Betfair Chase: the repeat winners at Haydock

This year sees the twentieth running of the Betfair Chase which is now firmly established as Britain’s major weight-for-age staying chase before Christmas.

The inaugural running in 2005 replaced a couple of Haydock’s long-standing conditions chases, the Edward Hanmer and the Tommy Whittle, and a first prize of more than £85,000 helped to attract a high-class field of seven.

So too did the lure of the Betfair Million which offered a guaranteed million-pound bonus to the connections of any horse which followed victory in the Betfair Chase by winning the King George VI Chase and Cheltenham Gold Cup.

It was the winner of the latter pair of races the previous season, Kicking King, who was sent off the odds-on favourite for the first running of the Betfair Chase but he could finish only third behind the Robert Alner-trained Kingscliff, who’d been runner-up to Kicking King at Kempton the previous December, and the other top-class Irish horse in the field Beef Or Salmon.

The first two were in the field again twelve months later but reliability wasn’t Kingscliff’s strong suit – he never won another race under Rules after the 2005 Betfair Chase – while Beef Or Salmon again had to settle for second, this time behind a chaser who would go on to win four of the next six Betfair Chases.

Kauto Star – four-time winner and Betfair Millionaire

The six-year-old Kauto Star’s stamina had to be taken on trust in his first Betfair Chase as he’d never run over three miles but he was sent off the 11/10 favourite following an outstanding effort under top weight in the previous month’s Old Roan Chase at Aintree.

He delivered another exhilarating display at Haydock and hardly came off the bridle in beating Beef Or Salmon 17 lengths. It already looked as though the sponsors were going to have to write a big cheque later in the season and Kauto Star duly went on to win the King George and Gold Cup in an unbeaten campaign, collecting the Betfair Million for his owner Clive Smith.

Kauto Star was beaten on his return in the following season’s Old Roan but that didn’t prevent him from starting odds on to retain his Betfair Chase crown in 2007 and he followed up under stand-in jockey Sam Thomas while Ruby Walsh was nursing a dislocated shoulder.

Despite some breathtaking jumping, Kauto Star had much less to spare this time, holding off the persistent Exotic Dancer, who’d also been runner-up to him in the Gold Cup, by half a length. While Kauto Star again followed up in the King George, the Betfair Million eluded him this time as he went down to stablemate Denman in the Gold Cup.

But a third Betfair Chase looked on the cards for Kauto Star the following autumn, having reappeared this time with a win beforehand in the Champion Chase at Down Royal. But even though he had to work harder than expected, he still looked the probable winner when slithering on landing and unseating at the final fence, leaving outsiders Snoopy Loopy and Tamarinbleu to take the first two places in the biggest upset in the Betfair Chase’s history.

However, having won the King George and Gold Cup again later in the season, Kauto Star returned to Haydock for another Betfair Chase in 2009, this time without the benefit of a reappearance run. His third win in the race came after an epic duel with the Ryanair Chase winner Imperial Commander, Kauto Star having to dig deep to snatch the verdict by a nose after trading at odds against in betting on the photo finish. The runner-up would take his revenge the following March when Kauto Star fell in the Gold Cup.

Imperial Commander also won the 2010 Betfair Chase in Kauto Star’s absence (he went straight from another win at Down Royal to Kempton that season) but when Kauto Star was back for the 2011 renewal, he did so as an eleven-year-old with something to prove after a run of three defeats, including when pulled up in the Punchestown Gold Cup

Long Run, five years his junior, had beaten him into third at both Kempton and Cheltenham the previous season and was sent off the hot favourite but Paul Nicholls had Kauto Star primed to give his all on the day and he bounced back to land his fifteenth Grade 1 chase, forcing the pace for a change, jumping impeccably and finding plenty to beat Long Run by eight lengths.

Kauto Star followed his fourth Betfair Chase victory with a fifth King George before being retired after pulling up in his bid to win a third Gold Cup.

Silviniaco Conti and Cue Card – a West Country rivalry

The Kauto Star era might have been over but Paul Nicholls soon had another Betfair Chase winner on his hands. A six-year-old like Kauto Star had been when winning the race for the first time, Silviniaco Conti also had Long Run, favourite again, to beat in the 2012 Betfair Chase. But Silviniaco Conti had race fitness on his side, following a win in the Charlie Hall Chase earlier in the month, and he had the benefit of the run of the race too, Ruby Walsh dictating a modest pace and able to make all the running.

Silviniaco Conti did manage to win a second Betfair Chase two years later but didn’t enjoy the same dominance in the Betfair Chase enjoyed by Kauto Star. That was chiefly down to the fact that he had a top-class rival of the same age in the Colin Tizzard-trained Cue Card who ended up winning three of the next four Betfair Chases.

The first of those was the 2013 renewal for which Bobs Worth, the Gold Cup winner the previous March, was sent off favourite. Silviniaco Conti ran well in his bid for a repeat success but could only finish third on his reappearance behind the Ryanair Chase winner Cue Card who proved his stamina at three miles-plus for the first time, jumping superbly in front to beat another seven-year-old, Dynaste, into second.

