Newbury: Change of name for big race but as competitive as ever

A change of big-race sponsor - and therefore name - after 60 years will take a bit of getting used to, but the major steeplechase at Newbury a month before Christmas remains as competitive as ever.

Here, Cornelius Lysaght highlights some of the horses to follow in Saturday's Ladbrokes Trophy (15:00 GMT), formerly the Hennessy Gold Cup.

The record books state that no Irish-trained horse has won Newbury's three-and-a-quarter-mile centrepiece race since Bright Highway took the prize in 1980.

That's true, though in 2002, the Willie Mullins-trained Be My Royal finished first, only to fail a dope test for morphine, one of a number of positives at the time blamed on a contaminated batch of horse-feed.

With that result in mind - and defeat for the much-touted Djakadam when eighth behind Many Clouds in 2014 - the Mullins team would relish a change of fortune.

After a facile success when heavily-backed in the Munster National at Limerick on his first run for the trainer in October, Total Recall, the mount of Paul Townend in place of the injured Ruby Walsh, is all the rage.

Total Recall is likely to be joined on the trip across the Irish Sea by stablemates Childrens List and Pleasant Company as well as the Noel Meade-trained A Genie In Abottle

The horse has been allotted what's considered by many - including by Mullins, one suspects - a very attractive 10st 8lbs in the handicap.

"It's very hard to think you're going to win a second big handicap in a row," said Mullins, "but he's doing everything right at home.

"He has a lovely racing weight, the trip won't be any problem, jumping shouldn't be any problem, and it looks like good to soft [going] - we're in a good place."

Meanwhile, whatever happens at Newbury, the Irish champion trainer added that Childrens List is "going to win a nice race somewhere - one to follow I think".

As the national hunt season gets into full swing, there's little doubt who's winning the award for most promising newcomer among the professional jockeys.

Bryony Frost has received rave reviews, and at Newbury - where she's never previously ridden - she gets another opportunity to shine when lining up on Present Man.

Two wins from two starts riding Present Man, trained by Frost's employer Paul Nicholls, combined with five from five on Nicholls' Black Corton, have shot the 22-year-old to prominence.

No female jockey has been successful in the Newbury feature, but Nicholls believes Frost and Present Man are well-placed to make history.

"The horse has astonished us," he said, "I don't know where the improvement has come from, but he's got older and stronger.

"Judged on that last run at Wincanton, he'll run well. With Bryony's five-pound allowance, he's got a proper racing weight.

"Bryony works hard, and these horses really do run very well for her."

This year marks 10 years since Nicholls won this race with the great Denman - who was victorious again in 2009 - and 30 years since he completed back-to-back successes as a jockey.

"Those were great days - I 'did' 10st 5b and 10st 8lb, how about that - and it was the same winning it as a trainer twice with Denman and with Strong Flow - it's very special, and I'd love to do it again."

As well as a new sponsor and increased prize money - the total purse is £250,000 - the race gets an established class act in the shape of Coneygree.

Since his Cheltenham Gold Cup success in 2015, the Mark Bradstock-trained 10-year-old - top weight in the handicap - has raced only four times because of injury problems.

He bolted up once, and has chased home top-notchers Cue Card and Sizing John, but was most recently pulled up at Wetherby, when a low sun in his eyes and a relatively minor injury were put forward as possible reasons for uncharacteristic jumping errors.

That however didn't stop some doom-mongers sharpening their pens to start the "writing off process".

But Bradstock, who won the Newbury highlight with Coneygree's brother Carruthers in 2011 refuses to be down-hearted.

He said: "I'd say Punchestown [against Sizing John in April] was probably the best run in his life, and on ground that was a bit quick.

"Wetherby was the only blip in his life - I think we're able to give him the benefit of the doubt, and I don't think we'll have too many sleepless nights over it.

"He's carried big weights before, and I think he'll run a very, very good race - I'm quietly confident he will."

It's been an autumn to remember for trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies and team who saddle well-fancied Cogry and outsider Double Ross, the third-home in 2016, in the big-race field.

However, Twiston-Davies, who's taken the major Saturday prize on three of the four weekends leading up to Newbury, says he won't be letting the purple patch go to his head.

He said: "When it works, it's great, but you keep looking for the next hole you'll fall in".

With the stable's two principal jockeys - trainer's son Sam and Ryan Hatch - both absent through injury, Twiston-Davies' famous loyalty to younger riders attached to his Cotswold operation will again be seen.

Jamie Bargary is due to partner Cogry, a winner at Cheltenham in October, while Tom Bellamy, rider of Splash Of Ginge, one of those Saturday winners, will be on Double Ross.

Assessing their prospects, Twiston-Davies said: "Cogry is tough as nails, and was second in the Scottish National and won very well [beating Newbury rival Singlefarmpayment] last time out - I'd be surprised if he wasn't there fighting at the end.

"Double Ross unfortunately unseated my son the other day [causing an elbow injury], but he won that race nicely without a jockey. We'll ride him with more restraint than last year - how about a dead heat with Cogry? That would be nice."

The kind of form he's enjoying at the moment, nothing can be confidently ruled out.

Both champion jumps trainer Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls protege Harry Fry go into Newbury operating at high-flying strike rates.

One concern about Henderson's principal hope Whisper, who has some gilt-edged form in the book, is the expected size of the field: he's tended to flourish against smaller groups of opponents.

The Fry-trained American has a bit of something about him, and a big performance is anticipated, but he's famously fragile so sparingly-raced, and has not been seen in public since March.

Fry said: "This has always been the plan - obviously it's a big ask first time out, but he has an ideal profile [for the race], and is on the way up."

Coverage of the Ladbrokes Trophy, Newbury on BBC Radio 5 Live, Saturday 2 December at 15:00 GMT