Raceday LIVE – Cave Article
Wincanton,
Thu 21 Nov 2024 13:15
Related horse(s):
Cave Article
Cave Article makes his chasing debut this afternoon at Wincanton in the Class 5 Novices' Handicap Chase (13:15) over 2m4f.
Read our Raceday LIVE Preview below and join us ahead of the race for all the build-up and live updates from the track with the team and Rockstar Icon's lucky owners for the day across our social channels on X (@coral) and Instagram (@coralofficial).
Raceday LIVE Preview
Cave Article runs a little closer to home this afternoon, as he heads across the Severn to Wincanton for his chase debut. The plan has always been to go chasing with him since he joined the Club, with his pedigree suggesting that he would take well to the bigger flights. His sire, Court Cave, has produced successful chasers in recent memory such as Champion Court, Mister Whitaker, and recent Haldon Gold Cup winner, JPR One.
Trainer Christian Williams is renown for being successful with staying chasers as we've seen with Coral Scottish Grand National winners, Kitty's Light and Win My Wings, so there's little doubt that as Cave Article continues to step up in trip, we'll hopefully see him progress through the ranks.
Cave Article puts in a perfect jump over a fence whilst schooling at home
Our five-year-old had three runs over hurdles in novice company earlier this year, but was then put away for the summer to allow him to grow and mature. As a result of those three efforts, the handicapper have him an opening mark 78, which Christian thought was a relatively fair one.
As we approached the 24/25 National Hunt season, we knew it wouldn't be long until we saw Cave Article make his seasonal return, and Christian decided he'd like to run him over hurdles to see how he fared on his first handicap start. Cave Article opened up around 20/1 for his return at Fakenham at the end of October, and was seemingly the talk of the town somewhere as he was backed into as short as 5/2 at one point.
Unfortunately, the nature of the track didn't quite suit our gelding, and despite travelling well throughout the race, he lacked the pace to pose any real threat, and eventually came home in 5th place (10 ran).
WATCH: Brian Hughes reflects on Cave Article's handicap debut
Rewind to October of last year and you'll find Cave Article's promising effort in a three mile point-to-point in Ireland where he finished 2nd behind a horse called Leaky Cauldron. The rumour is that horse is set to be trained by Willie Mullins, and the horse who finished back in fourth went on to win his next point-to-point before moving to Gordon Elliot's yard, so we've no doubt that Cave Article has plenty of ability.
WATCH: Cave Article schools over fences at home
He's been schooling well at home, as you can see in the video above, putting in a good amount of work over the bigger obstacles in recent weeks, building up to his chasing debut. He also put on a show for a lucky group of our Coral Racing Club members, who were winners of our recent competition to head to Christian's yard in Ogmore-by-Sea. Members in attendance got the chance to see him and a few others from Christian's team, including Kitty's Light, as they went out for their morning work on their deep sand gallop.
Cave Article showing off his jumping prowess in front of some Coral Racing Club members during our recent Stable Visit
The going is set to be Good To Soft, Good in Places this afternoon at Wincanton, so there shouldn't be any ground concerns for Cave Article. Christian has also decided to make an eye-catching jockey booking for today's race, employing the talents of last year's Champion Jumps Jockey, Harry Cobden. Today will be Harry's first ride for the Club, so we're all looking forward to seeing if he can provide the magic touch with Cave Article for his chase debut.
Raceday message from Christian Williams
"I am looking forward to Cave Article making his debut over fences at Wincanton. Ever since I’ve had this horse in my yard, I’ve always felt he would be a nice chaser. His jumping at home has been excellent, so I am confident he will enjoy the bigger obstacles.
We’ve managed to secure the services of the Champion Jockey Harry Cobden, which is great news. Jack Tudor is at Warwick to ride one for David Pipe, but he schooled him the other day and his feedback was all positive when he jumped off his back.
The ground should be ideal for him, as they have not had any rain down there, and he likes a nice surface. It is a great starting point over fences. My instructions to Harry will be to ride him positively and use his jumping to his advantage.
Best of luck and let’s hope we a good run."
Chris Dixon, Racing TV Analyst, previews Cave Article's chances this at Wincanton and his rivals in the race
The combination of a longer trip and switch to handicaps didn’t result in a big jolt of improvement from Cave Article at Fakenham but it was a better run and there has to be a good chance he does much better now going over fences for the first time. Bought out of the point-to-point field having finished second on his sole start in that sphere, he was always a likely type to be better suited by larger obstacles, especially as he’s with a stable that have a much better strike rate with runners over fences (14%) compared to hurdles (5%) and taking all of that into account I think he’ll improve here and get competitive from a basement mark with champion jockey Harry Cobden aboard.
