King George VI Chase
With no UK racing today and the jocks away Christmas shopping we take a chance to review the festive holiday highlight….the King George VI Chase.
Just eleven runners now go for the William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day with the market headed by the first four home in the Betfair Chase at Haydock – Cue Card, Dynaste, Silviniaco Conti and Long Run.
They are set to go head to head again on Thursday in the King George VI….but which if any will come out on top?
Full Line -up King George card
Cue Card has eased in the betting, with Bet365 going 3-1 joint-favourite (from 5-2). Concerns look to be based around trainer Colin Tizzard, who has had just one winner in December, from 19 runners, and only one runner in the last eight days.
Cue Card’s Betfair Chase win is looking a very impressive but distant memory. However, he showed at Haydock that he gets the trip well, and if he can replicate that type of performance on Thursday then he will be difficult to beat if the stable were in a winning frame.
Silviniaco Conti will give him something to think about and will be a lot sharper for his run behind Cue Card in the Betfair. He will have come on for that first run when trainer Paul Nicholls’s horses were not firing at that time.
Dynaste, chased home Cue Card in the Betfair has also eased in the market to 3-1 (from 11-4). You couldn’t help but be impressed by his fine second in the Betfair which was his first run against the big guns of the chasing world. He could easily reverse that form and has course form after his Feltham triumph last year.
Long Run, last year’s King George hero, has been beaten a total of 62 lengths in his two starts this term and is widely discounted. Henderson, however, reports that he worked “really well” on Saturday and is openly hopeful of a return to form.
Al Ferof is a bit of an unknown quantity and another Nicholl’s runner. It should be interesting if he stays the trip although the sodden ground may make it a real test with more rain to come?
Mount Benbulben races outside Ireland for the first time but trainer Gordon Elliott appears happy with how the eight-year-old has been prepared. He said: “He is working very well and I couldn’t be happier with him. I don’t think the way the race is run will matter to him and going right-handed is a big help.”
Nicholls favourite horse, Kauto Star made the Christmas cracker his own with five wins between 2006-11, adding to the trainer’s earlier success in the race with dual winner See More Business, who landed the race in 1997 and 1999.
We feel SILVINIACO CONTI is the one to side with and the Paul Nicholls-trained seven-year-old looks on the move in the market having been backed into 5-1 (from 6) and provide him with an 8th event success.
Kempton clerk of the course Barney Clifford continues to predict the King George VI ground will be no worse than soft, although the words “soft in places” were on Sunday added to the general good to soft description.
Clifford said: “The course has taken the rain exceptionally well but there is more to come and I think we have to expect a gradual deterioration towards soft ground. The forecast is for between 10mm and 20mm of rain tomorrow but the forecast for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is now looking better.”
No selection today……what are YOU backing in the King George VI?
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