Wendigo’s Coral Gold Cup bid heads a packed winter for Racing Club owners, with the syndicate’s string spread across three yards and ranging from a Gold Cup dreamer to a pair of exciting Flat recruits bound for juvenile hurdles.
We spoke to the Racing Club’s Tom Aldridge about the horses shareholders can look forward to over jumps this season. Most of the squad is in the care of Jamie Snowden, who outlined Wendigo’s Newbury plan to GG earlier this week, though there are also runners with Emma Lavelle and Kim Bailey & Mat Nicholls. Here is what Tom had to say about each of them.
Wendigo
“Obviously Wendigo, he’s our star. He’s effectively the people’s horse for us. Everyone loves Wendigo. He won twice over hurdles, runner-up behind The New Lion in the Challow, fifth in the Albert Bartlett. Then he went novice chasing last year, another two wins. It didn’t go to plan for him at Cheltenham or Aintree after that, but we can’t wait to see what he can do this season. He’s hopefully going to be making his seasonal reappearance this Sunday at Carlisle and then the big early season target is the Coral Gold Cup. He’s two out of two in November. He’s won once in a Grade 2 at Newbury and runner-up in the Grade 1 Challow over hurdles. So he loves Newbury, he loves November. This race is tailor made for him almost, so we’d like to think he should have a massive chance. If he wins [the Coral Gold Cup and the Welsh Grand National] then he’s probably going to be too highly-rated to go for the National. So we’d go for the Gold Cup route hopefully. It doesn’t look the strongest Gold Cup in depth this year, though Gaelic Warrior obviously will be very tough to beat. I’ve spoken to Gavin Sheehan about this before, I asked ‘what do you think the top level he can reach is?’ And he said honestly the sky’s the limit with him.”
A Path To Ronda
“Last year she had a great year. She won twice over hurdles. This year she’ll probably go novice chasing, but Jamie’s also said that we’ve got the opportunity to revert back to hurdles if needs be. She should make her return at the end of November, early December and we’ll go from there. There’s no big race targets as such set up yet, but she’s a lovely horse, a gorgeous grey. She placed in Grade 2 company last year, seventh in the Grade 1 at Fairyhouse. She was unlucky because the Grade 2 race got moved from Sandown to Warwick. Had it been at Sandown, I think she probably would have won. I think she’s got a massive future. I think we’ll have a lot of fun with her, so she’d be one I’d certainly keep an eye on.”
Handlethekettle
“Handlethekettle is ultra consistent: he’s finished in the top three in all but one of his races for us. The only time he didn’t was when he was fourth in the Persian War, on his second start for us. He did have a go over fences but didn’t take to it, unfortunately, despite schooling well at home. So he went back over hurdles and won three hurdle races in the space of a couple of months, but then had an injury. He reappeared this year after 424 days off and ran a cracker to finish second. He was going to be in the Silver Trophy at Chepstow, but unfortunately suffered a cut to his neck, which ruled him out of that race. But we’ll have plenty of fun with him in handicap hurdles this year. Jamie’s always said that he still believes he’ll be a chaser in the making.”
Legendary Luke
“Legendary Luke had a great season last year with us over novice hurdles, finishing fourth in Grade 2 company and winning a couple of races. He’s going novice chasing this year. It didn’t quite go to plan on his chase debut at Ffos Las. That was a mixture of wrong race tactics and the ground, running on the wrong part of the course. The first and second ran on the better ground throughout. He’s a nice horse though and we’ll have plenty of fun going novice chasing with him this season. The long-term plan for him would probably be the National Hunt Chase now that it’s a handicap at the festival. And then further down the line, we’ll be looking at the Welsh National, the Scottish National with him, etc.”
Jukebox King
“Kim and Mat are incredible. Their yard is fantastic. Jukebox King had a good season last year: four races, never out the first four, but didn’t get that win, unfortunately. The last run looked to be the one, as he jumped beautifully throughout at Wincanton, but just got done for a bit of speed behind Geezer Rockstar, who followed up in a Class 2 next time out. But he’ll go novice chasing this year. Kim and Mat have said all along, we’ll see the best of him when he goes over three miles over fences. So he’s hopefully going to make his debut at Worcester on Sunday (1st November) in a two-and-a-half-mile novice chase, but his future will probably be in three-mile staying chases.”
Pigeon Forge
“Pigeon Forge, she’s lovely. She tries her heart out every race, bless her. She ran twice over hurdles last year before Emma put her in a race at Uttoxeter. Sh said: “it’ll be a tough race to win, but of course we’ll go there and try, but the main thing is we’ll get a handicap mark with her.” Pigeon had other ideas, stayed on strongly at the end, and ran out a 16/1 winner! So she’s got a handicap mark now and will remain over hurdles this year. Again, she’s a stayer, so we’ll probably see her over three miles. We’ve just got to wait for the ground to be in her favour, but she’ll give us plenty of fun, no doubt.”
“Jamie has said all along the target will be the Triumph Hurdle”
Changing Lanes
“He’s a lovely horse. Jamie thinks the absolute world of him. Obviously, he was rated 83 on the Flat, ran around three times for Joseph [O’Brien]. Since moving to Jamie’s, the first time Jamie schooled him over hurdles, he sent us an update. All it said was, ‘I’m in love’. So we think that bodes well and Jamie has said all along the target will be the Triumph Hurdle for him at the festival. We did a stable visit last month, and Jamie told owners the plan with him will be we’ll win the Triumph, then we’ll win at Royal Ascot, and then we’ll go for the Melbourne Cup!”
Stepanov
“Stepanov made his debut for us actually this week, he finished fourth. He travelled into the race beautifully. We thought he was going to win, to be honest. He looked nailed on for a top three finish, and then he just got a bit tired towards the end, finishing fourth, but he’s going to be a nice juvenile hurdler for us. Emma’s already said about potentially the Triumph for him, but the juvenile hurdle programme’s huge this year, so there’s plenty of race options for him. So we’ll see him out plenty.”
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