Another King George VI Triumph For Nicholls?

Paul Nicholls regularly has a great Christmas and it’s now all down to presents and singing carols. On a record 12 occasions he’s trained the winner of the King George VI Chase. Will win number 13 come on Boxing Day?

Bravemans Game is the leading Nicholls runner this December. The seven-year-old has the bonus of being a course and distance winner at Kempton Park. That win came in the Boxing Day meeting held last year. Bravemans Game won the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase.

That race means a lot to Nicholls as it’s named after the horse he trained to win the King George VI Chase on five occasions.

The win completed a hat-trick for Bravemansgame and he made it a four-timer with success at Newbury two months later. The Cheltenham Festival was missed and his season came to a disappointing end when finishing last in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree.

No reason could be given for finishing 30 lengths behind winner Ahoy Senior who had been beaten by seven-and-a-half lengths at Kempton Park. Perhaps a return to that track in December will see that poor run put well behind him.

This is a race that will see online sportsbooks very busy indeed. Not just in the UK but across the Atlantic. Over 30 states in the US have now made sports betting legal, including New York where horse gamblers will be eager to bet on this race.

Another from the Nicholls yard is Clan Des Obeaux. The 10-year-old won the King George VI Chase in both 2018 and 2019. You have to go back to 1989 for the last time a horse of that age won this race. That was when Desert Orchid won in one of the most memorable renewals of this race.

Paul Nicholls will swiftly tell you that in 2011, he trained Kauto Star to victory in this race and he was a year older than Clan Des Obeaux. Since his last win in 2019, the Nicholls runner has finished third in 2020 and second behind shock winner Tornado Flyer last year.

Clan Des Obeaux went on to win at Aintree earlier this year. However, he was no match for Allaho in the Punchestown Gold Cup in April, finishing 14 lengths behind the winner.

Willie Mullins trains Allaho and was the trainer of winner Tornado Flyer last year. That victory came 20 years after his other King George VI Chase winner, Florida Pearl.

Allaho is the current favorite to win the race. The eight-year-old will be targeting the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2023. Winning that would be the third successive year in which he’s won at the Festival, having won the Ryanair Chase for the past two years.

The Ryanair Chase is a two-and-a-half miles race and there are four furlongs further to travel in the King George VI Chase. Allaho is comfortable at this longer distance though as was shown in the Punchestown Gold Cup.

If the ground is soft at Kempton Park, that could play into the hands of L’Homme Presse. The Venetian Williams trained runner was successful in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

That completed a five-timer for L’Homme Presse all achieved on soft or good to soft ground. Like Bravemans Game, his season had a disappointing end with a third place in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree. He has an each-way chance here but after the surprise we had last year, who knows what might happen.