Since it was moved to Boxing Day in 1947, the King George VI Chase has been the showpiece of British horse racing. Previous Injured Jockeys Fund president John Francome, who won the race twice, believes that this year’s line-up is one of the best we have had for some time.
“Interestingly enough, Willie Mullins sent over Lossiemouth and Ballyburn last year and they both got turned over and he said that he didn’t realise how sharp a track Kempton was and that, if he sent horses again, he would train them differently”, he highlighted, “That’s worth bearing in mind for Gaelic Warrior, who is only a seven-year-old and looks like he has got plenty of class and he has won over three miles at Aintree, so he is probably a worthy favourite. Jango Baie, I thought, he was a really impressive winner of the Arkle, and he probably went too fast on him early on. He jumps well and he has always looked like he has wanted three miles. He’s my idea of the winner. There are a lot of good horses in it. You’ve got The Jukebox Man, who is owned by Harry Redknapp. You’ve got Djelo for Venetia Williams, Fact To File, last year’s winner Banbridge and the French horse who was second”.
The French runner, Il Est Francais, was bold from the front last year, before being collared by Banbridge, but he can be inconsistent and has proved a controversial horse amongst racing fans, “I think the jockey is fantastic and so is the horse on his day. He’s [James Reveley] normally someone I find it very hard to criticise, but he looked round on him last year after he jumped the third last, which he shouldn’t have done. Whether it cost him the race, maybe not, but on his day, there is no doubt he is exceptional. A lot of the horse’s problems is that he jumps too well, you can go and get your momentum at every fence. It’ll be a very fast run race again. A lot of horses couldn’t lay up with him last year. It’ll be interesting. It is difficult for the French horse to run two races alike, but on his day, he is definitely good enough to win a King George”.
On the subject of jockeys, who would be John’s pick to ride a King George contender? “Harry Cobden, over here”, he answered almost immediately, “Harry Cobden is a joy to watch. He rides very similar to Charlie Deutsch. They are both very, very good horsemen. Sean Bowen is having a very good run, and he has got that McCoy factor and he has got that will to win. In terms of getting a horse from one side of a fence to the other, though, Harry Cobden is in a class of his own”.
During his riding career, John won almost all the big prizes in the sport and rode the winner of the King George twice. In 1982, he won on Wayward Lad, riding the horse for the very first time, and, in 1984, he partnered Burrough Hill Lad, after the pair had already won the Hennessy Gold Cup that season.
“Wayward Lad was particularly sweet for me because, that season, I’d lost the job riding for Sheikh Ali Abu Khamsin”, John remembered, “He had employed Richard Linley to ride all of his horses and so they had a horse called Half Free running in the King George that Richard Linley rode. I got the ride on Wayward Lad because Michael Dickinson’s main runners were up at Wetherby. He jumped really well, and he was a very good jumper, I won on him up at Aintree as well, and he beat Half Free so that was particularly rewarding. The other one, Burrough Hill Lad was for Jenny Pitman. He won by a short head. He beat a horse of David Elsworth’s ridden by Colin Brown, Combs Ditch. Jenny Pitman thought that I had been beaten and started jumping up and down, but, in actual fact, I’d won so it worked out well in the end. Two very good horses and two very good jumpers”.
Winners like these two can help to add a bit more cheer for jockeys over the Christmas period, “On Boxing Day, everyone else was eating and drinking and you’re pretty much keeping yourself to yourself, really”.
Though one year, for John, that dramatically changed, “I can remember going there one day and my dad had just brought a car that ran off a propane gas and, about one mile from the racecourse, we were in a traffic jam, and the car suddenly caught fire. We had to get out and I had to run the last bit. That was the fittest I’d been when I got to the races!”
The King George remains, in John’s view, an important occasion within the racing calendar, “Outside the Cheltenham Festival, I think it is a race where people will go to, probably just to get out the house over Christmas! But it has got a very good atmosphere. They’re on about selling it off for houses, which I think would be a mistake, but it comes bang over Christmas and this year’s race is the best I can remember for a long time”.
*John Francome in conversation with Samantha Martin, writing for the Injured Jockeys Fund