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Leader knocks it out of the park

Leader In The Park (5/1) made most to win the Ladbrokes Best Odds Guaranteed On Racing Novices' Limited Handicap Chase.

Well regarded by trainer Ben Pauling, Leader In The Park ran well for a long way on last month's chasing debut at Cheltenham until tiring and showed the benefit of that outing.

Sent out in front by Ben Jones, Leader In The Park jumped well in the main and began to turn the screw in the back straight and had most of the field in trouble turning for home. He got in a little tight to the last allowing well-backed favourite Asta La Pasta and El Rio another bite of the cherry but Leader In The Park kept finding and ran on to score by a length and a quarter and the same.

Jones told ITV Racing: "I think we only saw him once last year, at Donny [Doncaster], where he actually put his best foot forward.

"He's crying out to be a chaser. I had a great spin on him round Cheltenham first time out and just got trapped everywhere at Cheltenham so I said to Ben - and Ben agreed - 'just let him enjoy himself'. He's got a big stride, he likes to see his fences and he dominated there didn't he?

"The last at the minute has been a bit of a problem but he knows where his feet are and I think if I went and asked him to shorten he might have dived at it so I just wanted to keep the revs up and he knows what he's doing; he got to the other side and kept his head in front."

Pauling added: “He’s been so disappointing, but I think he just takes a lot of getting fit so you have allow him his first run at Cheltenham where he never jumped fluently. Today he jumped better and I think he is going to be better left-handed as he just went left at a few looking for room. He’s still learning, but that was a good start.

“He did it the hard way (from the front) because we wanted to do it that way. We were worried about the fact he wasn’t going to be as good in behind and I think at the moment he needs to be positive and allowed to dominate. His jumping was pretty good, there were three or four I would have liked him to have shortened more effectively, but he was brilliant when he was good. He just needs to learn when to shorten or let fly.”

On future plans, he added: “He will be too low in the handicap (for the novice handicap at Cheltenham) at the moment and would need to win a couple of more races yet. Winning this will do for now.”

Man for all seasons

Jones and Pauling doubled up when The Jukebox Man (4/6 favourite) ran out an impressive winner of the Ladbrokes Kauto Star Novices' Chase.

White Rhino was an early casualty in the three mile Grade One contest when unseating his rider but the remaining four runners were closely grouped turning into the straight for the final time.

Hyland and The Jukebox Man pulled clear of the other pair with a good leap at the second last seeing The Jukebox Man open up a two or three length advantage over his rival. Hyland didn't shirk the battle but another good jump at the last put the seal on an impressive performance with Jones standing up in the stirrups and saluting the crowd as the pair passed the line two and a half lengths to the good.

The Jukebox Man was an unarguably unlucky loser at last season's Cheltenham Festival when beaten a head in the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle and earned more ante-post quotes for the March showpiece with Sky Bet cutting The Jukebox Man to 6/1 (from 10s) for the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase with Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook both going 5/1 from 9/1.

A jubilant Jones said: "All week I've been looking forward to this lad.

"When the first lad won I was hoping that wasn't all my fortune in one go but......I had a great spin round Newbury but he was ten times better today, just so accurate, he wasn't so exuberant. When I needed him he was there. I thought I had Nico [De Boinville, rider of Hyland] covered everywhere but we didn't go all that quick. We kind of dashed down to three out but he measured it really well, landed running and I knew all we had to do was get over the last two.

"He won over two and a half and we were half thinking about dropping back in trip so we weren't worried about not having enough foot at the end. We knew we stayed and we knew we had a bit of gear as well so there was no point putting him through the grind and making it a hard race when he can just probably do it over the last three fences which he did."

“Ben [Pauling] still feels there is improvement in him,” said owner Harry Redknapp.

“He normally goes off and is ‘catch me if you can’ but Ben told Ben to sit in behind and he tracked Hyland and picked him off. He said the first time round it was just having a canter round, he was going so easy he always thought he was going to win. It’s nice.

“It’s fantastic, you come into the game to have horses to have days like this. I love it and it’s my passion and I’ve been very lucky. Ben has been a great judge and great trainer of my horses. He’s a lovely horse and has had sore heels all week, Ben was really worried about running him. He’s probably the best I’ve had, he’s probably better than Shakemup’Arry who won for me at Cheltenham and has great potential.

“The dream is back to Cheltenham and I was nervous. I watched every jump and holding my breath, it’s worse than football managing.”

Pauling said: “It’s a few years since I’ve won a Grade One, Willoughby Court was my last one

“It’s a huge relief and it’s been an interesting week at home working on his heels to make sure he was here in good health because he had a few sores on his heels and it hasn’t been that smooth. To get him here and get him to win, I know he can be better and it’s very exciting.

“It’s amazing for Harry and the whole team has been phenomenal. It’s been early mornings, late nights, but we’re there. Above water I’ve been a swan, but below I’ve been paddling.

“I doubt he will run again before Cheltenham and he’ll have entries in both the Arkle and Brown Advisory. If it came up heavy and he is feeling A1, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in an Arkle. I think in heavy ground when he’s A1 he could jump anything into submission.”

Rest of the action

The market principals came to the fore in the Ladbrokes "Gaffer Of All Accas" Maiden Hurdle with Kientzheim (2/1 joint-favourite) getting the better of Beau Quali.

Kientzheim, a winner of two French AQPS Flat races, was making her debut for Nicky Henderson and had to work quite hard to overhaul the eventual runner-up but looked well on top at the line, finishing off her race well to win by two and a quarter lengths.

Victory completed a double on the card for Henderson and jockey Nico de Boinville who had earlier secured a brilliant and emotional success in the Christmas Hurdle with Constitution Hill.

"Really happy," de Boinville told Racing TV.

"She's shown a bit at home and I'd like to think that she brought that to the track today and, hopefully, that's the start of good things to come. She slightly fluffed the last but was quick away off the back of it."

“She’s a very nice filly and she’s closely related to [dual Champion Hurdle winner] Epatante, she’s her aunt,” added Henderson.

“I was hopeful coming here and I like the way she did it. She jumped great until the latter part when she got a bit novicey, which she’s entitled to do.”

The trainer completed a treble when East India Express (5/4 favourite), ridden by Freddie Gordon, justified strong support in the Ladbrokes Get Rewarded With Ladbucks Handicap Hurdle.

Henderson had saddled the winner in two of the last four years and sent three of the nine runners in this year's renewal but it was two runners from the stable of Pauling, himself seeking a treble, who pulled clear of the field along with East India Express.

Samuel Spade was being kept up to his work whereas King Of The Road appeared to be travelling almost as well as the eventual winner who produced a good leap at the last to effectively seal victory.

The winning distances were two and a half lengths and a length with 13 lengths back to the fourth.

East India Express was completing a quick double of his own having won under Gordon at Ascot just prior to Christmas and he was unpenalised for that victory in an event confined to conditional jockeys.

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