THIS year's Betfair Chase could be a Cheltenham Gold Cup in miniature, with three former Blue Riband winners all pencilled in for Haydock's big race later this month.
Heading the star-studded list of possibles is Kauto Star, who would be bidding for his third consecutive victory in the Merseyside contest. But if Paul Nicholls's gelding is to notch up the hat-trick, he may have to put a couple of his Gold Cup-winn
ing predecessors in their place as War Of Attrition and Kicking King also feature in the 18-strong entry.
Unlike in previous years, however, this latest renewal on 22 November is unlikely to be the first step on the golden road to becoming a millionaire for whoever does eventually come out on top.
Since the idea of the Betfair million was introduced by the sponsors in the 2005/06 season, any horse winning their race at Haydock, either the King George or Leopardstown's Lexus Chase and then the Gold Cup, earned a seven-figure bonus, as Kauto Star did two years ago.
The conditions have been tweaked this time round, however, so to qualify for the big pay out, a horse now has to finish in the first three in the Betfair plus the first two in any race at the Cheltenham Festival before going on to add the Grand National.
A trinity of requirements that has led to several of racing's biggest names, including Kauto Star's trainer Paul Nicholls and Harry Findlay, joint owner of current Gold Cup holder Denman, to declare the bonus more or less a pipe-dream.
"I think you can say Betfair's money is safe," said Nicholls on hearing of the new rules and regulations.
"The changes make it unlikely to the point of being practically impossible to win it. The Betfair is a Grade 1 chase, so you need a quality chaser to make it into the first three, which virtually guarantees having too much weight to win the National."
While collecting a cool million is a lovely thought, punters of my acquaintance tend to set their sights on slightly more achievable goals.
Like managing to bet a couple of winners.
Anyone who does that today should resist the temptation to 're-invest' their winnings, a euphemism for giving it all back the bookies, and sit tight until the last race on this evening's Great Leighs card.
The lightly-raced Distinctive Image showed a glimmer of promise on his only start as a juvenile and he's gone on from there, an encouraging seasonal debut at Leicester followed up by an even more impressive success over tonight's course and distance last time out.
This will be a first foray into handicap company for Reg Hollinshead's colt which makes things a tad tougher for him but he's napped to pass the test.
The full article contains 476 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
