Nicky Henderson has ruled Jango Baie out of Saturday’s Grade 2 William Hill Denman Chase at Newbury, refusing to roll the dice on ground he expects to ride very soft and potentially heavy.
The Seven Barrows handler made the call after speaking with owner Tony Barney, with Newbury’s chase track described on Wednesday as soft, heavy in places. “Jango Baie will not run at Newbury. I’m not going to risk him,” he said to the Racing Post on Wednesday. “I spoke to Tony last night. It doesn’t matter if it’s going to be soft, heavy, or heavy, soft, it’s going to be very hard work.”
The decision sends last season’s Arkle Chase winner straight to the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup on March 13, where he sits at 9-2 with bet365. Henderson stressed the Denman itself suited the seven-year-old on paper, but the surface turned it into the wrong kind of test. “He’s perfect, and the race is lovely for him, but he’s going to go straight to Cheltenham as there’s nowhere to go after this,” he said.
Jango Baie has shown he can strike fresh. He opened this season by travelling with purpose and putting the Grade 2 1965 Chase to bed at Ascot in November, stretching nine lengths clear. He then went to Kempton as 9-4 joint-favourite for the King George VI Chase and finished fourth behind The Jukebox Man, Banbridge and Gaelic Warrior after a searching, high-class gallop.
Henderson confident race fitness won’t be issue at Cheltenham
Henderson insisted a lack of a Newbury spin does not trouble the yard’s Gold Cup planning. “That’s fine and it doesn’t worry us. I couldn’t be happier with him,” he said, adding that Jango Baie could still get a controlled blow at home or join the stable’s customary Kempton visit two weeks before the Festival.
Henderson, who watched Ireland’s big staying trials closely with Gold Cup opposition in mind, summed up the Newbury call with a trainer’s blunt calculus: “It looked a tough race, and I think it will be quite tough going at Newbury too.”