HANDSTANDS won a Scilly Isles humdinger at Sandown to give Ben Pauling a huge boost after a miserable week.
Sun man Ben revealed on Tuesday his exciting novice The Jukebox Man had suffered a season-ending injury on the gallops at home.
Handstands (left) beat Jango Baie in a thriller at Sandown[/caption]
Jockey Ben Jones saluted the crowd after a big win in the Scilly Isles Chase[/caption]
But consolations don’t come much better than this as his other rising star showed plenty of bottle to hang on gamely in a Grade 1 thriller.
Jockey Ben Jones could not contain his delight as the six-year-old fought off odds-on jolly Jango Baie by a nose, with the front two pulling a mile clear.
A chuffed Pauling grinned: “It’s been a s*** week with what happened to Jukebox, but he’s going to be fine and will be back.
“We are very fortunate to have two novices of the same calibre and this lad is a proper horse, we’ve always known it.
THE SUN RACING MEMBERS ENCLOSURE
The only place to get Templegate’s tips first – and at the best prices – is by joining Sun Racing’s brilliant Members Enclosure (UK only).
Sign up now for just £1* to be part of racing’s best winning team and get…
- Four free racing tickets, four times a year – worth £300
- Templegate’s daily tips at the BEST prices before anyone else
- Exclusive access to Templegate’s daily NAP
- Tomorrow’s copy of The Favourite at 9pm today
- Exclusive insights from top trainer Ben Pauling
- VIP competitions from Racing Breaks each month
Become a member today for just £1*
*For the first month then £3 per month thereafter.
SIGN UP NOW
18+ Ts and Cs apply. First month membership £1, then £3 per month unless you cancel at least 7 days before your next billing date. UK only. For more information contact help@thesun.co.uk
“It takes two horses to make a great race and credit to Nicky’s horse, he ran brilliantly and I think they’ll be two lovely horses going forwards.
“It was a ding-dong battle but I always felt like we were always just going to hold on, but that’s not to say I was relaxed, far from it!”
It might have been a nervy watch up the run-in for the trainer but it was an absolute cracker for the rest of us.
Handstands jumped brilliantly until the second last, when he was a little scruffy and Jango Baie looked like he was about to seize the race by the scruff of the neck.
But as soon as Jones asked him to find, he kept pulling out a little more and refused to give in on the stamina-sapping climb up the Sandown hill.
Pauling will avoid the temptation to run Handstands at Cheltenham next month, with the Mildmay Novice Chase over three miles at Aintree his big aim in the spring.
He added: “He fell first time out this season on ground that was too quick for him, but has not put a foot wrong since.
“I expected him to be exhausted after he won at Ffos Las a few weeks ago but he was fresher than he’d been at any stage of the season.
“We haven’t got this horse in at Cheltenham and Aintree has always been the plan. It doesn’t matter Jukebox is gone, that doesn’t mean we need to shuffle everything around. We’ll be sticking to the schedule with this horse.”
If Carlsberg did Saturday’s, it would have looked something like this for owner Tim Radford – who just so happens to be a huge Nottingham Forest fan.
He gave it the beans as he greeted his horse in the winner’s enclosure and said: “7-0 against Brighton, Chris Wood hat-trick and now this. What an unbelievable day.
“I’ve had lots of lovely horses over the years and Handstands is right up there. We won’t go to Cheltenham this year but we can start dreaming about the future.”
