondaw Warrior will be a Cup horse whilst Renneti will be campaigned on the flat this summer and Pique Sous is fit again. Then you have a whole raft of hurdlers who wouldn’t be in Mullins’s ‘A-Team’ in the winter but have come from the flat and their trainer has shown previously how much he can improve them on the level: Sempre Medici, Thomas Hobson, Open Eagle to name a few.
Finally there’s Limini who off 89 is a winner waiting to happen and nobody will bat an eyelid if that win is the Ascot Stakes in June.
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