Kings To Kick Off Betfair Million

The hugely anticipated Betfair Million starts on Saturday, November 19, when a high-class group of horses will line up for the #150,000 Betfair Chase at Haydock Park.

The new Betfair Chase is the first of the three races involved in the #1-million bonus - the others being the Stan James King George VI Chase at Sandown on Boxing Day and the totesport Gold Cup at Cheltenham on March 17.

The bonus, the biggest ever offered in jump racing, will be won if the a horse captures all three races.

Last season´s Gold Cup hero Kicking King and King George VI runner-up Kingscliff are both set to run the three-mile Grade One event at Haydock on November 19.

Kicking King suffered a surprise reversal when second to War Of Attrition on his seasonal debut at Punchestown last month, but trainer Tom Taaffe has the seven-year-old in fine fettle for the Betfair Chase.

Taaffe reported today: 'Kicking King is very good - we´re very happy with him and we´re on course for the Betfair Chase.

'The race at Punchestown was hopefully a stepping stone for the rest of the season for us - he was as fit as he was the previous year when he went to Gowran Park.

'As it turned out, this year that wasn´t good enough because maybe some of the others had more match practice, but it was a good start and I was very happy with it.'

Taaffe is relishing the prospect of challenge for the Betfair Million: 'If everything goes according to plan, then we´ll definitely aim for those three races.

'He´s on song and he´s going to the Betfair Chase. We´re happy at the moment but first we´ll see what happens at Haydock'. Robert Alner is thrilled with eight-year-old Kingscliff after his recent second at Wetherby to Ollie Magern and ahead of his engagement in the Betfair Chase.

The Dorset trainer said today: 'I rode him this morning (Tuesday) and he´s very well. My wife usually rides him, but we gave him a piece of work and she got me to ride him to see how he was and I was very pleased with him.

'He worked very well. I was thrilled to bits with his Wetherby effort - it was a very good run in my book.'

Alner says that his charge will most likely contest the three prestigious prizes that make up the Betfair Million but experience has taught him not to look too far ahead.

He commented: 'The Betfair Million is there and it would be lovely to win it but we´ve got a job to win one race let alone three.

'We´re certainly not avoiding it but the plan this year is one race at a time. We don´t want to plan that far ahead because this season we want to get plenty of racing into him if possible. He came out of the last race fine and we go to the next one and so on.

'The Betfair Million races will come into the schedule but we´re not going to hold him up for any particular thing. We´re just going to run because we were caught out last season in that we waited for the Gold Cup and never got there, so now, if the horse is fit, we´re going to run and not worry too much about the future.

'He operates in anything but extremes of going and, with the weather as it has been, I think the ground at Haydock will be fine.'

Haydock stages the first day of the new North West Masters on Saturday, November 19, and, as well as the Betfair Chase, has the most valuable three-mile handicap hurdle run in Britain, the #70,000 betfairpoker.com Handicap Hurdle, among the seven races. The second day of the North West Masters is at Aintree, on Sunday, November 20.

Betfair co-founder Andrew Black is pleased at the massive interest the bonus has generated.

Black said: 'I´m delighted the connections of some of the sport´s leading chasers are targeting the Betfair Million which should be a spine-tingling early season highlight.

'We answered racing´s call for a race like this to be staged and it would be a personal thrill to sign over a million pounds if a horse could achieve the realistic goal of winning the Betfair Chase, the King George and the Gold Cup.'

The Betfair Million will be distributed to connections in the following proportions if won - 75 per cent to the owner, 10 per cent to the trainer, 10 per cent to the jockey, and 5 per cent to the stable staff.

Betfair bet

To win Betfair Chase: 11-8 Kicking King, 5-1 Ollie Magern, 9-1 Beef Or Salmon, 12-1 Iris´s Gift, 22-1 Trabolgan, 27-1 Kingscliff

Betfair Million To Be Won - Betfair bet: 2-13 No, 5-1 Yes