It’s fifth time lucky for Politologue as a bullish Nicholls is champion again
On Tuesday, for the first time in 25 years, Paul Nicholls was without a runner on a Cheltenham Festival afternoon. Instead he spent the day at home, looked at an old friend called Politologue and became convinced that on his return to the sport’s greatest stage he could win the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Following the pause that truly did refresh, and an absence that made the heart still fonder, Nicholls was proved wonderfully right.
It was a race that at one point nobody appeared keen to win. First it was Altior who was ruled out, scratched from the contest 29 hours before he was due to seek a hat-trick of victories. On Wednesday morning it was the turn of Chacun Pour Soi to defect, meaning two of the big three failed to turn up.
In reality, the one who actually did turn up did not, for 2-5 favourite Defi Du Seuil was unrecognisable from the horse who had been so sublime all season, trailing home a distant fourth. Instead, a warrior appearing at his fifth consecutive festival finally had his day in the Cotswolds sun.
Like Nicholls, John Hales has always retained faith in Politologue, who had finished fourth and second to Altior in the previous two Champion Chases. Hales has always had equal faith in the Skelton family. He owned Nick Skelton’s exceptional show jumper Arko and has enjoyed numerous wins with horses trained by the Olympian’s son Dan.
Most of those winners have been ridden by Harry Skelton, last week selected by Hales to partner a courageous front-runner who jumped and galloped with glee en route to a nine-and-a-half-length defeat of stable companion Dynamite Dollars.
The duo of two-milers were the first Nicholls-trained runners at the 2020 festival, but Nicholls stressed he had not spent the time twiddling his fingers.
“I had a Diet Coke with Paul Barber, went home to watch a bit of racing and then looked at all today’s runners with Clifford Baker,” he said, adding: “It was a normal day’s work.”
So, too, in a sense was this day, given there seems nothing more normal than watching Nicholls win one of the Cheltenham Festival’s most glittering prizes. He had won this race five times before, including once with the Hales-owned Azertyuiop. Politologue arguably sits a rung or two below that star of yesteryear, but such is the animal’s talent, Nicholls believed it possible he could conquer every one of the big three.
“You can only beat the horses who are running and, who knows, he might have beaten them anyway?” said Nicholls.
“I have been so bullish about him at home because he has been looking fantastic. You have to believe in your own horses and today was his day. He wasn’t beaten far by Altior in last year’s race, but he was nowhere near as good then as he is now. This time I thought we had had a better preparation, which counts for an awful lot. He was never going to stop today. It’s just brilliant.”
Nicholls added: “He bled a bit when he was fifth in the Tingle Creek and he was bleeding a bit in January, so we changed the way we train him. I had rung John at Christmas and said: ‘I’m not going to run him again until Cheltenham. Just leave it to me.’ He has never interfered, even yesterday when I said I wasn’t going to run him in a hood because I didn’t think he needed one.
“We now never canter him up the hill. He does all his work on the level, lots and lots of it, and when all the others canter up the hill after their work he trots up the road to meet them. I love training them very fit and very fresh for the big day, and that’s what we did. Bingo!”
For Nicholls, the full house of festival crown jewels was long since completed. For Skelton, watched proudly by his father and brother, there has never been a day bigger than this one.
He expressed sincere thanks to the Hales family and also to Nicholls, saying: “Dan and I will be forever grateful to Paul for what he has done for our careers. I grafted there for a long time and he told me at the start of the season to come back and ride out for a bit. This is magical and it shows what Paul can do. He trained him to perfection.”
For Hales, who first won the Champion Chase with the treasured grey, One Man, 22 years ago, this was a perfect day.
“I’m over the moon,” he said. “We dictated it from start to finish and Harry got things absolutely right.”
Then, more than a little emotional, as is his trait, Hales added: “I love my all horses – and it’s a privilege to own a horse like Politologue.”
A privilege, indeed – and never more of a pleasure.
Watch Politologue jump his way to victory in the Champion Chase
Easysland now ‘the best cross-country horse’ around after defeat of Tiger Roll
Easysland. Easy-peasy. There goes the suspicion that only old fogies can crack the cross-country code. He is still a baby, only six, so who knows what the future holds. This is a horse going places fast, surely soaring higher than the discipline he was making a mockery of here.
Gone are the days when failed chasers enduring a mid-life crisis win the cross-country. The Grand National winner has won it for the last two years and he was in again this year, only this time Tiger Roll met more than his match and had to settle for second.
And, before you start believing he ran well-below par, remember he was 18 lengths ahead of the third, Out Sam. He was beaten by 17 lengths, though. This was an exceptional performance from Easysland.
Winning trainer David Cottin said: “I was expecting a good run from him. He seemed really well at home, his coat had changed, he was in good form and it was a really big advantage to have come here in December and to know the track. The heavy ground was also in his favour.
“He’s a horse who is extremely well balanced and, while he is only a six-year-old, with a cross-country horse you have to train them when they are young over those jumps. We have been very patient with him as were his former owners. That has paid off.
“I always dreamed of riding a winner here as a jockey, and unfortunately it didn’t happen, but I’m really pleased to be here now, and it’s all down to the team at home who are very motivating. We have a lot of horses and a lot of staff.”
Four jockeys banned
Mark Walsh, Paddy Kennedy, Keith Donoghue and Daragh O’Keeffe were all suspended for one day for failing to walk or jig-jog into the start of the cross-country.
Cottin might have a lot of horses, but few could be of the calibre of Easysland and what a shrewd purchase it looks by JP McManus. The leading owner obviously liked what he saw when he won by seven lengths over the same course and distance in December.
Jonathan Plouganou, who finished second to Quevega on Sirene D’Ainay in the 2013 Mares’ Hurdle, was understandably thrilled with his first festival triumph.
The winning jockey said: “Easysland is the best cross-country horse! He has beaten Tiger Roll and he was brilliant today. This race is really special. It was an honour to ride in it, but to win it is even more important.
“Everybody in France knows Cheltenham is the temple of racing, so it is already a great honour just to be here but to ride a winner here, especially in the cross-country which is a discipline I love, it means everything.
“Tiger Roll is a real champion so to beat him was special and now Easysland is the champion. There is plenty of time for the future and Easysland can now recuperate and we can see what the future holds.”
The future could not be much brighter, and it remains bright for Tiger Roll today. He has lost this battle, but he might still win the war at Aintree next month and create history.
Keith Donoghue was adamant it was the ground which beat him here.
He said: “He hated the ground, absolutely hated it. He didn’t enjoy that surface at all and it knackered him out. Normally he jumps and travels, but he ran his heart out. He ran into the better horse on the day.”
This was one of those rare days that was not about Tiger Roll, it was oh so easy for Easysland instead.
fonte : RacingPost
