CHELTENHAM SQUAD

Ben Pauling talks to Racing Post's Lambourn correspondent as he puts together his strongest Cheltenham squad.
By James Burn


You couldn't say Ben Pauling is hard to pin down, but he is certainly in demand. By the time he sits down for a chat with the Racing Post, his morning has already involved Nick Luck's podcast and an interview with Sky Sports Racing.
Anyone who has dealt with Pauling since he started training in 2013 will recognise a willing and engaging subject, so it's no surprise he is a go-to trainer for the media – especially as he had hogged headlines the previous weekend with a treble at Ascot.


"It's different from how it was, but I'm getting older," he replies when asked what celebrations were like. "I took the staff down the pub for a few drinks, but we're much busier now, so writing ourselves off for three days isn't great."
It is even less so when you're on the verge of the most important week in the calendar and have your strongest Cheltenham Festival team, which has live Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle hope Tellherthename at its heart. 


"We'll run between eight and ten," says the 40-year-old trainer. "We ran a similar number one year and I convinced myself they had chances, but I'm not sure they did and we turned right where the beaten horses go more than we went straight on to the winner's spot."


Pauling does know his way to that hallowed enclosure fairly well, however. He was involved with plenty of festival winners during his time working for Nicky Henderson, while Willoughby Court, Le Breuil and Global Citizen have put his own name in lights at the meeting.

Global Citizen: Pauling's most recent festival winner

This year's team captain runs in the opening race. Tellherthename was pulled up in his previous Grade 1 test at Aintree but got back on track with a 14-length win at Huntingdon, his second victory at that track, before missing the Betfair Hurdle because of the ground.


"I like him a lot," says Pauling. "He's incredibly well balanced – if you could design a horse to handle Cheltenham's undulations, it would be him. He's very much up there with the best horses I've had in terms of raw talent, and he's got the best brain. 


"Most of the good horses I've worked with have a quirk. This lad has an inner belief and doesn't do anything he doesn't need to. He works really nicely but is behind the bridle and never too keen. 


"He moves well and there's an elegance about him; he knows he's good, but he doesn't behave like a prat with it. He's got it all. I'm not saying he's the best I've trained, but he's got the potential to be."


He'll certainly have to be good in two weeks' time given his target of the Supreme puts him on a potential collision course with two of Willie Mullins' top youngsters in Ballyburn and Tullyhill.


Uncomfortable at any suggestion of ducking the challenge, Pauling says of Mullins: "He's the level we've all got to aim for. If you think you've a horse good enough to win at Cheltenham, you go and take on whatever is in front of you. There are owners and trainers who will think, 'Let's avoid the Irish.' No! 
"This is our festival and we're going to compete, throw our best darts at it and serve it up to whoever turns up. Otherwise, what's the point?"


In full flow, albeit not quite unfurling a Union Jack just yet, Pauling is better placed than most to take up the challenge. As well as Tellherthename, he has Sidney Banks winner Handstands and promising stayer The Jukebox Man to run in the other Grade 1 novice hurdles at the festival, as well as a host of likely types for the handicaps and "proper horse" Sixmilebridge in the Champion Bumper.

Tellherthename: gelding is highly regarded

Pauling sees a kindred spirit in counterpart Dan Skelton, another trainer often on the front foot when it comes to defending British jumping and its values.


"We're the same age, we started at the same time and we get on brilliantly," he says. "I hope in X amount of years we can be serving it up properly because you have periods of domination – there was Martin Pipe and the year before I left Nicky we had seven winners at Cheltenham and he was champion trainer. Willie has taken it to another level, but I don't think that domination will last forever.


"I'll be honest, though, I'm happy I'm training in Britain, not Ireland. There, you've got Willie, Gordon [Elliott] and probably Henry [de Bromhead], but then brilliant trainers beneath who are struggling to get on to that ladder, while we've just managed to have a fabulous Saturday with three winners, nearly four, at Ascot. That just wouldn't happen in Ireland."


