Jamie Lynch: Awards are nothing compared to Gold

He comes once a year, dressed in his trademark outfit, delivering gifts. Arnaud Bamberger. In racing, for those who have to huddle together on outdoor benches and can only peer through a window at the top table of the Cartier Awards, Bamberger is almost as mythical as Santa Claus himself.

Our only information is second-hand, and then only once a year, yet somehow to see a photograph of an impeccable Arnaud presenting a golden horse to a racing dignitary is to know that everything is right with the world.

From the annual reports, we know what he looks like (if James Bond had an uncle), we know what he brings (gifts and grandiosity), and we know what he does (he's Mr Cartier). But what is the great man really like? The answer, after a little research, is exactly what you'd think. 

In the Financial Times luxury lifestyle magazine, How To Spend It, a Q&A with Bamberger paints a vivid picture. Underneath each excerpt, duplicated word for word, are my own answers for the purpose of context.

'A recent find is something called the High Bird Game Card Album. It's like a photo album, but you fill the sleeves with game cards to keep a record of your shooting activities.'

A recent find was a chewit deep down the side of the sofa.

'The last meal that truly impressed me was eaten at home with my wife, Carla. I bought a small amount of white truffle on the way home and handed it to Carla as I walked into the house. She quickly produced a spaghettini, al dente with butter, which we ate with a bottle of Pomerol 1982.'

The last meal that truly impressed me was Monkfish stuffed with chorizo, langoustine ravioli with pea mousse and sweet potato purée. I saw it on Masterchef: The Professionals while I was having a chicken curry. 

'The last item of clothing I added to my wardrobe was a shooting suit by John Kent, who has been making my shooting suits for 18 years to a traditional, two-piece design.'

The last item of clothing I added to my disused exercise bike in the corner was a nylon-blend suit by George Asda, who has been producing my suits for 18 years, for £18.

Despite the Arnaud-fuelled status, the Cartier Awards seem to carry little weight in the wider sport. Maybe it's because of the Arnaud-fuelled status and all that goes with it, the Cartier pomp and black-tie ceremony meaning the importance lies in the event on the night rather than the awards themselves, or so it appears. 

A high-society celebration of Flat racing, assembling the year's headline-makers, is a meritorious function, if a one-function function and what else adds to the perception that the party is the premise rather than the by-product is that the awards, though sturdy in format, are flimsy in credibility.      

Firstly, awards in racing are achieved on the track, not in the Dorchester, and then if you're going to have definitive divisional champions, as the Cartiers seek to, they need to be either totally subjective or totally objective, one or the other, not the present mix whereby the public vote counts for only 20%, with the other 80% split equally between points accrued in Group races and the machinations of a judging panel. 

Such a method can lead to uncomfortable results that upset the purists, 'purists' in this sense meaning the Timeform number-nerds for whom ratings are the be all and end all. Take Magician, the Cartier winner in the category of 3-y-o colt. On Timeform ratings, even after the Breeders' Cup Turf, there are five better 3-y-o colts than him, including both of Toronado and Dawn Approach whose battles were the pulse of the season. 

This has been going on since the Cartiers began. In the first four years of the awards (1991-4), their diamond-crowned 3-y-o colt was different to the Timeform king. In '91, Timeform pledged allegiance to Generous, while Suave Dancer had the Cartier coronation. The next two years was St Jovite and Zafonic, in the Timeform corner, versus the Cartier-sponsored Rodrigo de Triano and Commander In Chief, and in '94 we had Tikkanen rated higher than King's Theatre.

King's Theatre was good in his first career, poor in his second, but exceptional in his third. King's Theatre the racehorse, King George winner as a 3-y-o, was high class rather than top class, and he did little as a Flat stallion, but he has proved one of the best jumps sires of the modern era. 

When he died of colic in 2011, aged 20 but with a few spermatic years left in him, his stock had never been higher, because his stock had never been better. The most meaningful tale-telling statistic is that King's Theatre has sired as many as 15 - and counting - jumpers who are rated 150+ by Timeform, including the pair who won Grade 1s at the latest Cheltenham Festival, The New One (169p) and Cue Card (179). But, in the words of the Breeders' Cup, the best is yet to come, which brings us to the most exciting horse running all weekend at Cheltenham's Open meeting. 

The Seven Wonders of the World could well become eight after Saturday, to incorporate the sight of African Gold over fences. Besides the King's Theatre blood pumping through his system, African Gold is from a female family line full of quality jumpers, the more renowned ones each at least a 20 lb better chaser than hurdler: Ottowa was 129 over hurdles and 154 in chases, Calling Brave hit the heights of 151 over fences compared to 131 as a hurdler, and Farmer Jack, at 163, was a superior chaser to the tune of 35 lb. African Gold achieved a 146 rating over hurdles, in his first season. 

The words 'chasing type', found within his Timeform comment, come not from his pedigree, however, but from his physique, the big, strong African Gold looking as tailored for fences as Arnaud Bamberger is for pageants. 

The three-mile novice at 13:15 is a stiff introduction for him, taking on the Cheltenham fences straight away, as well as recent (and impressive) chasing winners Le Bec and Shutthefrontdoor, but in African Gold we have a horse who's bred for fences, built for fences and - you can bet given it's Nigel Twiston-Davies - well schooled for fences. 

African Gold won't just jump these Cheltenham fences, he'll go looking for them. If he's going to go all the way to the RSA at the Festival, which he can, then he'll need to win on Saturday, and he will, probably taking your breath away at points. 

Sadler's Wells is not just the daddies daddy on the Flat, he is for the jumps, too, and six of the top ten jumps sires (based on prize money) last season were sons of Sadler's Wells, King's Theatre amongst them. The latest Sadler's Wells offspring to start making a name for himself as a National Hunt stallion is Court Cave, who'll be watching Cheltenham with paternal pride as Champion Court and Court Minstrel line up in the main events on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

A handicap lurker is likely to pick off Champion Court up the hill in the Paddy Power Gold Cup (14:30), but he's a giver, always giving his running, and giving you a run for your money, at Cheltenham. Court Minstrel, on the other hand, hasn't yet given all he's promised, but the Greatwood Hurdle (15:15) on Sunday - which calls for a high cruising speed and turn of foot - might just be to Court Minstrel what dinner jackets are to Arnaud Bamberger and what fences will be to African Gold: the perfect fit.

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