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Festival Fever - The Big Debate | Is Altior still champion material? Have your say!
Every Sunday up until the Cheltenham Festival we'll be asking you to get involved in one of the key questions facing Prestbury Park punters. Now we discuss Altior. Get involved!
Is Altior still champion material? Send your thoughts in via twitter @SportingLife, Facebook or on email to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com.
The sequence
From October 10 2015 to April 27 2019 Altior was untouchable. Unbeaten over obstacles, a perfect 19 wins from 19 races. One hundred horses trailing in his wake. Ten Grade Ones, including at four successive Cheltenham Festivals where he plundered back-to-back Queen Mother Champion Chases after graduating with top honours from the novice ranks.
He did it on soft ground and good ground and everything in between (good to soft). He did it going right-handed and left-handed on flat tracks and on undulating tracks. He sometimes did it the hard way, trading at 8.4 in-running on Betfair when sent off at evens for his first Champion Chase. Other times he did it in second gear, winning without fuss at Sandown and Ascot and Kempton.
Horses aren’t machines, but Altior circa 2015 to 2019 made a mockery of that saying. Ultimately, it began to ring true, even with him, but for three and a half years, 19 races, no horse could beat him. Hot on the heels of the buccaneering and brilliant Sprinter Sacre, Nicky Henderson had unearthed a very different, but equally effective and majestic, two-mile champion chaser.
The setbacks
The first sign of a physical problem with Altior came in November 2017 when he was ruled out of the following month’s Tingle Creek and a good bulk of the season due to a breathing problem. Henderson cited a ‘whistling noise’ following a key piece of work and upon further investigation it was decided that he needed wind surgery.
That meant his seasonal reappearance in the 2017-18 season came in February at Newbury, 287 days after he had ended the previous campaign with victory at Sandown. Things went very well, he accounted for Politologue easily and went on to add another eight ‘1s’ to the aforementioned sequence – but not without a lame-on-the-eve-of-the-festival story.
Setbacks seemed to follow Altior around by now and at the end of the 2018-19 season it was deemed that another wind procedure was required. This time he wouldn’t come out of it unscathed and as connections felt compelled to try something different with their record-breaker he came unstuck, for the first time over an obstacle, following a battle royal with Cyrname over 2m5f in the Grade 2 Christy 1965 Chase at Ascot.
It was back to two miles after that – and back to winning ways in the now familiar launchpad of the Game Spirit – but he wouldn’t go for a third successive Champion Chase after a dormant splint ruled him out of Cheltenham on the eve of the Festival. For the first time in five years Altior wouldn’t be running - and winning - on the biggest stage.
The return
You don’t get much more high-profile than Altior and it’s fair to say Henderson has had his ups and downs when it comes to relaying information to the public about his superstar horse’s well-being over the years.
There were understandable huffs and puffs, then, from all angles, when Henderson ruled Altior out of the 2020 Tingle Creek, the night before the race, on account of the soft ground. Ground he had won on six times in the past. It’s therefore also fair to say you could assume that all was not as it should be with the four-time Cheltenham Festival winner given such an unusual excuse.
Such assumptions were put to the test much later in December when Altior eventually did return, following 323 days off the track, on soft ground, in the Grade 2 Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton’s Christmas meeting.
Altior had won at Kempton’s Christmas meeting in 2015, 2016 and 2018 by a combined margin of 50 lengths, the last two wins in the same race at odds of 1/9 and 1/8, but he was uneasy in the betting this time, drifting to even-money from odds-on, and that market weakness proved an accurate prophecy as he ran in snatches from an early stage.
He simply didn’t look to have the pace of the winner, Nube Negra, but to his great credit he responded the best that he could to Nico de Boinville’s urgings, keeping on well in the home straight to get the better of Duc Des Genievres for second. Commendable, but a far cry from the winning machine of a few years ago.
The Champion Chase odds (Sky Bet – correct at 0800 GMT 17/01/2021)
- Chacun Pour Soi – 11/8
- Politologue – 6/1
- Altior – 11/1
- Nube Negra – 11/1
- Put The Kettle On 14/1
- 16/1 BAR
The Ryanair Chase odds (Sky Bet – correct at 0800 GMT 17/01/2021)
- Min – 5/1
- Imperial Aura – 6/1
- Saint Calvados – 9/1
- Allaho – 10/1
- Kemboy – 10/1
- Waiting Patiently – 12/1
- Altior 16/1
- Mister Fisher – 16/1
- 20/1 BAR
The Sporting Life verdict – Ben Linfoot
Altior is 11 now, and once you turn double-digits as a racehorse you’re hitting pensioner status. It’s no surprise that those older than 10 have struggled to make an impact at the top level in the ultra-competitive arena that is the Cheltenham Festival.
