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| Sol Power - Solwhit and Paul Carberry winning the Liverpool Hurdle in April. |
We definitely enjoyed a vintage jumps season in 2012-2013 and many of the horses and jockeys that made it such an incredible six months feature in this countdown.
The majority of the entries are big race wins at the highest level but there are also a couple of performances from handicaps that could scarcely be believed as well as some visually stunning performances that may not have carried as much weight as some others form-wise.
Jockeyship also plays a factor in the ranking of some of these as we also saw some rides for the ages this season just gone in addition to all the equine talent that lit up the winter.
At the end of the day horse racing has always been, and always will be, a game of opinions and this list merely offers my opinion on just what the top ten performances of the 2012-2013 jumps season were.
10. Imperial Commander – 2nd – Argento Chase (Cheltenham, 26.1.13)
The only defeat to make the top ten, Imperial Commander’s Argento second would have warmed even the coldest heart on a damp late January afternoon.
I’ve always been the first to admit I’ve never been the biggest Imperial Commander fan with him having crashed the Kauto Star-Denman Gold Cup showdown in 2010 but I’d had a sneaky feeling for him for this race even prior to the late defections of Tidal Bay and Bobs Worth.
He didn’t let me down either, making a mockery of his lengthy, nigh-on two year absence, to put in an exemplary round of jumping and put many of his rivals to the sword from a long way out.
The veteran was all heart in the Argento and had it not been for a wonderful Denis O’Regan exhibition aboard the rapidly improving Cape Tribulation it might have been a fairytale comeback for the former Gold Cup winner.
It’s a horrible cliché in sport, especially racing, but the apple of the Twiston-Davies yard’s eye really did lose nothing in defeat this day and although his Grand National fold might end up being his last ever start, the Argento was a training performance to be admired and a comeback run worthy of a great champion.
9. Rule The World – 1st – Slaney Novice Hurdle (Naas, 6.1.3)
Davy Russell’s 2012-2013 season was the very epitome of the extreme highs and lows jump racing can be responsible for.
One of the Irish champion jockey’s many highs was winning the Grade 2 Slaney Novice Hurdle at Naas on the first weekend in January. Although only a Grade 2, the race has been used as a springboard in recent years for some very useful horses and this year’s winner Rule The World looks to be a very useful horse indeed.
Subsequent Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Champagne Fever was sent off a long odds on favourite to easily account for his four rivals and although he clearly wasn’t right this day the way Rule The World sauntered up alongside him was a visual difficult forget.
Russell was literally hands and heels all the way home and in the end crossed the line an eased down sixteen lengths in front of good yardstick Minsk.
Rule The World went on to be an excellent second in the Neptune at Cheltenham behind The New One but sadly was injured at the Punchestown festival which could have an adverse effect on what looked a hugely promising chase career going forward.
Whatever the future does hold for Rule The World this Naas romp is a victory befitting any back catalogue.
8. Monbeg Dude – 1st – Welsh National (Chepstow, 5.1.13)
Monbeg Dude’s Welsh National win was thanks in almost entirety to what was arguably the ride of the season from Paul Carberry.
Carberry is renowned for being a jockey that rides in such a manner that when he gets it right it looks spectacular (more on that later) but when he gets it wrong it goes spectacularly wrong (see Harchibald).
In the rearranged Welsh National this past season though he got it right in a way that is still barely believable. Monbeg Dude looked the least likely winner in the field on the first circuit, held up at the back and clattering fence after fence on the way round.
He was still some eleven lengths behind the leaders five from home and most, including his connections, had probably written off any chance of figuring in the placings let alone winning.
Under Carberry though anything is possible, and in spite of his earlier mishaps he travelled well in to contention and with the field thinning out he went third, eventually snatching the lead from hotpot favourite Teaforthree and champion jockey Tony McCoy. He still managed to make a mess of the last fence but battled on gamely on the run-in and just held off the favourite to foil a Welsh win in the race and register what for most of the race looked one of the least likely wins of the season.
