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Kalahari King laid down a marker for the Queen Mother Champion
Chase with a brilliant comeback victory in the Blue Square
Handicap Chase at Doncaster.
Last season's Arkle Trophy runner-up was making his first
racecourse appearance of the season having been held up by a
small setback and appeared to have plenty on his plate under the
burden of top-weight.
Sent off at 10-1 in the hands of Graham Lee, Ferdy Murphy's
nine-year-old was settled at the rear of the field in the early stages
and still had more horses in front than behind as they rounded the turn for home.
However, Lee always appeared confident he had the horse to take him there and after challenging for the lead between the final two fences, a fantastic leap at the last sealed victory as he ran on to score by three and a quarter lengths from Oiseau De Nuit.
Advisor was cut to 16-1 across the boards for the JCB Triumph
Hurdle after the Royal Ascot Racing Club-owned grey made it
two from two over timber in the Execution Ltd Juvenile Novices'
Hurdle.
Zaynar warmed up for his Triumph success by capturing this
two-mile event last year and Advisor will bid to pull off the same
double.
Ruby Walsh sent the 10-11 favourite about his business
approaching the second-last and after popping the question
running to the final flight, he put a comfortable three lengths
between himself and Barwell Bridge.
Trainer Paul Nicholls said: "He won nicely at Newbury and has improved enormously since then.
"He is a really enthusiastic horse and jumps as well as any juvenile I have seen.
"The Triumph looks an open race. There is no star in there and this horse has done nothing but please me.
"Zaynar won this race 12 months ago and that can't be a bad pointer."
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Go Native's opportunity for a £1million windfall was
within a whisker of being taken away as he claimed
the williamhill.com Christmas Hurdle at Kempton
by a short-head from Starluck.
As the winner of the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle,
Noel Meade's gelding will qualify for the WBX.com
Triple Crown bonus if he goes on to take the
Champion Hurdle in March.
Go Native has to be ridden with exactly the same
exaggerated waiting tactics as his recently-retired
stablemate Harchibald, also last year's hero, and with Meade's usual jockey Paul Carberry confined to the stands through suspension, it was up to Davy Condon to attempt his best impression of the hold-up maestro.
In fact, Condon almost played his hand a little too early as the race began in earnest at the final flight and a fragile lead had almost disappeared by the post.
It is 32 years since Sheikh Mohammed's colours were first
carried to victory on a racecourse, and the precise amount
of money he has since poured into racing around the world
is beyond accurate calculation. And for almost as long as
the sheikh and his brothers have been a dominant force in
international bloodstock, there have been voices warning
of the disaster that might follow if, or when, their money or
enthusiasm ever ran out.
Now, it seems, we might be about to find out. Dubai World,
the state-backed business behind much of the emirate's
building boom, is drowning in debt. The neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi, which is in the much happier position of drowning in oil, may offer Dubai's best chance of rescue, but may also feel it is a bit cheeky to run the world's largest bloodstock empire with one hand while holding out a begging bowl with the other.
John Ferguson, one of Sheikh Mohammed's closest bloodstock advisers, stressed last week that the Sheikh's personal wealth is separate from that of Dubai itself, and that it is business as usual for Godolphin, Darley and all the many other racing and breeding businesses that have their roots in Dubai.
That may well be so, though you would hardly expect him to say anything else. But however the current financial crisis in the Gulf eventually resolves itself, this is an obvious moment for British racing to consider the certain fact that one way or another, Sheikh Mohammed will not be with us forever.
You could spend a month assessing the various ways in which the loss of Sheikh Mohammed's investment might affect the racing industry, and still not form a complete picture. His money, and influence, run that deep.
But it might also pay to remember that one of racing's weaknesses is its ability to talk itself into despair. Listen to the Racehorse Owners' Association, for instance, and you might imagine that prize money is now so miserable that meltdown is just a matter of time. But is this really the case? Or is it just that the chippiest owners, the ones who see no further than the bottom line, get themselves elected to the ROA council, while the rest get on with enjoying themselves.
It is certainly hard to see how the loss of investment from Dubai would be anything but a catastrophe for the breeding industry. The Maktoum brothers' money has underpinned the market at the major yearling sales for decades, and without it, the prices would surely collapse.
