Harry Redknapp dares to dream of Gold Cup glory with The Jukebox Man
Victory for former Spurs manager’s horse in Cheltenham’s top race would be one of the best sporting stories of the year
Harry Redknapp was in a reflective mood after watching Taurus Bay, his first runner at this year’s meeting, finish among the also-rans in Wednesday’s Turners Novices’ Hurdle. It was a decent performance – Taurus Bay was a 33-1 shot, after all – but it was the disappointing run by the favourite, No Drama This End, that was on Redknapp’s mind as he looked forward to his second runner on Friday: The Jukebox Man, one of the favourites for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
“It’s scary, isn’t it?” Redknapp said. “Max McNeill [the owner of No Drama this End], he’s the most lovely man, he had the favourite there and I know how he’s been. I saw him before the race, all the expectations, and he ends up tailed off. It’s unreal.”
The expectations have been growing before The Jukebox Man’s run in steeplechasing’s championship event ever since his narrow success in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, a race with many subsequent Gold Cup winners on its roll of honour. Chasers like Arkle, Desert Orchid and Kauto Star, legends of the jumping game, whose exploits turned them into household names.
On Friday, The Jukebox Man will attempt to join them, with the priceless bonus from racing’s perspective that his owner is a household name already – a former King of The Jungle, no less, in addition to his high-profile football career as a player and a manager at clubs including West Ham, Tottenham, Bournemouth and Portsmouth.
It is a tantalising prospect for Cheltenham, which is attempting to reverse a sharp three-year decline in attendance and could be the stage for one of the best sporting stories of the year, and also for racing as a whole. The horses are the stars, but the horses don’t do interviews.
It might seem, from the outside looking in, that most owners get a good one sooner or later, but Redknapp has done the hard yards through 35 years as an owner, suffering many more downs than ups, while retaining his lifelong love of the game.
The first horse to run in his colours was a filly, Slick Cherry, during his time as manager of Bournemouth, and there have been dozens more since including the useful sprinter Moviesta, a Group Two winner at Glorious Goodwood in 2013.
Significant success over the jumps, however, has arrived only since Redknapp started to send horses to Ben Pauling’s stable, 30 miles from Cheltenham near Naunton.
Shakem Up’Arry, named after the incessant shouts of a fan behind the dugout in his time in charge at West Ham, was his first festival winner after decades of failed attempts in the Plate Handicap Chase two years ago. Just 24 hours later, though, there was a sharp reminder of how difficult it is to win at this meeting above all, as The Jukebox Man was caught in the final strides of the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle having led the field by four lengths over the last.
“We go into Friday hoping,” Redknapp says. “I never dreamed I’d have a horse run in a Gold Cup, so to have a runner with a chance, for me it’s a dream. It would be lovely [to win], but I’m just hopeful.
“I did say to my wife [Sandra], can you believe it, we’re coming to Cheltenham and everyone’s saying: ‘Good luck with Jukebox, Harry,’ and she went: “Yeah, but we just get on with it, though.” We’re not like billy bigheads or anything, we just get on with it, and talk to everybody. It doesn’t cost anything, does it, being nice to people?”
The Redknapps were soon on the way back to their hotel after Taurus Bay’s run to watch the rest of the card from the comfort of a sofa, and it will be much the same if The Jukebox Man can get the job done.
“We’ll probably go home and have a bit of fish and chips,” Redknapp said. “We are so tame, you couldn’t make it up. In fact, we’re going home now, back to the hotel to have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit and a bit of toast, and watch the racing on the telly.”
Redknapp’s love of racing goes back to his childhood in the East End, at a time when, as he has often recalled, betting shops were illegal and his nan, a bookies’ runner, was “getting slung in the back of a police van every other day for collecting the bets”. The dressing room at West Ham in the mid-60s was “full of punters” too, but at Walthamstow dogs on a Friday night rather than Cheltenham or Ascot.
Redknapp does not have a “matchday” routine to ease the big-race jitters on Friday. But he does have a lucky garment.
“Paolo Di Canio gave it to me,” he says. “I wore it when Shakem Up’Arry won here, and when The Jukebox Man won at Kempton this year. So I shall wear the lucky tie.”
Redknapp can strike gold with Jukebox
Even all-time greats like Arkle and Golden Miller had suffered at least one defeat before winning their first Gold Cup, but The Jukebox Man (4.00) has a live chance to emulate the 2016 winner, Coneygree, and win chasing’s championship event while remaining unbeaten over fences when he lines up for the festival’s showpiece on Friday.
The three-and-a-quarter mile trip is the only significant unknown for Ben Pauling’s chaser, but The Jukebox Man stayed on strongly to snatch victory by a nose in the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day, having made up at least a length on the short run-in.
Gaelic Warrior and Jango Baie, his main market rivals, were close behind in third and fourth respectively, but The Jukebox Man showed the most grit at the business end.
He also boasts a close second in the three-mile Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle on his only previous trip to Cheltenham and is a very fair price at around 9-2 to extend his perfect chase record to five.
Cheltenham 1.20 Minella Study’s win over track and trip in December was boosted by the runner-up in Tuesday’s Fred Winter and 11-2 underestimates his chance.
Cheltenham 2.00 Hughie Morrison’s Secret Squirrel has not had much luck in big-field handicaps so far, having gone at the last when close to the lead in valuable events at Ascot and Newbury in last season. His first race in a year, at Wincanton last month, should put him spot-on for this.
Cheltenham 2.40 Irish stables have won all five runnings of this race to date, but Dan Skelton’s Panic Attack raises the bar in quality terms after three wins so far this season.
Fakenham 12.55 Brother Boris 1.35 Mister Ursus 2.14 Belle Montrose 2.54 Secret Vino 3.34 Hello Sweety 4.15 Bluegrass 4.50 Janika
Doncaster 1.02 Annie Hathaway 1.42 Count Of Vendome 2.22 Two To Tango 3.02 I Am Max 3.39 Jamesieconn 4.20 Meatloaf 4.55 Jetzet
Cheltenham 1.20 Minella Study 2.00 Secret Squirrel (nb) 2.40 Panic Attack 3.20 Thedeviluno 4.00 The Jukebox Man (nap) 4.40 Panda Boy 5.20 Fiercely Proud
Southwell 4.30 Von Trotter 5.10 Shalaa Asker 5.45 King Of Ithaca 6.20 Filly One 6.50 Grey Horizon 7.20 Relevant Range 7.50 Forglen 8.20 Hickton
Wolverhampton 5.45 Golden Muse 4.25 Charlie’s Choice 5.05 Just Jump 5.40 Far Too Fizzy 6.10 Bravo Zulu 6.40 Bergamo Gold 7.10 Ramon Di Loria 7.40 South Kensington 8.10 Fistral Beach
Cheltenham 3.20 Thedeviluno was much improved stepping up to three miles last time and could reverse the form of his five-length beating by Doctor Steinberg in a Grade Two in December.
Cheltenham 4.40 Martin Brassil’s Panda Boy was a high-class handicap chaser and has adapted well to his new career in hunter-chases.