McCoy booked for Best Mate

Tony McCoy has been booked to ride Best Mate for Henrietta Knight in the Pertemps King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, it was announced today.

Best Mate`s regular partner Jim Culloty has not recovered from a broken right arm in time to take the ride in the mid-season highlight.

Miss Knight said: 'Jim rang up from Dubai this morning and has said that he won`t be OK to ride on Saturday.

'We`d agreed that he had to ride on Saturday if he was to ride on Boxing Day and that is not going to happen.

'He`s being very honest and that`s Jim through and through. He feels it`s not fair on the owner or on the horse.

'Jim`s done a lot of work on his fitness but he says that if he runs down the beach in Dubai he still feels a jar and he wouldn`t quite be strong enough.'

McCoy is expected to school Best Mate at Miss Knight`s Wantage yard on Christmas Eve.

'There`s no racing that day so Tony`s got no excuse,' she joked.

Henrietta Knight has admitted that she would rather be running Best Mate at Wincanton next week than in the King George.

But the Wantage trainer said today that she had been persuaded that there were 'more pros than cons' to running the seven-year-old in the Stg#150,000 Boxing Day spectacular.

Knight was speaking after seeing Best Mate sail through another workout, as he edges towards his physical peak ahead of his stiffest task to date in seven days` time.

Despite having a bit of a blow afterwards, he looked fresh and well, Knight describing him as having 'a real shine in his coat and a sparkle in his eye'.

Best Mate heads to Kempton after suffering a rare defeat at Ascot on his latest start, going down to Wahiba Sands in the First National Gold Cup. But connections put that defeat down to the prevailing conditions, as well as the more obvious concession of 20lb to the winner.

'The winner made a couple of mistakes that day and Tony McCoy really hurled him into the last for an all-or-nothing jump,' explained former champion jumps jockey Terry Biddlecombe, who became Knight`s husband in 1995.

'He jumped it well and took half a length out of us. That half a length was the difference between Best Mate winning and losing.

'He doesn`t like it tacky either, he got beat by Barton when it was heavy at Aintree and to my mind he`s about a stone better on good ground.

'He doesn`t jump as fluently on gluey ground because he just doesn`t like it as much.'

Knight is trying to keep things in perspective with Best Mate facing his first real chance to prove himself at the highest level over fences.

'I haven`t treated this race any differently to any other race,' she said. 'Although I suspect I shall probably start to get nervous on Christmas Day.

'He hasn`t been over three miles in public before, except in an Irish point-to-point but there is no doubt in my mind he will get it.

'The horse came from Tom Costello in Ireland and Tom breaks them in at two so he has done a lot of jumping. He isa horse who has seen a lot in his short life even though he might not be the most experienced on the racecourse.

'He`s never really `raced` from start to finish like he did last time and I`m sure that will have taught him a lot.'

Despite the anticipation, Knight admits that she would still rather be running Best Mate in the Mid Season Chase at Wincanton, the race he still holds an engagement in on the same afternoon.

'If he was my horse that`s where he`d go,' she explained. 'Things have gone wrong with a lot of great horses in the King George over the years.

'But we sat down with Jim (Lewis) and we went through all the pros and cons. In the end he convinced me that there were more pros than cons to running him.

'He`s as fit as I can possibly get him and I think he`ll run very well.'