7. Bobs Worth – 1st – Hennessy Gold Cup (Newbury, 1.12.12)
Bobs Worth only ran twice in 2012-2013 but on both starts he won two of the biggest jumps races there are.
His Gold Cup win at his beloved Cheltenham in March was the pinnacle of his career thus far, but his Hennessy win on the first day of December was the race that signalled his arrival in the upper echelons of jump racing and will probably be a race that defines him.
In his own trademark way he just seemed to appear at the tail end of things having never really caught the eye beforehand, once he hit the front though that impressive engine he has carried him well clear of his rivals eventually winning by just over 3 lengths.
The bare form of the race has a strong look now thanks to Tidal Bay and First Lieutenant’s subsequent exploits and the way in which he did things under a big weight was impressive and rightly made him favourite for the Gold Cup in which he would later duly oblige in similar fashion.
He’s not flashy or temperamental, just a thoroughly good race horse that’s as tough as they come. Bobs Worth can dominate jump racing for some time to come and his 2012 Hennessy win will no doubt often be cited as one of the reasons why.
Watch - Hennessy Gold Cup 2012
6. Tidal Bay – 1st – Lexus Chase (Leopardstown, 28.12.12)
Since known as “the thrilling Lexus” Ireland’s Christmas jumps showpiece produced a finish for the ages this past season, not just for the blanket fashion in which the first four home crossed the line but also as it proved the ultimate redemption for a horse that had been called every name under the sun at one time or another.
Paul Nicholls truly finessed Tidal Bay back to his best and after his brilliant Hennessy second (see above) under top weight, he came to Ireland and narrowly, under a masterful Ruby Walsh, downed Ireland’s big guns.
As they turned for home you’d have never picked Tidal Bay out as the winner, with Ruby pushing and shoving for all his worth and Flemenstar cruising along in front but somehow he managed to weave his way through on that narrow Leopardstown run-in and pip three exceptional horses in one of the closest finishes at this level in recent memory.
Tidal Bay’s season was scuppered by injury after the Lexus and whether, at his age now, he’ll be back remains to be seen but if this to be one of the mainstays of national hunt racing over the past few seasons final race, what a race, and finish, to go out on.
5. Solwhit – 1st – Liverpool Hurdle (Aintree, 6.4.13)
As we’ve already established when he’s good, he’s very good and in the Liverpool Hurdle on the Grand National undercard Paul Carberry was very, very good.
This time though, unlike Monbeg Dude, the marriage of man and beast together wasn’t quite as one sided, as in Solwhit he had a very willing, and able partner coming off the biggest win of his blighted by injury career in the World Hurdle at Cheltenham a few weeks prior.
Carberry sat motionless on his mount pretty much the whole way round and when the time came Solwhit merely needed to be shaken up to pull clear of a decent, if eclectic, field and win eased down by 3 lengths.
At the time, with Harchibald memories swirling in my head, I was on the edge of my seat but watching the race back it’s clear that Carberry in the zone is a thing of beauty.
Solwhit’s chance of emulating Sprinter Sacre and winning at all three festivals was cruelly robbed just before his big showdown with Quevega, but hopefully he’ll be back and better than ever next season and together with his now regular partner they can treat us to some more poetry in motion such as this.
Watch - Liverpool Hurdle 2013
4. My Tent Or Yours – 1st – Betfair Hurdle (Newbury, 9.2.13)
In the wake of losing Darlan in tragic circumstances, the Henderson-McCoy-McManus team were the story going in to the Betfair Hurdle as they chased a poignant win in the race with long time ante-post favourite My Tent Or Yours.
Widely regarded as one of the most competitive handicap hurdles of the season, the 2013 renewal of the Betfair Hurdle was turned in to a precession as the young novice decimated a strong handicap field in the most facile of styles.
