Donn McClean

NICKY HENDERSON DIDN’T even enter Shishkin for the Champion Chase. Just shows you how well the top trainers know their horses.

Before Saturday, all Shishkin’s best form was over around two miles, the Champion Chase distance. His Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, his Wayward Lad Chase, his Arkle, his Maghull Chase. His Clarence House Chase win at Ascot last year, when he and Energumene slugged it out over Ascot’s extended two miles, in top gear for most of it, and he eventually got on top on the run-in, surged forward inside the final 100 yards to win by a deep-dug length in one of the races of the season.

Actually, before Saturday, and not including his point-to-points, Shishkin had gone beyond two and a quarter miles just once in his life, when he won a listed novices’ hurdle at Huntingdon in February 2020. And yet, when the initial entries for the Champion Chase were published in January, Shishkin’s name wasn’t there. He was entered in two races at the Cheltenham Festival, the Ryanair Chase, which made sense, and, a little left-field, the Gold Cup, but not in the Champion Chase.

Of course, there was and still is always the option to supplement Shishkin to the Champion Chase on 9 March, but it costs over £18,000 to do that as opposed to a total of £2,000 if he had been entered in January. No, the message from Seven Barrows in January was clear: Shishkin’s days as a two-miler were numbered.

That is why his performance in the Betfair Ascot Chase on Saturday was so important. The race was run over two miles and five furlongs, longer than the longest distance over which Shishkin had ever competed before under Rules. The bone problem that had been diagnosed last season had been sorted, and he had had a wind operation since he had finished only third in the Tingle Creek Chase on his debut this season. And Nicky Henderson fitted a tongue-tie on Saturday for good measure. We were into no-excuses territory.

We didn’t know that Shishkin would stay the distance. We suspected that he would, but you never know for sure until they try it. Horses can often leave the impression when they race over two miles that they will improve for stepping up in trip and, when they do, they don’t fully get home. That wasn’t Shishkin on Saturday though. At no stage did you think that he wouldn’t win.

Marie Donnelly’s horse went through the early stages of the race with his old verve. He jumped and travelled with his old enthusiasm, so much so that, by the time they raced into Swinley Bottom, seven fences to jump, he was up into second place, up on the outside of the leader Pic D’Orhy.

By the time they turned for home and faced up to the second last fence, the front two had pulled clear of their rivals and, by the time they jumped the last and started up the run-in, Shishkin had come clear of Pic D’Orhy. He stayed all right. When he got to the winning line, he was 16 lengths clear of his closest rival.

Bookmakers’ reaction was predictable, but understandable. The brave ones said 6/4 for the Ryanair Chase, but that was quickly gobbled up. 5/4 said some of them, 11/10 said most of them. Nicky Henderson just said that he loved the way that his horse travelled, that he was always in his comfort zone over the longer trip, as opposed to over two miles, when he was flat out the whole way. He also said that the Ryanair Chase was by far his most likely target at Cheltenham.

Willie Mullins said something similar at Gowran Park about Janidil after he had watched his horse win the Red Mills Chase. It didn’t look likely for much of the way. Janidil was last of the four runners from flagfall, he was still last as they raced across the top of the track and straightened up for home, and he wasn’t great at the third last fence, which is probably around about the point at which he traded at 16/1 in-running.

But Rachael Blackmore was only biding her time on him. She moved him towards the far side at the top of the home straight in order that he would have clear sailing, challenged at the second last fence and moved to the front on the run to the last While JP McManus’ horse got in tight to that obstacle and landed awkwardly, he quickly re-gathered his momentum and kept on well enough to beat his stable companion Haut En Couleurs by just over a length, with the pair of them clear of their other two rivals.

The Ryanair Chase is the obvious race now too for Janidil. He put up a big performance in the race last year to finish second to his stable companion Allaho, and it is his only Cheltenham Festival entry at present. And, despite Allaho’s absence this year, it still looks like Willie Mullins will have a strong hand in the race.

It looks like Blue Lord could step back up in trip, after he finished second behind Gentleman De Mee in the Dublin Chase, and the Ryanair also looks like the right race for Haut En Couleurs, despite his defeat on Saturday, and despite the fact that he doesn’t hold an entry in the race at present, and despite the fact that his owner Marie Donnelly is also the owner of Shishkin.

It is a real shame that we are missing Allaho. A concert-pitch Allaho versus a concert-pitch Shishkin in a Ryanair Chase, over and extended two and a half miles: that would have been one of the races of the Festival. Willie Mullins will still field a strong Ryanair Chase team for sure, but he is not underestimating the magnitude of the task that that team will face.

“Looking at Shishkin,” the champion trainer told Racing TV on Saturday, “that will probably put him as favourite. That was a huge performance.”