FEATURE THE NOVEMBER MEETING
I t’s no secret that racing fans love to bicker – particularly if there is a going stick within eyeshot – and the debate as to when the ‘jumps season proper’ begins is one of our sport’s great imponderables. It’s certainly not the job of this magazine to provide a solution, though it’s undeniable that the campaign steps up a notch or two with The November Meeting, a three-day ‘mini festival’ that plenty view as the weekend where things get serious. This is the moment when the big names on either side of the Irish Sea arise from their collective slumber, and it isn’t difficult to see why, with four Grade Two races on the line up and more than half a million in prize money
on offer across the three days. The form always proves to be
staggeringly strong as a result and we saw some notable names strike at this meeting last year, with the roll of honour including the likes of the subsequent Grade One Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase winner, The Real Whacker, as well as two future Randox Grand National Festival heroes
would be an understatement, however, as it provided a poignant moment at the Home of Jump Racing for Ga Law’s owners, The Footie Partnership, as trainer Jamie Snowden explains: “It’s right up there. We were very lucky to have a Festival winner at an early stage – our third-ever winner at Cheltenham was at The Festival – but these big days are what it’s all about. Who knows how good he can be, but let’s enjoy today first! “The Footie Partnership was set up for a chap called ‘Footie’ – Nick Foot – who died of cancer. There was a group of six of them who always came racing to Cheltenham and they set up this partnership with the idea of coming here and hopefully winning a big race at Cheltenham. “Here it is and it’s all credit to this wonderful team of five guys. Nick Foot would have had a grandson
yesterday I think it was, so it came together lovely.” Things arguably reach a crescendo with the third and final day of the meeting on the Sunday, when Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase hopefuls enter the stage for the Grade Two Shloer Chase. Best known for being the opening scene of Sprinter Sacre’s remarkable comeback journey in the 2015-16 campaign, the race has quickly become one of the key features of the two-mile season since its establishment in 2009, producing two subsequent champion chasers (Sprinter Sacre and Put The Kettle On) and a Ryanair Chase winner to boot in Uxizandre. A successful assault on The Festival ultimately didn’t pan out on this occasion for last year’s winner, Nube Negra, but his eight-length success did kickstart a remarkable run of winning
in Fennor Cross and Banbridge. Centre stage at The November
Meeting is the first major contest of the Jump season – Saturday’s Paddy Power Gold Cup. Run over an extended two-and-a-half miles and first staged back in 1960, the roll of honour for the Premier Handicap chase features some legendary performers, including Champion Chase heroes Fortria and Dunkirk, as well as the Grand National winner, Gay Trip. It takes a classy horse to win the Paddy Power and the victors regularly go on to bigger and better things, as last season’s winner, Ga Law, showed when finishing a fine fifth in the Grade One Ryanair Chase at The Festival. To say that the Paddy Power serves as a stepping stone to other things
“The form is always staggeringly strong and we saw some notable names strike at this meeting last year”
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