Tag Archive for: Blackjack Magic

Honeyball has strong hand in Coral Trophy

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Anthony Honeyball has a trio of chances ready to line up in the valuable Coral Trophy at Kempton on Saturday.

Forward Plan heads the group, an eight-year-old last seen finishing just a nose behind Annual Invictus in the Great Yorkshire Chase at Doncaster.

Prior to that, he was a winner on Town Moor when taking the bet365 Handicap Chase over the same three-mile distance, his third victory in eight runs over fences, having only been out of the placings once.

He has now reached a career-high mark of 133, though Ben Godfrey’s 3lb claim eases his handicap allocation and he will run off a competitive 10st 9lb.

“Forward Plan goes quite well on any ground really,” said Honeyball.

“The best of our racing has been on goodish ground with him and our next race for him will be Aintree, so we feel like he’s ready for a race and we’ve got to have a go because it’s such a brilliant prize – it’s worth £25,000 more than the Ultima at the Festival.

“If we had our dream scenario, we would like slightly quicker ground, but he has a light weight, he’s one of the favourites after his run at Doncaster and we kind of feel duty bound to give the owners a chance to win it.

“He loves a bit of decent ground, but there’s no reason why, off a light weight, he can’t run well.”

Stablemate Blackjack Magic began his season in good form when taking the Badger Beer Chase at Wincanton and subsequently came home fourth in the Howden Silver Cup at Ascot.

Much of his best form is on testing ground and he is expected to appreciate the soft going at Kempton.

“Blackjack Magic has proven he is up to this class and he won the Badger Beer,” said Honeyball.

“He will love the soft ground and, in fact, the heavier the better for him, that will suit him a bit better than a couple of the races he has run in this season.”

Honeyball’s third runner is the veteran chaser Sam Brown, who carries a top weight of 12st under Jonathan Burke.

The 12-year-old has some valuable races on his CV and showed he was not losing his enthusiasm when landing the Veterans’ Chase Series Final at Warwick last month.

Sam Brown on his way to winning the Betway Handicap Chase during Grand National Day in 2022
Sam Brown on his way to winning the Betway Handicap Chase during Grand National Day in 2022 (David Davies/PA)

His age and the significant weight he carries may leave him an outside chance, but his trainer is not ruling out a good performance from the gelding.

Honeyball said: “He’s a big outsider at the minute, but that’s only because he’s 12 years old and rated 152 and there’s probably some stats that tell you that is a near impossible task.

“Is he going to win and go up to 156 or 157? It’s probably unlikely, but he is overpriced.

“There’s plenty in his favour, he will enjoy the ground and he doesn’t mind a competitive handicap. He can sit halfway and he has that turn of foot where if he can stay in the hunt approaching the business end, then he can quite come through with a decent surge.

“I don’t think it would be the biggest shock ever, but we have got to run him and hopefully there is another day in the sun for him – we’ve got to give him the chance.”

Ben Pauling has a live chance in Bowtogreatness, an eight-year-old jointly-owned by Harry Redknapp.

Ben Pauling's Bowtogreatness
Ben Pauling’s Bowtogreatness (Mike Egerton/PA)

The trainer enjoyed a three-timer at Ascot last weekend, along with jockey Ben Jones, but Bowtogreatness was not among his runners after a tracheal wash which caused connections to skip the meeting.

He will instead line up at Kempton for his third start of the season, after which he has one of his three Cheltenham Festival entries on the horizon.

“He’s in really good form with himself. He was supposed to go to Ascot last weekend, but just had a slightly average tracheal wash 10 days previous, so we decided to wait,” Pauling said.

“He was as clean as a whistle this week and worked well on Saturday, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how he runs.

“On his first run of the season, I left the ear plugs out and he just head-butted his fences round Newbury and didn’t jump well enough, then he went to Cheltenham and it was almost like his first run of the season really. He travelled into it very well and just blew up going to two out.

“I dare say he’ll be spot-on for Saturday and he’s a hardy horse that needs a lot of graft, so it’s very much the plan to get a proper run into him before going to the Festival.

“He’s in the Ultima, he’s in the Kim Muir and he’s in the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham and how he goes on Saturday will tell us which race he’ll run in.”

At the head of the market is Dan Skelton’s Flegmatik, a winner over course and distance last time out, with Nicky Henderson’s Tweed Skirt and Chris Gordon’s Lord Baddesley also well fancied in a field of 12.



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Cheltenham and Ascot options for Blackjack Magic

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Anthony Honeyball could target a familiar race for the yard as he plots the next move for Badger Beer Chase winner Blackjack Magic.

The eight-year-old made his seasonal debut in the Wincanton contest, returning to action after winning twice from four runs last term.

Under Rex Dingle he was a 5-1 chance and ran a fluent race, gaining ground at every obstacle and pulling away to defeat Paul Nicholls’ Threeunderthrufive by three lengths.

Either Cheltenham or Ascot could be the scene of his next run, with Honeyball particularly keen on the Howden Silver Cup – a race twice won by his now-retired stable stalwart Regal Encore.

He said: “There are a few options running up to Christmas, we want to give him plenty of time after that run, so we’re looking at December 16 at Cheltenham.