Stablemate Always Busy appeals for similar reasons on his first chase start and he’s shown more over hurdles in a much longer spell over the smaller obstacles - he could be well handicapped. I Shut That d'Or is more exposed over fences but did take advantage of a reduced mark to win well at Plumpton last time and remains on a good mark following a 3lbs rise - though he did get a very easy lead last time and this may be a better race. Celtic Ned is also of interest having slid down the weights and he’s another who should make a better chaser but probably needed the run on his chase debut last time. His yard do well at this track and he could be very well-treated based on his best hurdles form so is probably the horse to fear most.
Trainer and Jockey Statistics
Christian Williams has had a quiet few months of late in terms of success, but he was back in the winners enclosure last week as Stringtoyourbow won comfortably at Southwell. That was his second winner of the month, and a further five have finished either second or third, including Monty's Soldier yesterday at Ffos Las. Over the last five seasons Christian has sent 45 runners to Wincanton, including three winners with a further eight having placed.
Harry Cobden is in electric form right now, scoring 11 times from 35 rides within the last two weeks, including a ride of the year candidate onboard Burdett Road in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham's November Meeting. Cobden is also a specialist around Wincanton, with an astonishing 31% strike-rate there in his career (113 wins from 358 rides). This will only be the third ride that Cobden has had for Christian Williams, having managed second and fourth place finishes on those rides.
Cave Article's 10 Owners for the Day
As winners of the recent Owner for the Day competition, 10 lucky Coral Racing Club members have been given the chance to enjoy an exclusive owners experience for Cave Article's run at Wincanton this afternoon.
Each winner, along with a guest of their choosing, will receive free entry to Wincanton Racecourse, including exclusive access to Owners & Trainers areas. They'll have the opportunity to meet Cave Article and the Christian Williams team, plus get to head into the parade ring before the race begins to be amongst all the other owners, trainers and jockeys. And last but by no means least, each winner will get to take home an equal 10% split of any prize money won by Cave Article.
Prize Money
Today's Class 5 Handicap contest is worth £7,250 in total, with the winner set to scoop £3,828 for their lucky owners.
2nd: £1,761 | 3rd: £880 | 4th: £440 | 5th: £219
13:15 WINCANTON – LATEST ODDS
We hope you enjoyed reading today's Raceday LIVE Preview. Don't forget to tune in just before 13:15 to watch Cave Article's next run for the Club live on the Coral Sports app.
Read our Raceday LIVE Preview below and join us ahead of the race for all the build-up and live updates from the track with the team and Rockstar Icon's lucky owners for the day across our social channels on X (@coral) and Instagram (@coralofficial).
Raceday LIVE Preview
Cave Article runs a little closer to home this afternoon, as he heads across the Severn to Wincanton for his chase debut. The plan has always been to go chasing with him since he joined the Club, with his pedigree suggesting that he would take well to the bigger flights. His sire, Court Cave, has produced successful chasers in recent memory such as Champion Court, Mister Whitaker, and recent Haldon Gold Cup winner, JPR One.
Trainer Christian Williams is renown for being successful with staying chasers as we've seen with Coral Scottish Grand National winners, Kitty's Light and Win My Wings, so there's little doubt that as Cave Article continues to step up in trip, we'll hopefully see him progress through the ranks.
Cave Article puts in a perfect jump over a fence whilst schooling at home
Our five-year-old had three runs over hurdles in novice company earlier this year, but was then put away for the summer to allow him to grow and mature. As a result of those three efforts, the handicapper have him an opening mark 78, which Christian thought was a relatively fair one.
As we approached the 24/25 National Hunt season, we knew it wouldn't be long until we saw Cave Article make his seasonal return, and Christian decided he'd like to run him over hurdles to see how he fared on his first handicap start. Cave Article opened up around 20/1 for his return at Fakenham at the end of October, and was seemingly the talk of the town somewhere as he was backed into as short as 5/2 at one point.
Unfortunately, the nature of the track didn't quite suit our gelding, and despite travelling well throughout the race, he lacked the pace to pose any real threat, and eventually came home in 5th place (10 ran).
WATCH: Brian Hughes reflects on Cave Article's handicap debut
Rewind to October of last year and you'll find Cave Article's promising effort in a three mile point-to-point in Ireland where he finished 2nd behind a horse called Leaky Cauldron. The rumour is that horse is set to be trained by Willie Mullins, and the horse who finished back in fourth went on to win his next point-to-point before moving to Gordon Elliot's yard, so we've no doubt that Cave Article has plenty of ability.
