Baron Noir has the form to get Barbury’s 2026 wagon rolling at Kempton tomorrow
January 9
We are still awaiting our first celebration of 2026, but only three of our nine runners started at single-figure prices and, but for some sloppy jumps over the final three fences having travelled so well throughout the race, Irish Chorus might well have seen us scurrying off to the champagne bar after the novice chase at Taunton yesterday.
However, provided Kempton pass an 8am inspection tomorrow, we’ll have fingers firmly crossed that Baron Noir will get Barbury back in the number one spot in the opener at Kempton tomorrow/
Baron Noir, twice a winner of bumpers, fulfilled the promise of his hurdling debut at Warwick when scoring a snug success in the mud at Uttoxeter a month ago, so even if the forecast deluge of rain materialises he should not be inconvenienced by the underfoot conditions.
Next up is King Al, who would look to have an each-way chance in the nine-runner juvenile hurdle, in which Dan Skelton’s French recruit Precious Man will be a red-jot favourite.
A useful performer on the Flat, King Al shaped with promise when finishing fifth on his jumping debut in what looked a warm Class 2 juvenile hurdle at Sandown, and that experience will have done him the world of good.
On form, The Doyen Chief could also be a major player in the three-mile handicap chase on the Sunbury course. He palpably failed to stay the three and a quarter at Cheltenham last time, though he was still battling away in second going to the final fence before his stamina ebbed away.
Back over three miles, a trip over which he won both at Warwick and on this course last March, The Doyen Chief, who wears his heart on his sleeve, will be hard to beat in a six-runner race which does not look as strong as the one at Cheltenham.
Last of our Kempton quartet is our veteran stable-star Edwardstone in the Coral Silviniaco Conti Chase. This Class 1 race has cut up to just four runners, and, while Edwardstone, who celebrated his 12th birthday last week, has won all his seven races over fences over two miles, Alan was delighted how well he performed when tackling two and a half again in last month’s Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon.
Despite the ground being testing there, Edwardstone stayed on better than either Hitman or Boombawn up the home straight, and, though he was never going to reel in Djelo, that winner was subsequently still in with a shout of a place at the second last in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, form which suggests that our fellow is not yet ready for his pension book.
