Haydock Saturday

Betfair Chase (Grade 1)

PROTEKTORAT (Dan/Harry Skelton) put himself back into contention for the Cheltenham Gold Cup with a surprisingly bloodless 15/2 victory in the Grade 1 Betfair Chase at Haydock.

Only third behind A Plus Tard at the Festival in March, the son of Saint Des Saints turned the tables authoritatively with an 11-length romp over Eldorado Allen (Joe Tizzard/Brendan Powell), although it must be acknowledged that the Gold Cup hero was listless throughout before being pulled up in the straight by Rachael Blackmore.

Bristol De Mai was seeking a fourth victory in the race, and made the early running, but the veteran grey isn’t possessed of the engine of old and trying to draw the sting out of younger rivals merely saw him a spent force soon after Protektorat sailed by four fences from home.

The old boy will drop in the weights for this, and while no longer a Grade 1 horse on this showing, he can make his mark at a lesser level, especially when the ground is winter deep.

Travelling best

Harry Skelton was clearly travelling best down the back straight and didn’t need to ask much of his mount to get to the front at the first in the home straight, and having pinged the last three, he won with ease despite the efforts of the runner-up to reduce the deficit.

Protektorat was cut to around 10/1 (from 25/1) for the Gold Cup on the back of this, and given he arguably shaped second best behind A Plus Tard in March, which seems a fair reaction, especially with the reigning champion suddenly finding himself with something to prove.

“We didn’t have a plan for beyond this, we are looking at the Gold Cup in the spring because we ran in the race last year,” said Dan Skelton. “I always felt this horse could improve. He’s had three goes at the trip – once was an afterthought, once was the Gold Cup, and once was at Aintree. This today was his fourth go, and he is allowed to improve for a lot of reasons. I’m chuffed to bits, it’s absolutely magic.”

“I said I may go to the Fleur De Lys Chase at Lingfield during the Winter Million weekend, or the Cotswold Chase, but he won’t be going to the King George, no way. Today is a big stepping stone, but the favourite underperformed.

“We’re going to have to cross swords with them again when they’re on a better day. It’s always a strong division and we’re proud to have one right up there.”

Rachael Blackmore reported that A Plus Tard stopped quickly when she decided not to continue, and he was clearly not right for some reason, although Henry de Bromhead reported him in fine fettle setting off for Haydock, and nothing has yet come to light to indicate why he should have run such a lifeless race.

Botox Has Moore smiling

BOTOX Has provided Gary Moore with a big across-the-card double after Goshen’s success at Ascot, and in the absence of any of the trainer’s offspring, the ride went to the promising claimer Caoilin Quinn, who showed himself equal to the task with a well-executed ride to get the 17/2 shot home in front.

The winner was always well positioned in a race run at a solid tempo thanks to Ailie Rose, who was headed by Get A Tonic (Dan/Harry Skelton) two out and still in a place when crashing out heavily at the last. Get A Tonic kept on willingly but couldn’t fight back when headed after the last by the classy winner, who was conceding weight to the runner-up despite his rider’s valuable 7lb claim.

Botox Has is unexposed as a stayer and won the National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell last season. He ran very well to be second to the Charles Byrnes-trained Shoot First at Cheltenham last month and was producing another career best in victory here. He can do better yet, although the utility of his rider’s allowance should not be underestimated.

Hitman for King George?

HITMAN (Paul Nicholls/Harry Cobden) justified odds of 8/13 to land the graduation chase at Haydock in some style, setting up talk of a bid for the King George. The son of Falco is an exciting sort, but he had a straightforward task here in the context of that Grade 1 target and is a horse whose strike-rate over fences doesn’t match the column inches he generates.

The staying handicap chase at Haydock saw Venetia Williams belatedly break her duck for the season proper. Often a stable to follow blind in November, Venetia had drawn a blank until Fontaine Collonges lined up for the three-mile-one-furlong event, and it must have been a relief to see the 7/2 chance prevail by a short head in a desperate finish.

Typically, having had numerous near misses earlier in the month, the Herefordshire handler then saddled three more winners in the next 48 hours.

Ascot Saturday

Wedge stays cool on Cody to land 1965 Chase success

IF Ascot’s card looked threadbare at dawn on Saturday, it ended with a gaping hole in the backside after a dozen of the 45 declarations were withdrawn, the majority with the ground cited as the reason. The ramifications of that are largely dealt with elsewhere but must be acknowledged even in a brief analysis of the main races.

We’ve seen some thrilling small-field contests for the Grade 2 1965 Chase since it became a conditions event in 2006, notably the virtual match between Cyrname and Altior in 2019, but the defection of L’Homme Presse and Hitman turned this renewal into an altogether less anticipated clash between Coole Cody (Evan Williams/Adam Wedge) and Saint Calvados (Paul Nicholls/David Maxwell).

The market suggested the latter would be too good on his first start in the Maxwell livery, but he proved far too keen under his owner rider, and although able to build up a significant advantage over Coole Cody, he faded abruptly in the short home straight, allowing the 11/4 outsider to romp to victory by 10 lengths despite a slipshod round of jumping.

Adam Wedge set out to lead, as is Coole Cody’s wont, but he was happy to be overtaken by one clearly over-racing as Saint Calvados was, and although his mount – pulled up after a bad blunder at Cheltenham on his return – still seemed lacking in confidence as he went right at his fences, his rider nursed him through the race, asking him as little as possible while keeping the leader within hailing distance.

He belatedly got after Coole Cody after the third last, and while many in-running punters assumed the leader’s class would see him home, the lead shrunk dramatically when the pair levelled up for home, and when Saint Calvados made his only error at the penultimate fence, horse and rider were suddenly a spent force.

No Hill but Goshen’s constitution impresses

THE biggest disappointment of the day at Ascot was news of the defection of Constitution Hill from the Grade 3 Coral (Ascot) Hurdle, leaving a quartet, and just 6/5 shot Goshen (Gary/Jamie Moore) and Even-money favourite Brewin’upastorm (Olly Murphy/Aidan Coleman) fancied.

Goshen seemed to hate chasing here on his return, and like many good hurdlers returning to the smaller obstacles after jumping fences, he wasn’t always fluent, but warmed to his task as the race wore on. He took over from the pacemaking For Pleasure after jumping the third-last hurdle, and soon had Brewin’upastorm off the bridle. The latter rallied to give chase in the straight, but Goshen kept going too strongly, and had eight and a half lengths to spare at the line.

An emotional Gary Moore paid tribute to the patience of “genius” owner Steve Packham, who insisted that Goshen be kept in this contest, and who has ridden the rollercoaster with a horse who lost the Triumph Hurdle in bizarre circumstances.

Goshen has been idolised and lambasted in equal measure by different sections of racing’s fanbase. What is true, though, is that Goshen has become a marquee name on big racing days, and his retrieval mission made something of a day which would otherwise have been almost entirely forgettable.

Moore is keen to give Goshen another try over fences on genuinely soft ground, believing his poor run here last month was partly due to him feeling the ground.