The year feels like it's flown by once again and here we are looking at the end of December with our disappointing season on the flat already finished at Kempton so we return today over the jumps for one more big meeting. The annual Boxing Day NH meeting at Kempton Park will be our final event till next year comes around and it of course will feature the renewal of the King George VI Chase and supporting Grade 1 event the Christmas Hurdle.
Will MIGHT BITE be able to return to form and repeat his win of last year, will we see another superstar in the making and will the Irish trainers send over anything special to take on the home team or keep them safe across the Irish Sea and leave it till Cheltenham in March. I can remember when the best of the French chasers came over but that seems to have stopped now too. There are of course plenty of supporting events including the Kauto Star (Feltham) Novices Chase won last year by BLACK CORTON under the exceptional Bryony Frost and the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle which was won by BUVEUR D'AIR before he went on to retain his Champion Hurdle crown.
We will have a six race card on Wednesday afternoon, plenty of quality events leading up to the King George VI itself at 3:05pm. The going is currently forecast as "Good to Soft, Good in places", and the weather should be fine for the time of year although a bit chilly so keep warm.
Here are our thoughts and selections for the rest of today's NH card;
12:50 32Red Casino Novices' Hurdle (Class 2)
2m, 6 Runners
We kick off the Boxing day meeting with a decent novice hurdle, although just the six runners declared over the weekend we can some good competition with some big reputations being put on the line already and should be a wonderful opening contest. The top two of DIDTHEYLEAVEYOUOUTTO and THE BIG BITE have an impressive win ratio with four wins from five career starts each and their only defeat was the Champion Bumper at the festival in March. They should ensure a decent pace and will be hard to beat, if they are vulnerable to anything giving away 8lb to the rest it would probably be Nicky Henderson's MISTER FISHER [WON 7/2] who won on the AW here over 2m and will be well schooled by the champion trainer for sure.
13:20 32Red.com Chase (Novices' Limited Handicap) (Class 3)
2m 4f 110y, 13 Runners.
Our first big field handicap chase has £14k to the winner and VIVAS heads the weights with a good recent run of three wins out of four, some of these in small fields around Plumpton and Fontwell so this is a significant step up really though going the right way over fences. Conceding weight to the likes of GLEN FORSA [WON 7/1] and AWAKE AT MIDNIGHT might be difficult and these two come here with wins in decent sized fields so the near stone in weight they get will make them very interesting in the betting.
13:55 32Red Kauto Star Novices' Chase (Grade 1) (Class 1)
3m, 7 Runners
Formally known as the FELTHAM NOVICE CHASE this is now renamed as the Kauto Star Chase after the multiple King George and Gold Cup winner. Loses a little of it's charm for me personally as a traditionalist but never mind this year's renewal has a small field of just seven line up here, BAGS GROOVE has won his last three chases, but will probably have to concede to SANTINI here today a decent Grade One winning hurdler has taken to fences straight away with an opening success at Newbury and should be hard to beat.
Paul Nicholls and Harry Cobden have been in great form on the big weekends so support for his TOPOFTHEGAME today would be interesting and this 150 rated hurdler should be looked at in future once he's had a bit more experience over the larger obstacles.
14:30 Unibet Christmas Hurdle (Grade 1) (Class 1)
2m, 5 Runners
Another Grade 1 but another small field with the Irish challenge remaining at home and not a lot of depth now in the Champion Hurdle events to be fair, so we have just the five runners with current Champion BUVEUR D'AIR a 1/5F to take this prize and move onto a defence of his crown in March. A race with no real attraction other than seeing this great horse cruise home safely. Global Citizen is the one for the forecast.
15:05 32Red King George VI Chase (Grade 1) (Class 1)
3m, 10 Runners
We have an exciting renewal for this years King George VI chase, a field of ten and 3 miles the trip, 18 fences to tackle and most of these have been here before with two former winners MIGHT BITE and THISTLECRACK returning too. Might Bite was not the force he was in his comeback run and while Thistlecrack and Coneygree ran with great credit after injuries it might be the turn of Gold Cup winner NATIVE RIVER to take this before being aimed at the Gold Cup defence later.
Bristol De Mai was an easy winner at Newbury in the Betfair Chase but is never the same force going this way around and might be taken on for the lead which will make it an open contest. The interesting one on the upgrade is the 7yo WAITING PATIENTLY who has successfully won their five chases to date and though has to improve again to beat the Gold Cup class horses but could be the danger.
Demonstrating the 'vintage' quality of this year's field, the 2017 runner Double Shuffle (40-1) and third-placed Tea For Two (50-1) are rated among the outsiders as is the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Coneygree (33-1) who ran well on his latest comeback and could go really well at a decent price.
15:40 32Red Download The App Handicap Hurdle (Class 3)
2m 5f, 14 Runners
Our finale is a handicap hurdle which has attracted the largest field of the day, fourteen go to post, headed by Ballyandy who will do well to get around carrying 12st 2lb today and conceding plenty of weight to the likes of Penn Lane and Erick Le Rouge.
Interesting horse is WHO'S MY JOCKEY the correct answer today is Richard Johnson who rarely leaves this meeting without a winner. I would like to see the price of THE SWEENEY (forecast 16/1) who was staying on but not near to the winner when 3rd here last month, if I can get a place bet on that will be happy.
Hope you enjoying your Boxing Day and still have a bit of turkey left over, wish you all the best for the end of the year for those of you disappointed that we didn't have a White Christmas here's what it would have looked like.
Good start to the day with winners in the opening two contests, hopefully a sign of a change of fortunes.
We'll be back with a new season on the flat in January 2019.
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