Optimism may be a common currency of racing and one that is easily traded between trainers, jockeys, owners and punters, but Harry Findlay looked markedly short of such funds at Ascot on Saturday.
Even as he stood in the winner’s enclosure, after Beshabar had won the £50,000 Betfair Handicap Hurdle, the owner of Denman was still thinking of the previous weekend and next month. To be specific the moment when Tony McCoy parted company with Denman in the Aon Chase at Newbury and just what it means for their chances against stable companion Kauto Star, when the Paul Nicholls pair clash in the totepsort Cheltenham Gold Cup in four weeks’ time.
“He schooled this morning - Ruby [Walsh] was down there,” he said. “It’s just a reflection on last week. The biggest worry for me is that Tony didn’t appear to me to be that happy. But, then again, Tony hasn’t ridden him before. He can be a bit lazy in the run and he is a real character. But overall I was a tad disappointed.”
Findlay is rarely short of an opinion and it would appear that he is not quite so sanguine as Nicholls, who clearly believes that Denman can regain the form that he showed when carrying top weight to win the Hennessy Gold Cup in November, which he would need to if he is to have a realistic chance of beating Kauto Star.
“When he won the Hennessy, there were horses coming at him and he stayed on so well at the end,”
Findlay added, weighing up his thoughts against what he saw at Newbury. “But I’d have to say I was disappointed. I see the bookmaker reaction as just about right.
“I didn’t spend the winter in Ditcheat but I know Denman was flying before the Aon. I heard things spoken about Denman before the Aon that I hadn’t heard ever before. I think Denman’s defeat at Newbury came as a very big shock to everyone at Ditcheat, unless I’m getting the vibes wrong - and I don’t often do that.”
The vibes coming from McCoy and Nicholls over the weekend have been somewhat different. Speaking in an interview in the Sunday Times, McCoy said of his first ride on Denman: “When he made the mistake at Newbury and then landed in the middle of the next and I came off, my first thought was ‘that didn’t go to plan.’ I expected there would be people with different views to mine but there weren’t. Paul [Nicholls] knows his stuff, he was philosophical and helped by the fact that his other horse won the race.
“It will have dented Denman’s reputation a little but it’s possible he’s a better horse when Paul really screws him to the gills and gets him ready for D-Day. I believe you’ll see a different horse at Cheltenham and I’m just grateful I’m going to get another go on him. I will make it up to everybody in the Gold Cup.”
Findlay has questioned whether Denman might be a different horse if he wore some kind of headgear for the Gold Cup, however this is a tactic that brings its own risk. The use of a visor, for example, may well have a galvanising effect but what if the horse nicknamed “The Tank” suddenly hit top gear from the starting tape? He could begin pulling far too hard, leaving McCoy with the impossible choice of fighting a losing battle with Denman or simply holding tight while waiting for Denman to expend too much of his resources in the first two miles.
Nicholls, quoted in The Times, clearly does not subscribe to the blinkered approach. “He definitely won't wear them at Cheltenham,” he said. “I know people say we did it with See More Business when he won the Gold Cup but he'd been jumping badly and had just become naughty. Denman made a mistake last week but he's generally a brilliant jumper. We'll consider a sheepskin noseband but nothing more.”
Training the two best staying chasers in the country, with their biggest race just four weeks away, is both a joy and a test of character but Nicholls is a man who believes he knows how to extract the best from Denman as he prepares the horse for his third clash with Kauto Star. "He's a character that takes some knowing and can be like that until we have him fully wound up. He'll be a different horse at Cheltenham - the big days seem to rev him up quite naturally.”
Findlay must wish he could be as optimistic.
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