Boxing Day’s King George VI Chase is one of the most exciting races of the jumps season. The Kempton meeting attracts some of the biggest and best names in the sport and this year’s field was no different. A whole host of Cheltenham Festival regulars lined up for Starter’s Orders on December 26^th, a few of which are tipped to be in with a chance of winning some of the biggest races at this year’s Prestbury Park meeting, but despite the star-studded card there was somewhat of a shock winner. 

It was nine-year-old Frodon who romped over the line to seal victory in the King George. And whilst the Paul Nicholls-trained horse is of course a previous Ryanair Chase winner, he was far from fancied to win the Festive Grade 1 outing. In fact, the bookmakers, like Betdaq for example, had Frodon and jockey Bryony Frost as far out as 20/1 to win the race. 

Without question, credit where credit is due for all involved with Frodon. But many of the trainers of the more fancied horses will be left scratching their heads on what went wrong as the Cheltenham Festival approaches. After all, there is no better warm-up or place to show your intentions ahead of the prestigious meeting than at the King George. So, let’s take a look at some of the horses who put in a disappointing performance at Kempton on Boxing Day. 

Santini – 5^th

Trainer Nicky Henderson and jockey Nico de Boinville would have been left disappointed with a fifth-place finish. After all, Santini was the third favourite to win the race. There were stages of the race where it looked promising for the nine-year-old. He kept up with the pace set by Frodon for the majority of the three-mile outing. However, hot on the tail of the leader, Santini made a mistake at the fourth-last fence, and he never really recovered. He quickly dropped back to fifth, and he finished some 10 lengths behind Frodon. With another attempt at the Gold Cup on the cards, in which he got beaten by a neck last year, there will be no room for these sorts of errors if he wants to stop an Al Boum Photo hattrick. 

Cyrname – PU

Whilst the Frodon victory would have sparked celebration for Nicholls, Cyrname failing to finish the race would have certainly been an area of concern once the jubilation had worn off. The eight-year-old was much more fancied than his stablemate, in fact he was the second favourite to win the race. But it was never going to be his day from the off. He tracked the leaders in the middle of the field for much of the race, but following a mistake at the 14^th fence, he quickly fell off the pace and jockey Harry Cobden called it a day before the next jump. Cyrname is amongst the early favourites for the Ryanair Chase, but given his recent form, it would take a brave punter to back the Nicholls-trained horse.

—

Colin Tizzard-trained Lostintranslation, who is a 20/1 shot for the Gold Cup, also pulled up.