Just look at the three Grade One chases for non-novices during the week.
In the last 43 years only one horse aged 11 or over has won the Queen Mother Champion Chase – the remarkable Moscow Flyer in 2005. In its 16-year history no horse aged 11 or over has won the Ryanair Chase. And the last horse aged 11 or over to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup was the 12-year-old What A Myth back in 1969.
Since 1997, 65 11yo+ have tried to win these three races, with only Moscow prevailing.
So, for all that the four-time Cheltenham Festival winner Altior has a class advantage over most of the golden oldies that have tried to win a Grade One chase at Cheltenham in their advancing years, there is no doubt that the task he faces is a tough one.
A third Champion Chase looks a tall order. The setbacks have been adding up, consequently he does look to lack a bit of pace these days and in Chacun Pour Soi, Politologue, Nube Negra and Put The Kettle On he would be facing rivals in or approaching their prime.
Nicky Henderson has at least given him the option of the Ryanair Chase this season and if he is to roll back the years at Cheltenham in March this looks a better winning opportunity for him. After all, favourite Min is well used to seeing his backside at this meeting, while the 2m5f trip could, in theory, suit him better now if he has indeed lost a gear.
The Ryanair can be a blood-and-thunder affair, though, with barely time for a breather. I’m not sure that would suit Altior against some really strong stayers at the trip – including, potentially, the likes of Saint Calvados, Samcro and Melon – and if he is to win another Grade One in the twilight of his career, as great horses such as Kauto Star did before him, I’d wager it won’t be at the Festival.
Published at 0800 GMT on 17/01/21
Is Altior still champion material? Send your thoughts in via twitter @SportingLife, Facebook or on email to racingfeedback@sportinglife.com and the best will appear here
YOUR VERDICTS
Jon Eden: I never felt that Altior's jumping was fast or fluent, more just efficient. It was (is) his heart and engine that were his main weapons. In both Champion Chase wins, he made his ground with a turn of foot before/after the last fence, but not necessarily over it.
Against top class opposition, he's jumping doesn't give him any advantages and although it could be said that he could tackle longer distances now he appears to have lost some of his speed, his engine won't necessarily appreciate it. No Cheltenham race looks tailor made for him nowadays and Aintree's 2.5 miler might be his best option for further top honours, although whatever happens, he will always be a superstar.
George Goodenough: Altior is a marvel. I went to Newbury to see him win the Game Spirit on the day that Native River won the Denman. Add in guest appearances from Sprinter Sacre and Denman and you have a day that will remain fresh in the memory even when dementia kicks in. I used to be a bad to moderate competitive athlete and once finished 255th to Steve Jones in the RAF Benson 7 miler. I'm now 55 and well aware of the ravages of time. I find it difficult to walk quickly these days. Altior is old and has had problems. He is now vulnerable to younger legs. Let's hope he gets to Cheltenham but if he goes out on his shield then cherish this great horse. Shishkin is waiting in the wings and Energumene is the same breeding cross as Un De Sceaux. Exciting times.
Lyndon Kitchen: I totally love this horse, his quick jumping and the added tension when he invariable hits a flat spot around the 3rd last, before coming back onto the bridle and powering clear on the run in.
I have thought for a while a step up to 2 miles and either 4 or 5 furlongs would help Altior, but in my opinion time is catching up with this jumping champion, and after a laboured effort at Kempton i think retirement beckons, but would love to be proved wrong if Altior bounces back to his best this Spring.
Jim Noble: Totally disagree with the comments that the horse is past it. Politilogue for one will never beat Altior the horse is over-rated and people are too easy to write horses off. They did the same with Sprinter Sacre. Ben Linfoot talks as though the horse is 16 years old and he has only just passed 11, and he has not run a lot during his career, he might have just needed the run last time out. If he does run in the Champion Chase, which I have reason to think he will not, then he will still be the horse to beat.