For the latest in his ante-post series looking ahead to the Cheltenham Festival in March, an eye-catcher at Kempton caught Matty Sutcliffe’s attention on Monday and could prove a handicap plot for the Ultima Handicap Chase at 33/1…
Ultima Handicap Chase – Jeriko Du Reponet 33/1 0.5pt EW
JERIKO DU REPONET has certainly divided the opinion of the racing world of late, having been a comfortably beaten favourite at Kempton on his return to fences on Monday. Having pulled up in the 2024 Supreme, he was sent off the 8/11 favourite on chase debut last season and added another set of letters to his form book. The warning signs were there early on given he was reluctant to be saddled, with Nicky Henderson suggesting “you’d have thought we were trying to break in a lion.”
After initially warming to the jumping game, he was swiftly pulled up after slipping into a fence but despite those early exertions, nothing came to light and he returned home 100% sound. Connections sent him back hurdling for the campaign, successfully so having finished second in the Pertemps final in first time cheek-pieces, before taking a listed handicap hurdle at the Punchestown festival, reversing the form with Doddiethegreat who trumped him at Cheltenham.
For all he beat some sharp types such as Lump Sum as a Novice hurdler, it was a touch surprising to see him return to chasing over 2m2f at Kempton and perhaps even more strange to see him the strong even money favourite given how much he improved for stepping up to three miles last season.
The performance was met with some criticism as you could imagine, but I wasn’t too disheartened with the effort as others were. I thought he jumped slickly to begin with, taking himself to the front with how neat he was. Then, not for the first time in his career, he hung left around the bend and lost some momentum, and his jumping slightly capitulated thereafter. It didn’t go completely to pot, but he was no match for the very impressive Jax Junior, who quickened away smartly on the run in.
The cheek-pieces were left off Jeriko Du Reponet there and I suspect that we won’t see the best of him until returning to a longer trip, so on the whole I thought it was an entirely satisfactory performance. He only needs two more runs in handicap chases before March, and if connections can mind him well then he could have a strong chance of peaking again once more for the spring. I’ve only played half a point here as I do fear that if he’s 6/7lbs lower in March then connections will be tempted by the Kim Muir which would be the easier option, and it will be interesting to see the general prices once markets open up for that contest as I’d like to have him on side for that too.
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