Paul Nicholls weighed out at 10st 5lb before the first of his two wins as a rider in what was known as the Hennessy Gold Cup, back in 1986. It was a chunkier version of him that greeted Kandoo Kid, his fourth winner as a trainer, after the race that is now run as the Coral Gold Cup here on Saturday.
The passing of 38 years, though, does not diminish the impact of victory in Newbury’s historic handicap and Nicholls was glowing with delight as Harry Cobden and Kandoo Kid returned to the winner’s enclosure.
“We’ve targeted this race from the moment he came in [from his summer break],” he said. “Harry was brilliant, he made a plan and did it to perfection. He jumped and galloped, fantastic. I really enjoyed that. It’s given me a lot of pleasure for the whole team.”
Nicholls’s second and third wins in this race, in 2007 and 2009, arrived thanks to the magnificent Denman, who lugged 11st 12lb to victory on both occasions and won the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup in between.
Kandoo Kid carried 11st 5lb but was racing off a mark of 145, 29lb below Denman’s second winning mark of 174, so he is unlikely to scale the same Grade One-winning heights as his predecessor. Nicholls, though, still has big plans for the eight-year-old, who was delivered between the final two fences as the front-running Broadway Boy, the 4-1 favourite, started to tire.
“It’s a good team effort because everyone has worked hard to get him right [to win on his seasonal debut] and now we can dream of [the Grand National at] Aintree, because that’s where I think we’ll probably go next or possibly with just one run before,” Nicholls said.
“He ran a blinder in the Topham [Trophy over the National fences in April] and we thought then that the National would be a race for him, and then come here on the way.”
Kandoo Kid was given an early price of around 33-1 for the Grand National after his success, although betting on the Aintree showpiece will not begin in earnest until the weights are published in mid-February. As countless pin-sticker’s guides will point out on 5 April, though, three greys have won the race in its 186-year history and the most recent of those was Nicholls’s Neptune Collonges in 2012.
Elsewhere, on a busy day of jumping action, Nicky Henderson’s Sir Gino proved to be an able stand-in for his stable companion, Constitution Hill, as he recorded a comfortable success in the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle.
Sir Gino set off as the 6-5 joint-favourite for the first Grade One hurdle of the season, but a dismal showing from Willie Mullins’s Mystical Power left him with a straightforward task and he came home an easy eight-length winner.
Plumpton 12.20 Julius Des Pictons 12.50 Belgarum 1.20 Korus 1.50 Parikarma 2.20 Lady Balko 2.55 One Man Party 3.30 Kingston Queen
Ffos Las 12.35 Hollygrove Cha Cha 1.05 Jurancon 1.35 Grove Road 2.05 Holeshot 2.35 Good Friday Fairy 3.10 Mutley Crew 3.45 Captain Claude
Wolverhampton 4.30 Big Narstie 5.00 Plumette 5.30 Georginio 6.00 Waiting For Love 6.30 Piranha Rama 7.00 Swinging London 7.30 Harvanna (nb) 8.00 Moulin Booj 8.30 Caramay (nap)
The four-year-old is now the 3-1 second-favourite for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, behind Lossiemouth (5-2), the winner of last season’s Mares’ Hurdle at the festival meeting, who is declared to run for the first time this autumn in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse on Sunday.
The festival betting tells only a fraction of the story, however, as Sir Gino was re-directed to the Fighting Fifth from a planned debut over fences only when it became clear that his unbeaten stable companion Constitution Hill, the highest-rated hurdler in training, would not be ready for the race.
Lingfield 11.27 Ashford Hill 11.57 Mister Coco Fizz 12.27 Circus Of Rome 12.57 Timeless Spirit 1.27 Harlington (nap) 1.57 Charencey 2.27 Le Rouge Chinois 3.00 Santorini Star 3.30 One More Wave
Southwell 12.15 Awaythelad 12.45 Extraordinary Man 1.15 Star Artist 1.45 Baseline 2.15 Daytime Dreaming 2.45 Burrows Hall 3.15 Skiffle Man
Newcastle 2.54 Prince Achille 3.24 Roland Garros 4.00 Sudu 4.30 Kammeel 5.00 Glendown 5.30 Red Maids 6.00 Tomorrow Day (nb) 6.30 Barnaby 7.00 Trais Fluors
If Constitution Hill is ready to run in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day, Sir Gino could yet return to the initial Plan A for this season over fences. If not, it all becomes more complicated, not least because State Man, the reigning champion over hurdles, and Sir Gino race in the same colours.
For veteran analysts of the signals emerging from Henderson’s Lambourn yard, it promises to be a busy three weeks.
