There are generally more setbacks than triumphs in a jump jockey’s life, but there can be moments when everything simply falls into place. Gavin Sheehan, Jamie Snowden’s stable jockey, was booked to ride at Saturday’s abandoned meeting at Newcastle but, having switched to Newbury to partner Datsalrightgino in the £250,000 Coral Gold Cup, he expertly threaded the 16-1 chance from last to first, landing one of jumping’s most valuable prizes for the first time.
The three-and-a-quarter-mile trip was a long way into unknown territory for Datsalrightgino, who spent his first season over fences racing at about two and a half. Mindful of the questions over his stamina, Sheehan settled at the back of the field for the first circuit, before creeping steadily closer from four fences out.
There was one horse left to pass by the second-last, as Mahler Mission, who was close to the pace from the off, had opened a useful lead near the top of the straight. His stamina was guaranteed, but having cleared the last alongside the winner, he could not match Datsalrightgino’s speed to the line as the seven-year-old kept on to win by nearly four lengths.
“It’s a wonderful race and one of the biggest chases of the season, so you can’t really have high expectations,” Snowden said. “But we knew he was in good order and we knew there might be some exposure in his mark over that trip if it worked. It’s weird how things work out, but thankfully Gav was on board, as he knows the horse so well.”
Tom Cannon was originally booked to ride Datsalrightgino, but Sheehan is a key part of Snowden’s operation and was always in line to take over if Newcastle was off.
“It’s massive,” Sheehan said. “You go through these things in your head beforehand and how the race is going to work out and I thought, ‘I will nearly start crying if I win this race’.
Southwell
12.10 The Happy Chapati 12.40 The Secret Pearl 1.10 Choirmaster 1.45 Supremely West 2.20 Russian Virtue 2.55 Top Ville Ben 3.25 Grozni
Carlisle
12.35 Poppy Rose 1.05 Valleyview Tommy 1.35 Flaubert 2.10 Court Dreaming 2.45 Dance Thief 3.20 Malicash
Leicester
12.45 Ellerton 1.15 Militiades 1.50 Jemura 2.25 Risk D’Argent 3.00 Ballycamus 3.30 Bushtucker Park
Nap: Farren Glory, 1.25 Fairyhouse.
NB: Found A Fifty, 2.00 Fairyhouse.
“It means a lot, it’s a very hard race to win and with it being the local track [to Snowden’s Lambourn stable]. I’m not crying now, but I would have been crying if Newcastle had been on and I had seen this lad go past the line.”
Snowden has no immediate targets for his winner, though the Grand National is one longer-term possibility. Nicky Henderson, though, needs to make more urgent plans for Constitution Hill and Shishkin, his stable stars over hurdles and fences respectively, after they were denied a prep run before the busy Christmas schedule when the Fighting Fifth Hurdle card at Newcastle was abandoned.
Plumpton
12.45 Nelson Criq
1.15 Heros
1.45 Goodwin
2.15 Midnight Mary
2.45 The Height Of Fame
3.15 Stanley Pincombe
3.45 Electric Mason
Wolverhampton
5.00 Written Broadcast
5.30 Fircombe Hall
6.00 Smoky Mountain
6.30 Rubeus
7.00 Cuban Breeze (nb)
7.30 Ultramarine
8.00 God Of Thunder
8.30 Lunarscape (nap)
While the situation remains fluid, it is likely Shishkin will feature among the entries for the rescheduled meeting at Sandown Park next Saturday, which was originally the target for Constitution Hill.
“It’s a possibility,” Henderson said after saddling Jingko Blue before a narrow success in the card’s novice hurdle. “There are lots of bits of jigsaw floating around. I need to talk to Michael [Buckley, Constitution Hill’s owner] first, but I did have a wacky idea. Constitution Hill doesn’t desperately need a run for the Christmas Hurdle, and 17 days [between races] is tight for Constitution, but I wouldn’t be so worried about Shishkin.
“Trying to win the King George first time out [with Shishkin] is a very brave route. He needs a race so the alternative would be to put him in the Fighting Fifth. He goes well around Sandown, he’d enjoy that, so it is very possible that he could come into it.
“It would purely be a way of getting a race into him and we all believe he’s a three-miler, so he’s hardly likely to win a two-mile Grade One over hurdles, but everyone will understand what we’re trying to do. He’ll run well I’m sure, but it’s a way into the King George.”
Shishkin refused to race when odds-on for the Grade Two 1965 Chase at Ascot last Saturday but is still prominent in the betting for the King George on Boxing Day at a top price of 8-1. Gordon Elliott’s Gerri Colombe, a gamble for the race during the week, is joint-favourite with Bravemansgame, last year’s winner, at 11-4.
