At the start of November I put up a list of top horses to follow, with a view to backing them each time they raced or to take some fancy ante-post prices for their big race targets. We are now at the half way point in the jump race season and so how does the list look now and what names would we like to add?
The November list has had mixed fortunes and there have been a few surprises in the early part of the season but the Hennessey Gold Cup at Newbury went our way. I hope you followed my advice on Denman when I said that his then price of 6 to 1 was simply too good to resist. A very nice start to the season! In retrospect the form of that Hennessey win looks very, very good and I would rate it superior to his previous win in that race. He gave more than 20 pounds to stable companion What A Friend and that one has since won the Grade One Lexus Chase impressively. That is amazing form. Denman is clearly one of the best horses we have seen for 40 years. His only problem is that he lives in the same era as Kauto Star.
The King George was another race that was also a good one for us. In November I put up the not terribly original selection of Kauto Star, staking that “He is never going to go off at a big price but he looks a cast iron certainty for the King George again if he gets there in one piece”. And what a certainty he looked! He put up a performance that was the best I’ve seen in that race and I was not surprised that the official handicapper rates him the best chaser since Arkle. I actually thought he wasn’t a bad price before the race and he was a welcome winner in the Taylor household to say the least! However, I also had the forecast and landed the each-way odds with Madison Du Berlais. You may recall that I said that “I wouldn’t back [Madison Du Berlais] on undulating tracks like Cheltenham but he has form up with the best on flatter tracks… He looks like a good each-way bet for the King George and maybe worth including in a forecast with Kauto Star”. It is nice to get it right sometimes!
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