Cork managed to race yesterday as indeed, rather more surprisingly, did Southwell, but when we will get some more jumping – in the UK at any rate – is possibly more open to question, writes Tony Stafford.
Today’s two cards have already gone and the Arena Racing Company, which runs Southwell, can giveth with one hand and taketh away with another. Both Lingfield, with an additional, and Wolverhampton, with a scheduled evening card are in the Arena stable.
I was at Chelmsford City briefly the other evening and Neil Graham, their ever-present boss, was anticipating his track might be in line for some of the more 48-hour emergency meetings that trigger when jumps cards are in the process of being lost.
He said that he hadn’t been lucky in the ballot yet, unlike all the others, but reasoned Chelmsford’s turn might be near. “Those tracks that already have been lucky, cannot reapply for ten <or did he say 14?> days”. Chelmsford race on Thursday, so that must be a pre-programmed date.
Fixtures are power in racing. No wonder Southwell battled so hard to keep their fixture alive, employing frost covers and delaying the morning inspection to 9.30 a.m. in the hope that any morning warming after a freezing night, will have had maximum effect. Watching the racing, everything looked fine. Well done, Arena, and Ben Pauling who had a nice double on the card.
Sometimes we try to make bricks where there is no straw. If you will excuse me for once, I’m a little under the weather – that sort of annoying cold that provides alternate nostril routes for moisture to trickle down the face at most inopportune times. As a result, this will be a case of short-changing the readers and hopefully the editor will take a charitable view.
Energumene took the opportunity to return to action at Cork in the Bar One Racing Hilly Way Chase. The best two-mile chaser – possibly for all this millennium [with apologies to Moscow Flyer, Master Minded, Sprinter Sacre and Altior – Ed.] – had to concede 10lb to the two horses that finished immediately (but miles) behind him while the second favourite, Master McShee, who was off level weights, finished a long last having badly burst blood vessels.
Prize money was a sliding €59k, €19k, €9k with €4k for the hapless invalid. Willie Mullins often provides multiple entries in Champion Hurdle eliminators through the year, but he refrained from doing so here. The Henry De Bromhead-trained and Rachael Blackmore-ridden Epson Du Houx was the beneficiary of Master McShee’s misfortune, not that trainer – or owner Gigginstown House Stud – needs a hand-out, 15 lengths back in a welcome back exhibition.
It is hard to see from where serious competition will come for Energumene in the immediate future, save of course Edwardstone, who stated his case for the Queen Mother Champion Chase with that superb effort at Sandown in the Tingle Creek Chase last weekend. That put paid to Greanateen and Shishkin, for the time being at least. But Energumene, like stablemate Facile Vega in the Supreme Novice Hurdle, has built an air of invincibility that makes quotes of even money for next March look value indeed.
Events on the flat continue apace overseas and Ryan Moore had another inflation-busting pick up in one of the races on Hong Kong’s biggest days at Sha Tin yesterday. Riding the six-year-old Wellington for Hong Kong-based English trainer Richard Gibson, Moore added this near £1.3 million first prize to the Japan Cup a fortnight earlier, and again with a weaving through the field ride.
In Tokyo, there was a mile-and-a-half to make his run with Vela Azul on their way to collecting that £2.6 million. It still took a gen of the rarest kind to manage it. Here it was just six furlongs but still Ryan, in my estimation riding at his best since before the serious injury a few years back which he was understandably not keen to draw attention to, was sublime.
He gave Wellington time to find his stride, brought him steadily through to challenge just before the last half-furlong and the prize was his. You can just imagine him licking his lips at some of the Middle Eastern riches that he hasn’t always been in line to challenge for. I bet William Buick and the other Dubai Carnival regulars wouldn’t mind if he kept clear of Riyadh and Meydan next month and onwards.
TS
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Energumen_HillyWay_Cork_December2022.jpg319830Tony Staffordhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngTony Stafford2022-12-12 09:19:382022-12-13 12:33:03Monday Musings: Weather and a Two Mile Monopoly?
The fallout from that unfortunate Ascot meeting last month continued at Sandown on Saturday when the third member of the famed Absentee Triumvirate made just as emphatic a statement as the other two had signalled a week earlier at Newcastle, writes Tony Stafford.