“There’s a three-mile-two (furlong) £100,000 handicap chase, I think it’s a new race actually.

“Probably the race I favour the most is the race Regal Encore won for us twice, which is on December 23 at Ascot and is another £100,000 chase.

“I’m not sure how important it is for him to go right-handed but it is right-handed, Ascot takes a lot of jumping and his jumping seemed to be what was really winning him the race at Wincanton.

“He travelled well and jumped well and I think you’d have to do that around Ascot, especially when they start down at the three-mile start.

“It’s a race we’ve watched plenty of times with Regal Encore and we think it might suit him.

“It deserves a big field but from our point of view we hope it’ll cut up a bit and we can go there, we might have a look at Cheltenham along the way but the temptation would be to wait for Ascot on the 23rd.”

Honeyball will have to be a little more patient when it comes to the next outing for runaway bumper winner Crest Of Glory, who has sustained an injury that will see him miss the season.

The four-year-old made a highly impressive start to his life as a racehorse when winning the Goffs UK Spring Sale Bumper by 15 lengths at Newbury in March.

A tendon strain halted his progress as he was being prepared to make a seasonal debut, but the gelding is sound and will be given ample time to recover.

“He won’t be back until next season. He was all schooled up and we were making a decision as to whether to go for a Cheltenham Listed bumper or the maiden hurdle route, we were at a little bit of a crossroads with him and then he got a tendon strain,” Honeyball said.

Crest Of Glory winning the Goffs UK Spring Sale Bumper at Newbury
Crest Of Glory winning the Goffs UK Spring Sale Bumper at Newbury (Steven Paston/PA)

“He’s fine now, he’s a sound as a pound, he must be wondering why the hell he isn’t galloping but he’s still got a little bit of shape to his tendon.

“We’re doing everything we can to treat it and I’d say he’d be back cantering this time next year, he’ll be running in a maiden hurdle in December or January.

“We hope that he develops into an Albert Bartlett horse for the Festival, I don’t think that’s crazy talk. He annihilated them and he didn’t really come out of third gear.

“He’s a galloper and very much an Albert Bartlett-type horse, but this season he wouldn’t have been strong enough to do that. I’m not going to call it a blessing in disguise – it’s still very disappointing – but this season he was always going to be a boy and next season he will really be a man.

“We need to get it right, take it on the chin and give him all the time he needs.”



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Blackjack Magic too good in Badger Beer Chase

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Blackjack Magic showed plenty of heart to repel Threeunderthrufive and claim the 62nd Badger Beer Handicap Chase at Wincanton.

One of four in the field for Dorset handler Anthony Honeyball, the eight-year-old was sent off a 5-1 chance in the hands of Rex Dingle and was in the ideal spot during the early exchanges, keeping close tabs on The Big Breakaway, who usurped defending champion Frodon at the head of proceedings.

With a circuit to run, Dingle moved his mount forward to join The Big Breakaway on the front-end and turning for home with just the fences in the straight to jump, there was only Paul Nicholls’ 3-1 favourite Threeunderthrufive going just as well.

The duo matched strides down to the second last and the last, but it was Honeyball’s charge who cleared the final jumping test with more precision and pulled out extra with the winning line approaching to secure a three-length success.

Bryony Frost and Frodon, last year’s race winners, came home 14 lengths adrift of the front two in third.

Honeyball said: “We thought he would need it a bit. It was not a 17-runner affair, so we thought let him take his chance and have a round of jumping and that is what we have done.

“He wasn’t really targeted like (stablemates) Sam Brown and Forward Plan, who were always coming here. He was just an afterthought. The options weren’t there for us but he is a novice stepping forward and we thought he might have a chance.

“The race at Uttoxeter must have worked out quite well and I think people were climbing on the back of that. His best form for us was on soft and heavy. He always held that advantage.

“It was a very good boost. I was worried we were going to get beat. He is obviously one to catch fresh, but he looked big and burly to me.

“We feel he wants a bit of daylight so he had to start out bit wide, but he managed to come in and have a nice economical round. He was saving all the time. He has got a bit of speed to him and that enabled him to get a fill of the lungs. It is funny how it has come right for him.”

Threeunderthrufive is on course for Newbury
Threeunderthrufive is on course for Newbury (Simon Marper/PA)

Nicholls is looking towards next month’s Coral Gold Cup at Newbury for Threeunderthrufive, while Frodon could head to Kempton on Boxing Day for the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase.

He said: “Threeunderthrufive ran a belter giving a bit of weight away. He is in the Coral Gold Cup off 10st 6lb and he won’t get a penalty and won’t go up in the weights, so that is a positive and he is likely to go there.

“He has run a cracker. He was giving more than a stone in weight to the winner. If he jumped a bit more fluently over the last two, he might have been closer. There is a big handicap in him somewhere.

“We thought all week it might be tacky enough for Frodon, but he has run a solid race to finish third. He is in the King George and he might run in that on decent ground. He might be better off in that if there is a small field off level weights as opposed to running off a big weight in a handicap.

“Bryony said he just wants slightly better ground, but he has run a super race.”



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