Jonbon didn't win as easily as his 1/16 starting price suggested he might in the Kingmaker at Warwick - but Ben Linfoot says the scare might have even enhanced his Sporting Life Arkle prospects.
Over at Newbury McFabulous was beaten at 4/6, Greaneteen was defeated at 1/2 and Zanza won the Betfair Denman Chase at 16/1 despite being the lowest-rated horse in the race by some distance.
With a bit of ‘Good to Firm’ in the going description thanks to watering restrictions, perhaps the unseasonal ground at the Berkshire venue had something to do with it.
They could and did water 75 miles north at Warwick, but maybe there was something in it. The Good (Good to Soft in places) ground was deemed too lively for one of the star attractions in Love Envoi, while a bad scope (Bass Rock) and a bruised foot (Haddex des Obeaux) meant JONBON’s Virgin Bet Kingmaker Novices’ Chase was reduced to a match race with Calico.
Yet the bookmakers felt it was anything but a match. Jonbon went off 1/16 favourite, Calico 9/1, with Dan Skelton’s horse having 23lb to find with Nicky Henderson’s swashbuckling novice chaser on official ratings. He got 5lb and it didn’t look anywhere near enough for him to get close to the full-brother to Douvan.
But get close he did. Down the back Harry Skelton nipped up his inside and a flying leap at the seventh saw him turn a one-length deficit into a four-length lead in the blink of an eye. Calico traded at 1.34 in-running on Betfair. Jonbon touched 3.95.
Whatever happened from here on in, things had not gone smoothly for a horse who had been Sporting Life Arkle antepost market leader since he first jumped a fence.
He seemed to drop the bridle and lose interest. He adjusted right-handed at some fences. At least a pang of anxiety will likely have set in for trainer Henderson and owner JP McManus.
But jockey Aidan Coleman was cool, he didn’t panic, and he let Calico stride on when his opponent took the initiative. Good jumps at the ninth and 10th gave Jonbon momentum. He then asserted in the straight, in a fashion, won by five and a half lengths and the man on board wondered what all the fuss was about.
“It’s a prep run,” he said. “I was always quite confident from three quarters of a mile out. He was a bit rusty but he won it nicely so I’m happy with that. He’s not been trained for this… it’s a trial for the Arkle and that’s why we’re here.”
But Jonbon is Arkle favourite no more. He’s been shunted out to 2/1 in places, with El Fabiolo, last weekend’s oh-so-impressive Goffs Irish Arkle winner at Leopardstown, the new 11/10 market leader. After he sharpened his skillset in a proper Grade 1, it’s hard to argue with that.
However, this afternoon’s scare for Jonbon might just do him good with the Arkle in mind.
At least he was put in a race. He was headed and he had to get himself out of a significant enough deficit. There was no margin for error at the last few fences with his sole rival close enough to take advantage of any semblance of a mistake. He jumped well under pressure.
Is a race like this ideal for a championship contender at Cheltenham? I don’t know, but it’s hardly a new phenomenon. Indeed, the last time an Arkle winner prepped for Cheltenham in a two-runner race it was 1999 – and it was in the Kingmaker.
A young Paul Nicholls saddled up Flagship Uberalles at Warwick and Choc Thornton ensured the 9/4 shot beat Martin Pipe’s 1/3 chance Tresor De Mai by a head in a mighty match. At Cheltenham the pair finished first and second in the same order.
Contrast that with another two-runner prep for an Arkle contender: Rock On Ruby in 2014. He beat Mr Mole in a match at Doncaster, cantering to an unfussy 10-length win, but he hadn’t really had a race that season and he smashed through the third fence in the Arkle, before finishing a 52-length eighth.
Sir AP McCoy was on both Tresor De Mai and Mr Mole, but he won three Arkles and he was at Warwick on Saturday to witness Jonbon’s performance for his old boss JP McManus.
He said: “He’s not going to win the Arkle watching that is he? But that isn’t the Arkle. I wasn’t worried watching it and he actually won quite well in the end. He’ll have learned a little bit from that today.”
With a starting price of 1/16, the danger was he was going to learn very little. But the Kingmaker has made Arkle winners of not just Flagship Uberalles, but Voy Por Ustedes and Edwardstone, as well, and this in-running shock might just have done Jonbon more good than an effective walkover would’ve done.
And at 2/1 I’m more interested in backing him for the Festival now than I was at shorter prices before the Kingmaker. Perhaps that’s a twisted logic, but the Arkle remains one of the more fascinating races at this year’s Cheltenham and Jonbon’s Warwick run has only added another ingredient into the mix.
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