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“… that he went with SG for as long as he did… “
Not to take anything away from Ballyburn, but Sir Gino was going half speed.
If Ballyburn were committed to the old RSA Chase (or whatever it’s called these days), he’d be the proverbial mortgage job.
I cannot imagine Nicky running Sir Gino in anything but the Arkle. It is just not his style to expose an inexperienced horse in a full blown championship race like the Champion Chase.
Nicky will want Jonbon to have his Champion’s Day.
It’s surprising how Nicky’s history is littered with outstanding 2 milers (both hurdles and chasers) but doesn’t seem to have many top stayers.
Value Is EverythingI said not “many”, Glad’.
Bobs Worth a rare exception.
Add all Nicky’s top 2 milers and subtract the number of his top stayers (in both codes).Value Is EverythingHe has had a fair few but they just didn’t go on to be even half as successful as his 2m chasers.
An often forgoten staying chaser of his was Trabolgan who after winning the 2005 RSA, went into his next season and (on his seasonal debut) became Hendo’s first Hennessy winner carrying top weight of 11-12 as a mere 7 yr old. To put that performance into stark perspective, at that time only three horses had carried a bigger weight to victory in the race’s whole history – the three being Arkle (12-7), Mill House (12st) and Burrough Hill Lad (12st) respectively.
Sadly he would never get the chance to build on that run as shortly after he was found to be lame (tendon) and spent the best part of the next 3 years off the course with that and other injury issues, he did return to race again as a 10 yr old but was a pale shadow of the horse that we saw at Newbury.
He comfortably beat L’Ami 2.5L giving him 7lbs that day at Newbury, the same L’Ami that went on to finish 4th in that season’s Gold Cup…..oh what could have been!
Just rewatched the race and it’s a ridiculous performance.
He hasn’t even jumped that fluently, yet he’s beaten a top-class rival (albeit one who would be seen to better effect over further) on the bridle.
In its own way, it was almost as brilliant a performance as Constitution Hill produced in the Supreme.
After Ballyburn ran away with the Gallaghers, who would have thought he would ever get absolutely steam rollered like that?
The Gallaghers (not a great renewal in retrospect) was over 2m5f on soft ground at Cheltenham – 2m round Kempton on good to soft ground was a whole different kettle of fish.
That being said to show just how good the race was (and how well Ballyburn has actually run), they were the only time on the day to break standard (fast by 2 seconds) and were 3.73 seconds faster than Soul Icon and Edwardstone ran (although the early part of that race was run at a suicidal and unsustainable pace, which they paid for later). Interestingly, SG carried 14 lbs less than Edwardstone whilst Ballyburn 8lbs less.
Given the ease of his victory, SG running and being a threat in this season’s QMCC doesn’t appear to be a big stretch if connections wanted to go that way – personally had today been his second chase start and he would be going into Cheltenham with three chase races under his belt then the QMCC might have been a major option but going to the Arkle and giving him another year’s experience (he will still only be 6 for the 2026 Festival) seems a more sensible course to take.
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