Napolitain conquers for McCoy
Napolitain and Tony McCoy just held on to take an incident-packed renewal of the Grade One totesport.com Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown.
The champion jockey had made the Paul Nicholls-trained gelding the best of his rides in his newspaper column, and set out to make it a test on the five-year-old against three opponents, which included stablemate and 6-5 favourite Albuhera.
But Napolitain made a mistake at the Pond fence, three out and had been headed by Turpin Green approaching the final fence.
Even McCoy would have struggled to bridge an increasing gap with his rival, but without any warning Turpin Green pricked his ears and tried to refuse at the fence with his rider Tony Dobbin only just managing to negotiate it.
This left the 3-1 chance in control and despite a renewed effort by Turpin Green, McCoy had the situation under control and scored by a neck.
Nicholls will take the winner to Fontwell next and is not against letting him take his chance in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase, for which he was cut to 33-1 from 50-1 by William Hill.
“I wasn’t going to run him until I realised there would be so few runners and the plan to go to Fontwell in a fortnight stands,” he said.
“He’s a horse who needs plenty of work and there’s a good chance that he could also turn up at Cheltenham.”
The trainer accepted Turpin Green would have won and added: “We got lucky there – it’s as simple as that.”
Turpin Green’s trainer Nicky Richards took the defeat on the chin, but Dobbin found himself in hot water with the stewards after he was seen to have struck his horse when returning to unsaddle.
Richards said: “The horse is still green and babyish and basically thought he had won but then lost all concentration.”
The stewards found Dobbin guilty of improper riding in that he had used his whip with excessive frequency. For that he escaped with a caution, but for the incident on the horsewalk he was found guilty of the same offence and suspended for one day on Wednesday, February 15th.
Bookmaker reaction to the race was for Paddy Power to trim Napolitian to 25-1 from 50-1 and to cut Turpin Green from 33s into 16s for the Sun Alliance Chase. Totesport also make Turpin Green 16s (from 25s) and Napolitian 33s (from 50s).
There was an element of deja vu to the triumph of Royal Shakespeare over Alph in the Agfa UK Hurdle.
At this course last season Royal Shakespeare came down at the last when looking sure to take Rooster Booster in the Concept Hurdle, while this time around it was Royal Shakespeare and Tom Scudamore who benefited from the exit at the last of German raider Fiepes Shuffle.
The latter led from the start and was still in control under Robert Thornton when he came down to gift the contest to Royal Shakespeare, the 9-4 favourite, who scored by a length and a quarter from Alph with Mister McGoldrick two lengths back.
Trainer Steve Gollings views this as a bonus to Royal Shakespeare, whose next race will be the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton.
He said: “The ground is tacky out there which was not what we expected. The horse hasn’t given Tom the same feel as last time but the Kingwell has his name written all over it and if he goes to Wincanton he will take a lot of beating.”
Interestingly, Scudamore reported that he felt Fiepes Shuffle was tired and that he would have caught him.
William Hill kept the winner at 66-1 for the Smurfit Champion Hurdle, while totesport reacted by slashing him from that price to 33s in the belief that there may be as few as a dozen runners in the blue riband.
Peter Bowen could have a Grand National prospect on his hands in the shape of Dunbrody Millar, who showed gritty determination to make all under Tom Malone in the Agfa Diamond Handicap Chase at odds of 8-1.
On the question of an Aintree tilt, Bowen said: “He’s entered which gives us the option and the thing about him is he jumps well and stays forever.
“Tom gets on so well with him, although I suppose he could struggle to get into the National.”
Backers of hot favourite Be Be King soon knew their fate when the gelding began to lose ground in the backstretch in the totescoop6 Sandown Handicap Hurdle.
With that one out of the way, it was left to Ungaro and Jim Crowley to fight on in determined fashion and hold Sh Boom by two and a half lengths.
The success was the end of a carefully worked plan by owner Sir Robert Ogden and trainer Keith Reveley.
Barry Simpson, Ogden’s racing manager, said: “He was always going to come here after the meeting at Sedgefield was lost before Christmas.
“He ran a decent sort of race against Denman at Cheltenham last time, but my own view was that he may have been 6lb too high (in the handicap).
“I am glad I was proved wrong and Jim has given him a very good tactical ride.
“The horse stays very well and we have purposefully given him a break since Cheltenham.”
Mick Fitzgerald made the most of the superiority Temoin (8-1) displayed over his rivals in the Milward Printing Novices’ Handicap Hurdle, impersonating fellow jockey Paul Carberry as he sat low without moving on the winner, while his colleague could do nothing about it on Oscatello.
This was the conclusion of a memorable day for trainer Nicky Henderson, who had also landed the feature Victor Chandler Chase with Tysou.
