Racing: Valley Henry ready to give Wylie return on spending spree

Christmas is the morning for good boys and girls but for jump racing's newest big-spending owner Graham Wylie, it will be Boxing Day before he knows whether or not he's on Santa's list. The unassuming Geordie multi-millionaire's latest toy is Valley Henry, one of 12 horses declared yesterday for the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Friday. Wylie bought Valley Henry three weeks ago to strengthen his portfolio of horses at Howard Johnson's Co Durham yard but even his wealth was unable to buy the present he really wanted. That was Jair Du Cochet, who will start favourite for the Yuletide showpiece.

Valley Henry, the consolation prize, was 10 lengths third behind the French raider when the pair met at Huntingdon last month, with Best Mate intervening. However, given Wylie's Midas touch in business and now in his new-found passion, it may be foolhardy to bet against a reversal of the formbook. "He's a lucky man, no doubt about that," said Johnson yesterday. "And though, when it comes down to it, you do need more than luck to get on in this game, it's a right handy back-up to have."

Wylie, from Whitley Bay, near Newcastle, is a coal-miner's son but dug his fortune from a more modern seam of prosperity as co-founder of the computer software colossus Sage UK. He is holder of a CBE for services to industry and earlier this year, after cashing in shares to the tune of some £120m, has been able to retire at the age of 43. A year ago he had but one racehorse; now he has a string of 27. His investments at the auction sales may have raised eyebrows but they have borne instant fruit: expensive purchases Royal Rosa, Inglis Drever, Chivalry and Inching Closer have all won, and won impressively, first time out in his Newcastle United-inspired black and white silks.

His coming is changing priorities at White Lea Farm, near Crook, which combines racing and dairy herds. Johnson, famously partially deaf after being kicked by one of his bovine inmates, now has 75 horses under his care. "I've never had that many in my life," he said. "If I can get the subsidies sorted out, the cows may have to go. But one thing I will say is that even with these expensive, high-profile horses, the stress hasn't increased. Graham enjoys them purely as a hobby - he was up here yesterday going round the yard with carrots - and he understands that the reverses will come."

In taking over Valley Henry, Johnson has a hard act to follow in former handler Paul Nicholls, who fields Le Roi Miguel on Friday. But he reports the eight-year-old in good nick since his transfer. "He's settled in well and has eaten everything put in front of him," he said. "We gave him a racecourse gallop the other day over a mile and a half with some of my fast ones and he's fit enough. He'll be suited by the faster ground at Kempton."

That ground, the cause of reigning champion Best Mate's feather-ruffling defection, is on the slow side of good. "That's if we were racing on it now," said Brian Clifford, the clerk of the course, as he walked the track yesterday. "But it's forecast dry for the next two days, so it should be good on Friday. It won't inconvenience any horse. Or wouldn't have," he added pointedly.

Hurriedly inaugurated in 1937 to honour the unexpected new monarch after the abdication of Edward VIII, the King George VI Chase is regarded as the calendar's second most important test for staying chasers. But the three-mile contest identifies the best performer of the season more often than the race perceived as the championship, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which is run over an idiosyncratic course and demands stamina far in excess of speed. It is possible for a high-class plodder to win at Cheltenham, but not at Kempton.

Jair Du Cochet's speed, both tactical and after the last, is not under debate but his sometimes hairy fencing technique is, though in his defence he has never fallen and has proved his efficacy round Kempton, having taken the Boxing Day novices' test there, the Feltham Chase, last year. The style of his rider, Jacques Ricou, has not entirely found favour on these shores but again, to be fair, he knows the near-black six-year-old, who can be strong both physically and mentally. "It is like going to bed with your wife," his trainer, Guillaume Macaire, based in Aquitaine, says entirely politically incorrectly. "You know which buttons to press."

French-trained horses, or more precisely François Doumen-trained horses, have an excellent King George record. In 2000 First Gold became the Normandy man's fifth winner since Nupsala's interrupted a Desert Orchid sequence in 1987 and, at his best, this bold-running ghost of Christmas past would be more than a spectre at the festive feast. But although previous victors have regained this specialist title, none has done so after a three-year gap.

Best Mate's deputy from West Lockinge is Edredon Bleu, at the age of 11 jointly the party veteran with last year's runner-up, Marlborough. But this is largely young man's territory; in 52 runnings only the inaugural victor Southern Hero, at the age of 12, Rose Park (10), Wayward Lad (10) and Desert Orchid (10 & 11) have scored in double figures.

Jair Du Cochet, the one at the head of the queue of young bucks sniffing the air, seems the most likely Boxing Day winner and Valley Henry, to be ridden by King George rookie Graham Lee, appeals as each-way value. But not even the prospect of a £160,000 purse will drag his trainer south. "I'll let the owner enjoy the day," he said. "I'm going to Sedgefield."