Last season's race

• Winner: Impaire Et Passe
• Jockey: Paul Townend
• Trainer: W P Mullins
• Owner: Mr Simon Munir/Mr Isaac Souede
• Age: 7 Weight: 11st 7lbs
• Starting Price: 9/4
• Season Form Figures: 113
• Previous Best: 1st - Guinness 00 Faugheen Novice Chase (Grade 1), Limerick (December 2024)

By Paul Jones

Manifesto was a dual Grand National winner who contested the race on a record eight occasions (despite missing the race twice through injury in between his first and last attempts), but his best effort was arguably finishing third under 12st 13lb in 1899. He finished third on three occasions, and so has certainly earned a race in his honour at this three-day meeting.

With the Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham being no more from last season having reverting to being a handicap (the Jack Richards), the Manifesto fills the void in the spring for Grade 1 novices that are more comfortable as this intermediate race distance of 2m4f than the Maghull Novices’ Chase over two miles or the Mildmay Novices’ Chase over 3m1f. As such, expect it to feature Lulamba who Nicky Henderson stated before Cheltenham that he would have been running in the old Turners if the race still existed.

No field size over eight in its 16 runnings contributed to the fancied horses dominating the first 11 runnings, though two of the last five winners in Protektorat and Millers Bank both started fourth-favourite and ran here after bypassing Cheltenham.

The 2023 winner Banbridge also missed Cheltenham and was giving the Irish their second success. In fact, he led home an Irish 1-2-3 and then Il Etait Temps and Impaire Et Passe stuck for the Irish, so they are now chasing four wins on the spin.

Eleven of the 16 winners ran at the Cheltenham Festival, though just one ran poorly the previous month. The Arkle leads all forms of the 2m4f novices’ chase at Cheltenham 6-5.

Nicky Henderson and Philip Hobbs have both trained a couple of Manifesto winners (Henderson has also had three reverses with the favourite - Jango Baie was third as the 6/4 fav last year) but this has certainly has not been Paul Nicholls’s race at all with Chapoturgeon (fell first), Al Ferof (beaten 12 lengths), Cyrname (a well-beaten fourth), Pic D’Orhy (pulled up) and Stage Star (last of five) all failing as favourite. 

In addition to that quintet, Nicholls has also saddled horses sent off as short as 100/30, 11/4, 5/1 and 11/2 that bypassed Cheltenham, all of which were most disappointing in being beaten 45 lengths, 33 lengths, 24 lengths and 26 lengths, respectively. The stable’s subsequent Champion Chase winner Dodging Bullets also finished last of five, while Ginny’s Destiny was beaten into second last year. Hard to fathom.

The field sizes have been relatively small, but never underestimate a front-runner in rhythm for in-running purposes on the Mildmay Course, with only four of the 16 winners having raced from off the pace.