Based just 13 miles from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire's jumping stronghold, Pauling is well aware of the lure of the festival and the grip it has on the sport, but rejects claims it plays too overarching a role.
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"Whether you like it or not, Cheltenham is the pinnacle of jump racing and if you gave most owners a choice, bar maybe the late Trevor Hemmings, who loved the National, the majority would want to run at Cheltenham," he says.
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"Everyone wants to be there. We're a stone's throw away and a lot of my owners would love our location because of its proximity to Cheltenham. Festival week for us is not just the racing, we're flat out from the Sunday night before to the Friday night. It's busy morning, noon and night, but there's a great buzz and the staff can get there for an afternoon, which is a big thing."


Pauling is talking from a smart lounge at the stunning state-of-the-art Naunton training complex he has called home for nearly two years.


Its art deco wallpaper is not a subject on which he is an expert – "my wife Sophie is responsible" – but he is more familiar with saddling winners and by far his best campaign was recorded during his first season at the new yard last term, with 80 winners. Another 57 have followed this season.


Assistant Tom David, Head Person Gill Tate and Secretary Hannah Vowles are trusted employees who take pressure off Pauling, who had said before the move that building his new base was like creating a monster.


"I slightly regret that statement," he reflects. "What I was trying to get across was we've created a big operation and you can't get away from the fact we heavily invested in it, so it needed to work, but it has, and it's gone from being a monster to being really smooth.


"Everything's coming together nicely at the moment, and with the owners, staff and horses we've got, we're in a great place – we've never been in a better one. 


"You're always looking for the next horse or to meet the next owner, but a friend told me people spend too much time living for tomorrow. You've got to be ambitious, but don't rush what's happening today."

In terms of the here and now, and the next few weeks, Pauling has plenty to savour.


More than just Tellherthename ... here are the rest of Pauling's pearls

 Handstands (above)
Baring Bingham
He's different from Tellherthename in that he'd work the same with a 105 horse as he would a 135 horse. Harry Cobden schooled them recently and thought Tellherthename was pretty cool, but he got off Handstands and said he hoped he'd wake up in the Sidney Banks! If he's A1, he'll go, but if there's a doubt we'll avoid it and go to Aintree. He does only what he has to do, and you wouldn't have a clue where the bottom of him is.
Handstands: a Huntingdon winner for Harry Cobden this monthCredit: Alan Crowhurst

The Jukebox Man
Albert Bartlett
They went a proper gallop on desperate ground in the Challow and he lugged slightly left up the home straight, but I think he'd have gone very close if he hadn't done that. He's made for three miles and is a class jumper who should go very well.

Sixmilebridge
Champion Bumper
He's very talented but we've struggled with his lung health all season. His tracheal wash the week before Sandown was not good, but it was either stopping for the season or running and seeing how we got on, and he won as he liked. He went through the race half-asleep and then went clear, and you've got to relax and travel nicely for the bumper. He's a proper horse.

Shakem Up'Arry
Ultima/Plate
We gave him a wind op in the summer and I think it took him a run to realise he was okay, then he was too free in the Coral Gold Cup. He won nicely at Cheltenham and I think he's well handicapped. The ground will decide his target.

Harper's Brook
Grand Annual
I'm quite excited about his chance. He's got his quirks but Sandown last time couldn't have gone any better because they went a strong gallop. I might stick a pair of blinkers on him.

Henry's Friend
National Hunt Chase
After he won the Reynoldstown, I said we'd leave him for Cheltenham, but you wouldn't believe how well he was after, so we'll consider it. I'm not into times but I'm told the Reynoldstown figures were impressive.

Bowtogreatness
Ultima/National Hunt Chase/Kim Muir
He's one of my favourite horses and has so much ability. He ran like an absolute mongoose at Newbury because I left the earplugs off, so his first proper run this season was when fifth on Trials day. He's the hardest horse you'll meet, so I'd think nothing of going from Kempton to Cheltenham. I'm very sweet on him.