Horse Racing

King George favourite Il Est Francais shortens after comeback win at Auteuil

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Joe Lyons
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Published28 Sep 2024

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King George VI Chase favourite Il Est Francais shortened to 3-1 for the Boxing Day showpiece at Kempton after his comeback win in France.

Following a 175-day break from the track, Il Est Francais returned in style with a seven-length victory in the Grade 3 Prix Richard et Robert Hennessy Chase at Auteuil.

The six-year-old, whose previous day closing price ranged from 5-1 to 8-1 with the best horse racing betting sites, is now the clear favourite for the Grade 1 feature race on December 26th at Kempton Park.

Previously, he had been fighting for favouritism in the market with the likes of Fastorslow, Fact To File and Gaelic Warrior, but a slick round of jumping in France has saw bookmakers cut his price to as short as 3-1.

Sent off on Saturday afternoon the 4-5 favourite over 2m6f, James Reveley’s mount soon led after the first fence and made all the running in impressive fashion to extend his advantage and win with plenty in hand.

The son of Karaktar from the yard of joint-trainers Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm announced himself on the scene at the Ladbrokes Christmas Festival last year in the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase.

That day he turned over 11-8 favourite Hermes Allen to win by 11 lengths and almost immediately, hype began to build around the horse’s prospect of coming back next year to target the King George.

Following his stable star’s impressive comeback performance, Noel George told At The Races:

“He’s a top-class horse, whatever you ask of him he is capable of doing. He likes to run his races like that and we give him a gap between his runs because he does it the hard way, he’s such an exuberant horse.

“We’ll definitely be going to Kempton. He loved it there last year, it’s definitely his profile of track and then we have to see what we’ll do after that. We’ll take it step-by-step.”