Given the importance of the Champion Bumper as a breeding ground for future Grade 1 winning hurdlers/chasers and to celebrate Weatherbys’ longstanding association with the race, this is the first in a series of features, which will build up to the 2023 renewal.
We have yet to see last season’s Weatherbys Champion Bumper winner Facile Vega reappear, but American Mike (2nd), Authorised Speed (5th) and Poetic Music (6th) have all won over hurdles recently, whilst Music Drive (8th) and Spanish Present (9th) have also won since going hurdling. Twelfth home Cillians Charm ran well behind Aintree bumper winner Ashroe Diamond at Naas on Saturday, so the form is starting to really work out and the previous three winners of the race – Envoi Allen, Ferny Hollow and Sir Gerhard (all of whom carried the silks of Cheveley Park Stud, of course) – having since recorded a further nine Grade 1 wins between them.
The first horse to stake a claim for the Champion Bumper this season was the Gigginstown House Stud-owned King Of Kingsfield, who won at Down Royal in early-November, following in the hoofprints of both Sir Gerhard and American Mike, who won the past two renewals for trainer Gordon Elliott. In fact, only once during the past decade has Elliott failed to win that race – he was without a runner that year (2014) – and his other winners included Death Duty and Rapid Escape, who like Sir Gerhard and American Mike, went on to Navan to win the Listed Future Champions INH Flat Race in mid-December. It therefore seems highly likely that King Of Kingsfield will be aimed at that same race and the son of Vadamos had earlier justified strong market support when running out a wide-margin maiden Point-to-Point winner, when trained by Patrick Eugene Turley. His next start should tell us more, especially if following that tried and tested path.
There were two Listed bumpers at Cheltenham’s Open meeting last weekend and with Gentle Slopes set to go hurdling for Milton Harris – who mentioned the Challow Novices’ Hurdle as a possible mid-season target for his five-year-old – it is the winner of the mares’ bumper who is of more interest with a potential Champion Bumper bid in mind. A 10-length winner at the course in April (runner-up Mullenbeg just won again as I write this piece), Queens Gamble travelled like a dream on that occasion and proved that it wasn’t a one-off with a similarly dominant display on Saturday.
Oliver Sherwood’s Getaway filly clearly copes with good ground well – her dam Gambling Girl was at her best on a sound surface, when trained by Jessica Harrington – and she had far too much speed for last year’s winner Bonttay, who might well have faced an impossible task in attempting to concede 4lbs to her. With Luccia a non-runner and Willie Mullins’ Williamstowndancer running out, the race possibly didn’t take as much winning as had looked to be the case beforehand, but there was no denying the impression which was created by Queens Gamble (again) and she is now likely to head to Huntingdon on Sunday 4th December, for the Fitzdares-sponsored Henrietta Knight Bumper, another Listed contest in which she would incur a 4lbs penalty.
The Nickel Coin at Aintree would often be the most likely spring target for a mare of this quality, but given that she is two from two at the track, her connections are likely to be dreaming of Champion Bumper glory, especially if completing the hat-trick in Cambridgeshire next month. It is worth remembering that both Fayonagh and Relegate won back-to-back renewals of the Champion Bumper in recent years (2017 & 2018), becoming the third and fourth mares to win the race in all, following on from Mucklemeg (1994) and Total Enjoyment (2004). The last-named actually led home a mares’ one-two, with Refinement – herself a subsequent two-time Grade 1 winner and the dam of Meticulous, who finished eighth in the 2019 Champion Bumper – finishing runner-up for Jonjo O’Neill and Barry Geraghty. Refinement actually returned to finish fourth in the 2005 Champion Bumper and that sex-allowance – which is currently 7lbs – is significant when talking of a high-class performer. In the past three years, both Queens Brook and Elle est Belle have hit the frame (both finished 3rd), with the latter having dead-heated in the same Open meeting contest on her previous start.
Until the next update, enjoy the action, with this week seeing the return of Gold Cup hero A Plus Tard in Haydock’s Betfair Chase and the potential return of Champion Hurdle favourite, Constitution Hill, at Ascot.
Paul Ferguson (November 2022)