LONDON, Dec 26 \u2014 For half a century Harry Redknapp\u2019s Boxing Day was spent largely trying to get the better of footballing rivals either as a player or manager but today, he will have his eyes on another prize \u2014 the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park.<\/p>\n
The 78-year-old Englishman \u2014 who guided Portsmouth to 2008 FA Cup glory \u2014 has enjoyed a fair amount of success over the jumps as an owner.<\/p>\n
However, should The Jukebox Man beat his seven opponents in the steeplechase widely regarded as second only to the Cheltenham Gold Cup in prestige it would be far and away his biggest win.<\/p>\n
Racing has been in his blood from when he was growing up in London: his grandmother, Maggie Brown, ran bets for a bookmaker which was illegal at the time.<\/p>\n
Redknapp, who is largely associated with West Ham as he played for them for seven years and subsequently managed them for the same amount of time, went to watch his star on the gallops at trainer Ben Pauling\u2019s stables and said his \u2018nan\u2019 would pinch herself at his having such a horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a far cry from the East End of London, (when she was) getting slung in the back of a police van every other day for collecting the bets,\u201d he told the assembled media.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople forget there were no betting shops, betting was totally illegal, so the only way you could have a bet was through an illegal bookmaker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Redknapp, who says he first got involved as an owner when he was managing Bournemouth in the 1980s, says his wife Sandra has a good laugh at his expense.<\/p>\n
\u201cA guy on the TV said, \u2018Harry Redknapp, he keeps buying horses and he never buys a bad one\u2019, and Sandra fell off the settee laughing,\u201d said Redknapp.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a list as long as your arm so when you get a good one you\u2019ve got to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Mildly entertaining\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Redknapp has already enjoyed a victorious day out at Kempton with The Jukebox Man, last year in the Grade One Kauto Star Novice Chase.<\/p>\n
However, six of his seven rivals \u2014 including last year\u2019s King George winner Banbridge and runner-up Il Est Francais \u2014 are top class.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like going into the Champions League,\u201d said Redknapp briefly falling back into his footballing days when his crowd-pleasing Tottenham Hotspur side reached the quarter-finals of European football\u2019s top club competition in the 2010\/11 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at the teams that are still in it and you think, my God, but you still think you\u2019ve got a chance and you\u2019re dreaming that you could go all the way and win it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the two most dangerous rivals to The Jukebox Man are from the formidable Irish trainer Willie Mullins\u2019s stable, Gaelic Warrior and Fact to File.<\/p>\n
Gaelic Warrior just got the better of his stablemate in a thrilling duel at Punchestown last month.<\/p>\n
Gaelic Warrior\u2019s owners Rich and Susannah Ricci have yet to win the King George, Vautour having been edged out by the fast-finishing Cue Card in the 2015 edition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 30 seconds I saw a man who thinks he\u2019s won a King George turn into one who finds out he hasn\u2019t,\u201d said Joe Chambers, the Ricci\u2019s racing manager<\/p>\n
\u201cIn hindsight it was mildly entertaining but at the time anything but.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chambers hopes for better fortune this time and is encouraged by what he is hearing from Mullins, who is seeking a third success in the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vibes and the feedback from both trainer and his assistant have been very positive, certainly in the last 10 days and have done nothing to dissuade us from thinking this is a very good idea.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, Dec 26 \u2014 For half a century Harry Redknapp\u2019s Boxing Day was spent largely trying to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,158203,158205,158204,158207,561,82,158206,158208],"class_list":{"0":"post-369549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-harry-redknapp","11":"tag-kempton-park","12":"tag-king-george-vi-chase","13":"tag-portsmouth-2008-fa-cup","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-the-jukebox-man","17":"tag-willie-mullins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}