Boxing Day Horse Racing: Paul Nicholls’ King George Love Affair
When it comes to Christmas and racing, there is no bigger contest than the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day.
The Grade 1 three-miler is one of the biggest prizes in the calendar and, when it comes to this contest, Paul Nicholls is a little bit like Father Christmas, as he always seems to deliver the goods, with an incredible 13 King George wins on his CV.
Here we look back on the Ditcheat supremo’s King George winners.
Boxing Day Horse Racing: See More Business (1997, 1999)
The horse that helped to put Nicholls on the road to becoming one of the mainstays of British jumps racing, See More Business won the King George two times in three years just before the turn of the century for owners Paul Barber, John Keighley and Sir Robert Ogden and also managed to squeeze in a Cheltenham Gold Cup win in 1999. Andrew Thornton was on board for his first King George before he was pulled up a year later by Joe Tizzard. He took the crown back in 1999, thrashing Go Ballistic by 17-lengths under Mick Fitzgerald.
Boxing Day Horse Racing: Kauto Star (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011)
The King of Kempton at Christmas, Kauto Star won this great race on five occasions – eclipsing the four triumphs by Desert Orchid from 1986-1990. Ruby Walsh was the man in the saddle for all five of his Kempton wins, while he also won two Cheltenham Gold Cups on the horse and finished second in another. The most talented chaser of this century, Kauto Star’s final win in 2011 saw him rolling back the years to defeat Long Run and delight the Christmas crowds.
Boxing Day Horse Racing: Silviniaco Conti (2013, 2014)
Just when it appeared as though Nicholls’ vice-like grip on the race would be released, along came Silviniaco Conti to carry the Ditcheat legacy beyond the Kauto Star years. Silviniaco Conti was a better horse on flat tracks like Kempton and Aintree, with his two wins here going along with two wins in the Bowl at Aintree as the biggest of his career. He ran in three Cheltenham Gold Cups but was never quite at home in the Cotswolds.
Boxing Day Horse Racing: Clan Des Obeaux (2018, 2019)
Similar sentiments could be attached to Clan Des Obeaux, winner of this race in successive years under Harry Cobden and then Sam Twiston-Davies, neither time as favourite and latterly when stablemate Cyrname was hotly fancied but a distant second-best. Like Silviniaco Conti before him, he won two Bowls at Aintree but was winless in six visits to Cheltenham, twice beaten as Al Boum Photo won successive Gold Cups in 2019 and 2020.
Boxing Day Horse Racing: Frodon (2020)
The least fancied of Nicholls’ winners in this race, Frodon was a 20/1 shot when he scored under Bryony Frost in 2020, producing a wonderfully gallant display in front and holding off the likes of Waiting Patiently and Clan Des Obeaux in the home straight as he gave his regular rider everything when asked. That was the third of his three Kempton wins and he contested the King George four years in a row, with his best effort aside from his victory coming when third in 2022.
Boxing Day Horse Racing: Bravemansgame (2022)
That third for Frodon came behind the latest Nicholls’ winner, Bravemansgame, as he reached the peak of his powers under Cobden to draw clear of Royale Pagaille after L’homme Presse had unseated Charlie Deutsch in the heat of battle at the final fence. Bravemansgame hasn’t won a race since, but has danced at the top table repeatedly, including when second to Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in 2023.
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