It was hard to believe the ease with which My Tent Or Yours won at the time, pulling clear of the talented Cotton Mill with McCoy practically motionless on board in the end scoring by a cosy five lengths.
It was a much needed win for the team and ranks as one of the more emotional performances of the season.
Although My Tent Or Yours couldn’t quite peg back Champagne Fever in the Supreme he bounced back to this sort of brilliant standard at Aintree and can cement himself a real superstar next season.
Even if he doesn’t go on to achieve anything else in his career though, the ease with which he won one of the toughest races of the season will live long in the memory.
3. Our Conor – 1st – Triumph Hurdle (Cheltenham, 15.3.13)
Our Conor carried a lot of Irish money on the final day of Cheltenham this year and he duly obliged for the Emerald Isle in sensational style.
The Triumph is generally considered a very difficult race to win and can be a very competitive affair that finds many young horses out, but Our Conor made a mockery of a good field in festival Friday’s opener sauntering clear to a fifteen length victory.
The field in behind were no slouches and Our Conor was actually sent off joint second favourite showing the esteem others were held in prior to the race. Those who’d seen Dessie Hughes’ charge take apart a good field at Leopardstown in February though knew this horse was good but I don’t think anyone, including his trainer, expected him to be this good.
Young jockey Bryan Cooper kicked for home after the penultimate flight and I’m sure many thought he’d gone too soon, but there was just no stopping Our Conor and the distance between him and the rest of the toiling field simply kept increasing.
The performance was impressive enough to see Barry Connell buy the horse, and although he missed Leopardstown due to the ground he looks to have a huge future and can prove himself a leading player next season.
2. Quevega – 1st – Mares Hurdle (Cheltenham, 12.3.13)
Wonder mare Quevega has become as synonymous with the opening day of the Cheltenham festival as the famous Cheltenham roar that greets the start of the opening race. She’d landed the Mares Hurdle for the four years prior to this and was sent off a short priced favourite to make it five in a row.
Things didn’t exactly go to plan though as she endured a luckless run and was shuffled back through the pack, despite coming back into it before the last flight she looked well beaten and an upset appeared on the cards.
She’s all heart though and Ruby Walsh never gave up and soon she was rallying and flying up that hill she seems to love, staying on strongly to finally get her little head in front in the dying strides.
It was another brilliant Walsh ride and a brilliant way to cap off the first day of the festival, she was not really a betting prospect this year but I fail to believe any serious racing fan wasn’t willing her up that hill with everything they had.
As is now the case, she reappeared again at Punchestown for the festival and was victorious there and you’d be a brave man to suggest that she won’t repeat that double again next year. If she does make it six at Cheltenham next year though I doubt it’ll be anywhere near as heart-stopping as this win.
1. Sprinter Sacre – 1st – Queen Mother Champion Chase (Cheltenham, 13.3.13)
As was widely expected with the retirement of Kauto Star Sprinter Sacre took up the chasing superstar mantle in 2012-2013 and he did not disappoint.
Nicky Henderson’s star breezed through the season unbeaten, brushing aside all challengers with consummate ease, even achieving the incredible feat of winning at the Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown festivals.
Without a doubt it was his Champion Chase victory at Cheltenham though that stood head and shoulders above the other wins.
Facing his first really stiff test in the great, multiple Grade 1-winning Sizing Europe Sprinter Sacre absolutely obliterated the former champ in a way we’ve never seen.
My favourite part of the race was when Sprinter Sacre pulled alongside Sizing Europe hard on the bridle and seemed to look him square in the eye and just laugh.
Barry Geraghty eventually pulled an astonishing 19 lengths clear on Sprinter Sacre and as Simon Holt called on commentary Sprinter Sacre is “a steeplechaser from the Gods”.
Sprinter Sacre will no doubt keep winning for some time to come and there could be performances that eclipse even this great win, but for me this wasn’t just his greatest performance to date it was also the number one performance of a national hunt season that was over-flowing with them.
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