Smith impressed by Denman display
Phil Smith, the British Horseracing Authority senior handicapper, rates Denman 1lb inferior to Exotic Dancer after his weight-defying triumph in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup.
Smith places Paul Nicholls’ imposing chaser on a perch of 176, from a mark of 161, following his awesome 11-length success at Newbury on Saturday.
“He’s right up there with the other two stars that we’ve got, Exotic Dancer and Kauto Star,” insisted Smith.
“But because he hasn’t done it in a Grade One event yet, whereas the other two have, I’m going to put him a pound behind Exotic Dancer on 176.
“We’ll see what happens when he runs in a Grade One, but I suspect one of them will have to put up a performance into the 180s to beat the other two.”
Such was the bloodless nature of Denman’s Hennessy breeze, Coral replaced Kauto Star with the 10-time winner at the head of the ante-post market for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in March.
The Berkshire firm slashed the seven-year-old chestnut from 4-1 into 6-4 favouritism, with his outstanding stablemate – rated at 179 – eased out to 2-1.
Totesport, the Gold Cup sponsors, remain on the fence and offer 2s for the pair, with Exotic Dancer a 6-1 shot.
Smith added: “Normally as a handicapper I wouldn’t want to see one of my races won in that way but as a racing enthusiast it was fantastic.
“We’ve now got three superstars at that distance, which is great.
“It’s a bit like a few years ago over two miles with Moscow Flyer, Azertyuiop and Well Chief.
“We had a superb Tingle Creek that year so hopefully we can have a fantastic Gold Cup between these three.”
Paul Barber, Denman’s joint-owner, is acutely aware of the difficulty in keeping racehorses sound and refuses to look towards the Cheltenham Festival just yet.
He said: “Being in the farming industry, and looking after animals all the time, I know there’s so much that can go wrong between now and then (Cheltenham).
“The horse does seem to be improving, though, so it’s very exciting.”
Nicholls’ Royal & SunAlliance Chase winner is now unlikely to clash with Kauto Star until the Gold Cup – with the latter set to tackle the King George on Boxing Day and Denman trained for the Lexus at Leopardstown 48 hours later.
But, for the time being at least anyway, Barber prefers to reflect on his exploits at Newbury rather than chart a trail for gold.
“I think ’pride’ is probably the wrong word after Saturday’s win – ’amazement’ is probably more like it,” he added.
“If you’d have asked me a few weeks ago I’d have told you I was optimistic about him winning.
“But after speaking to Paul, he thought the horse might have needed the run.
“I just consider myself incredibly lucky to own a horse like this and what we think he might turn into.”