The first three all met again a year later though the result was very different. Silviniaco Conti had been given a pipe-opener in the Charlie Hall beforehand this time while the fitting of cheekpieces helped him focus too. Cue Card had suffered setbacks in the intervening twelve months and while he set out to make all again, he eventually weakened into fourth as Silviniaco Conti beat the Charlie Hall winner Menorah into second with Dynaste third.

Dynaste was back again in 2015 but so too were Silviniaco Conti and Cue Card, hard to split in the betting at 5/4 and 7/4 respectively. Both had been given prep runs this time, with Cue Card beating Dynaste in the Charlie Hall while Silviniaco Conti had a run over hurdles at Kempton.

This time it was Silviniaco Conti who made the running with the going heavy as it had been for both his wins. But despite optimum conditions, Silviniaco Conti wasn’t at his very best whereas Cue Card, winless the previous season, seemed better than ever and looking value for more than his seven-length margin of victory. Indeed, Cue Card went on to win the King George that season whereas Silviniaco Conti was pulled up in his bid to win that race for the third year running. The Betfair Million was back this season but Cue Card’s fall three out in the Gold Cup meant the sponsors didn’t need to pay out this time.

The score in the Betfair Chase was therefore two apiece when Cue Card and Silviniaco Conti met again in the 2016 renewal, both now ten-year-olds. But while age seemed to be catching up with Silviniaco Conti, Cue Card proved as sprightly as ever. He had a bigger rival than Silviniaco Conti by now too, with former Gold Cup winner Coneygree challenging for favouritism after Cue Card had been beaten at odds on in the Charlie Hall.

Not for the first time, though, Cue Card answered the doubters with another top-class performance, having 15 lengths to spare over Coneygree as Silviniaco Conti trailed home last of the four finishers.

Bristol de Mai – Haydock specialist and another three-time winner

Cue Card made his fifth and final appearance in the Betfair Chase in 2017 which was a significant renewal as it saw the handing over of power from one three-time winner to another. Bristol de Mai, whose trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies had already won a Betfair Chase with Imperial Commander, could hardly have taken Cue Card’s crown more convincingly. Five years Cue Card’s junior – Bristol de Mai was another to win his first Betfair Chase at the age of six – he had been successful on both his previous visits to Haydock, including when routing his field in the Peter Marsh Chase early in the year.

In fact, unlike Kauto Star, Silviniaco Conti and Cue Card, and Imperial Commander for that matter, who all won King Georges and/or Gold Cups as well, Bristol de Mai proved very much a Haydock specialist from then on. That said, he did land the Charlie Hall (in which Cue Card fell) prior to his first win in the Betfair Chase which he won even more easily than the Peter Marsh. There was a new trip this year, the start moved further back from the first bend, adding a furlong and a half in distance and meaning an extra fence needed to be jumped. Setting a relentless gallop in the heavy ground which Bristol de Mai relished, he drew further and further clear from four out to win by an official margin of 57 lengths from a plugging-on Cue Card.

For each of the next five seasons, Bristol de Mai made his reappearance in the Betfair Chase. He faced serious opposition when retaining his title a year later despite the ground being nowhere near as testing as it had been twelve months earlier. Making much of the running again under Daryl Jacob, Bristol de Mai had four lengths to spare over Gold Cup winner Native River while even-money favourite Might Bite, who’d beaten Bristol de Mai in the previous season’s King George and Aintree Bowl, trailed home last of the five.

Like the others before him who have won more than one Betfair Chase, Bristol de Mai was beaten in the race before winning it again. In a field of just four in 2018, the betting couldn’t split Bristol de Mai and up-and-coming second-season chaser Lostintranslation. The 5/4 favourites duly had it between them and while Bristol de Mai had the run of the race and gave his all, he couldn’t peg back Lostintranslation who took over jumping the last and went on to win by a length and a half, giving Colin Tizzard a fourth win in the race to go with Cue Card’s three.

Lostintranslation was sent off the 7/4 favourite a year later but he wasn’t to join the list of horses to have won the Betfair Chase more than once. It was another heavy-ground renewal which tipped the odds very much in Bristol de Mai’s favour. With Lostintranslation struggling some way out before finishing a remote third, Bristol de Mai’s chief rival was the dual King George winner Clan des Obeaux (fourth in the race two years earlier) but he was ultimately outstayed as Bristol de Mai ploughed on for his third win.

Bristol de Mai had a couple of attempts to equal Kauto Star’s score in the race but was pulled up behind that season’s subsequent Gold Cup winner A Plus Tard in 2021 and last of four finishers behind Protektorat in 2022. But Bristol de Mai did gain another final success at Haydock in the 2022 Grand National Trial which he was awarded after the first past the post was disqualified for testing positive for a prohibited substance.

Challenge for 2023 winner Royale Pagaille

Between them then, Kauto Star, Silviniaco Conti, Cue Card and Bristol de Mai won twelve of the fifteen renewals of the Betfair Chase between 2006 and 2020, writing much of the race’s history so far between the four of them.

Since then, both A Plus Tard and Protektorat failed miserably when trying to join the list of those who have won the race more than once. That’s now the challenge for last year’s winner Royale Pagaille.

Like Bristol de Mai, he goes particularly well in the mud and has a very good record overall at Haydock, also finishing runner-up in the 2021 Betfair Chase on ground that wasn’t ideal and twice a winner of the Peter Marsh.

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