WATCH: Cave Article schools over fences at home
He's been schooling well at home, as you can see in the video above, putting in a good amount of work over the bigger obstacles in recent weeks, building up to his chasing debut. He also put on a show for a lucky group of our Coral Racing Club members, who were winners of our recent competition to head to Christian's yard in Ogmore-by-Sea. Members in attendance got the chance to see him and a few others from Christian's team, including Kitty's Light, as they went out for their morning work on their deep sand gallop.
Cave Article showing off his jumping prowess in front of some Coral Racing Club members during our recent Stable Visit
The going is set to be Good To Soft, Good in Places this afternoon at Wincanton, so there shouldn't be any ground concerns for Cave Article. Christian has also decided to make an eye-catching jockey booking for today's race, employing the talents of last year's Champion Jumps Jockey, Harry Cobden. Today will be Harry's first ride for the Club, so we're all looking forward to seeing if he can provide the magic touch with Cave Article for his chase debut.
Raceday message from Christian Williams
"I am looking forward to Cave Article making his debut over fences at Wincanton. Ever since I’ve had this horse in my yard, I’ve always felt he would be a nice chaser. His jumping at home has been excellent, so I am confident he will enjoy the bigger obstacles.
We’ve managed to secure the services of the Champion Jockey Harry Cobden, which is great news. Jack Tudor is at Warwick to ride one for David Pipe, but he schooled him the other day and his feedback was all positive when he jumped off his back.
The ground should be ideal for him, as they have not had any rain down there, and he likes a nice surface. It is a great starting point over fences. My instructions to Harry will be to ride him positively and use his jumping to his advantage.
Best of luck and let’s hope we a good run."
Chris Dixon, Racing TV Analyst, previews Cave Article's chances this at Wincanton and his rivals in the race
The combination of a longer trip and switch to handicaps didn’t result in a big jolt of improvement from Cave Article at Fakenham but it was a better run and there has to be a good chance he does much better now going over fences for the first time. Bought out of the point-to-point field having finished second on his sole start in that sphere, he was always a likely type to be better suited by larger obstacles, especially as he’s with a stable that have a much better strike rate with runners over fences (14%) compared to hurdles (5%) and taking all of that into account I think he’ll improve here and get competitive from a basement mark with champion jockey Harry Cobden aboard.
Stablemate Always Busy appeals for similar reasons on his first chase start and he’s shown more over hurdles in a much longer spell over the smaller obstacles - he could be well handicapped. I Shut That d'Or is more exposed over fences but did take advantage of a reduced mark to win well at Plumpton last time and remains on a good mark following a 3lbs rise - though he did get a very easy lead last time and this may be a better race. Celtic Ned is also of interest having slid down the weights and he’s another who should make a better chaser but probably needed the run on his chase debut last time. His yard do well at this track and he could be very well-treated based on his best hurdles form so is probably the horse to fear most.
Trainer and Jockey Statistics
Christian Williams has had a quiet few months of late in terms of success, but he was back in the winners enclosure last week as Stringtoyourbow won comfortably at Southwell. That was his second winner of the month, and a further five have finished either second or third, including Monty's Soldier yesterday at Ffos Las. Over the last five seasons Christian has sent 45 runners to Wincanton, including three winners with a further eight having placed.
Harry Cobden is in electric form right now, scoring 11 times from 35 rides within the last two weeks, including a ride of the year candidate onboard Burdett Road in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham's November Meeting. Cobden is also a specialist around Wincanton, with an astonishing 31% strike-rate there in his career (113 wins from 358 rides). This will only be the third ride that Cobden has had for Christian Williams, having managed second and fourth place finishes on those rides.
Cave Article's 10 Owners for the Day
As winners of the recent Owner for the Day competition, 10 lucky Coral Racing Club members have been given the chance to enjoy an exclusive owners experience for Cave Article's run at Wincanton this afternoon.
Each winner, along with a guest of their choosing, will receive free entry to Wincanton Racecourse, including exclusive access to Owners & Trainers areas. They'll have the opportunity to meet Cave Article and the Christian Williams team, plus get to head into the parade ring before the race begins to be amongst all the other owners, trainers and jockeys. And last but by no means least, each winner will get to take home an equal 10% split of any prize money won by Cave Article.
Prize Money
Today's Class 5 Handicap contest is worth £7,250 in total, with the winner set to scoop £3,828 for their lucky owners.
2nd: £1,761 | 3rd: £880 | 4th: £440 | 5th: £219
13:15 WINCANTON – LATEST ODDS
We hope you enjoyed reading today's Raceday LIVE Preview. Don't forget to tune in just before 13:15 to watch Cave Article's next run for the Club live on the Coral Sports app.
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