Racing: In-form Henderson to prove toast of Christmas present

Santa will be at Ascot today together with his sack. This figure is not to be confused with others who will be on her Majesty's premises with their satchels. These people at the front of house are more readily associated with another well-known Yuletide figure, the one from A Christmas Carol.

On this last Saturday before Christmas there is no finer resolution at this time of goodwill to all men than to take the bookmakers to the cleaners. There is no finer Festive image than the thought of the layers hunched shivering around a candle with their families on Christmas Day. This is the dream to which we little folk must cling.

There is, however, the opportunity for the double whammy this afternoon, the chance to collect for Christmas in a big bookie-sponsored race. The main contest sponsored by the "Magic Sign", magic in that they can make your money disappear in an instant.

Ladbrokes, who seem to think the title of world's biggest bookmakers is something of which to be proud, spent 14 years running their race at Leopardstown, until Ascot became the chosen venue 12 months ago.

There are 20 runners today, yet the competition is not quite as keen as the numbers might suggest, as just three trainers are responsible for half of the field. Champion trainer Martin Pipe has four runners in Polar Red, Mr Cool, Bernardon and Idaho d'Ox, and Tony McCoy has chosen to ride Bernardon, the property of the former first-team footballers Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler.

There has, this week, been the usual prevarication over which beast the champion jockey would end up partnering, but the blustering seems, on this occasion, to be powered by the fact that Pond House does not have a genuine stand-out for the race.

Nicky Henderson and Irish trainer Willie Mullins both have three apiece in the £100,000 handicap, with the latter responsible for ante-post favourite Holy Orders, Czar Of Peace and Milkat. Holy Orders, we know, has the Flat speed, as he was second in the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot. He was also second in the Irish Cesarewitch and will not be far away.

Another Irish horse with a chance is Anxious Moments, whom trainer and jockey Charlie Swan believes to be a well handicapped animal. Charlie, unlike others, has not been greedy here and saddles just the one runner, one who is not the most predictable of athletes.

"He can run a bit in and out," said Swan yesterday. "We fancied him at Galway [when a beaten favourite for the Galway Hurdle], but he ran badly. He's a hard horse to get right. He seems well now, but he seemed well going to Galway too. He's a bit like that – you have to guess a little bit.

"When he's good he can be very good and when he's bad he's terrible. He's easy enough to ride. He's just got two ways of running. I would be more hopeful than confident," admitted the trainer.

Yet, if there is a system in racing at the moment, it is to back anything which runs under Henderson's aegis. The Lambourn trainer has not made it particularly easy for us by saddling three runners, but the defining clue comes in Mick Fitzgerald's selection of VALERIO (nap 2.25) as his partner.

The six-year-old won on the same Newbury card recently as a stablemate and fellow runner today in Chauvinist. He did so in much better time and will be suited by this afternoon's ground. There are no negatives.

Henderson's Get Real is not the formidable athlete of old and today probably presents the last chance to gild his career. On the plus side, Get Real (1.20) is a course-and-distance winner on four occasions and is 5lb lower than when second to Wahiba Sands in this same contest 12 months ago.

There is always a cachet for the victor in the Silver Cup, as Arkle's last success was in the equivalent race in 1966. That day, Himself transported 12st 7lb, which meant he was conceding 35lb to the runner-up, Sunny Bright. Nevertheless, he still made all in a common canter.

Behrajan, today's topweight, went to the other end of the scale last time at Navan, where he ran like a pig. We need to see more of him before the trust returns and this looks like an occasion for Zafarabad (next best 1.50) to shine.