In all, there were 14 non-appearances that frustrating Saturday afternoon, when faster than expected going was the principal reason for the wholesale withdrawals. But, for the crowds that descended as ever at the Royal racecourse, only three really mattered.
That Constitution Hill, L’Homme Presse and Edwardstone could all stay in their boxes on one day was a kick in the teeth for racegoers. For their owners, and respective trainers Nicky Henderson, Venetia Williams and Alan King, the decision has taken only two weeks to be fully justified in each instance.
Constitution Hill, thrillingly in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, and L’Homme Presse, grittily and with authority in the Rehearsal Chase, both at Newcastle a week after Ascot, did their bit to a nicety. Then at Sandown on Saturday, last season’s Arkle Chase winner Edwardstone contrived to give a major shake to betting on the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Festival next March.
His nine-length demolition of Paul Nicholls’ Greaneteen in the Tingle Creek Chase was only half the story. Six lengths further back was Shishkin, the one-time Great White Hope of UK jump racing and Nicky Henderson’s nominated successor to Sprinter Sacre and Altior and still highly enough regarded to start even-money in this deep Grade 1 field of top two-mile chasers.
Fourth just behind him was the Joseph O’Brien-trained Gentleman De Mee, the same J P McManus horse that had ended Edwardstone’s winning run of five at Aintree last year. (Aintree it was where L’Homme Presse’s Cheltenham-embellishing five-timer also culminated).
It wasn’t just Gentleman De Mee who got a revenge pasting. It was probably the fact that Edwardstone had been a cab-hailing 23 lengths behind Shishkin in the 2020 Supreme Novice Hurdle that first suggested to Alan King a switch to fences might be a strategic move to avoid that horse in the immediate future.
Edwardstone’s comeback run the following November brought an acceptable fifth in the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle, but the initial try at chasing, the following month at Doncaster, ended in a premature conclusion when he unseated his rider at the fourth fence.
After finishing off that season with some solid runs back in handicap hurdles, King was ready for a second shot, but again there was a non-completion, at Warwick. This time, though, it was no fault of his as he was moving in the style of a possible winner when brought down four out.
Since then, Aintree in April apart, it’s been a story of onwards and upwards and, with hindsight, the only shock about Saturday’s race is that he started 5/1. Now he’s only 7/2 second favourite for the championship among two-mile chasers, that market understandably headed at 6/4 by Shishkin’s nemesis, Energumene.
That Willie Mullins champion has yet to appear this term, but we did get a first sight of the season of the Cheltenham Festival (and even more emphatic Punchestown) Bumper winner, Facile Vega. He must rank as one of the best-named animals around, as every one of the five races he has contested has been a Walk In The Park, Facile indeed. Of course, mum was Quevega, who only stopped at six Mares Hurdle wins at Cheltenham because she was feeling broody!
Facile Vega started over hurdles at Fairyhouse on Saturday and the backers who accepted 1/9 about his chance never had a moment’s doubt that they would be collecting. A Gordon Elliott sacrificial object was offered up as token opposition. An Mhi, also by Walk In The Park and half-brother to top-class Slate House, might well be all right, indeed pretty useful, but Facile Vega had 14 lengths to spare with the rest of the 16 runners trailing behind, their presence more a case of autograph hunting than competition. He looks the same at the end of his races as at the start. A true phenomenon!
https://youtu.be/Vh2sR-3ULwQ
That’s the Supreme sorted then, and you must sympathise with Gary Moore, also on the mark on Saturday with one of the best from last season’s Festival Bumper. His Authorised Speed, in finishing fifth, was first home of the UK contingent, and before Saturday had won easily first time over hurdles at Lingfield late last month.
He got some more valuable match practice to open the Sandown card and, in spite of a last-flight blunder, still had more than six lengths to spare over a well-regarded Henderson newcomer who received 5lb.
Gary never shirks a challenge and will probably still target Authorised Speed at Cheltenham, as he will Hansard. The latter, a most impressive debut winner at Huntingdon yesterday in a hot novice hurdle on his first run since being bought for £48k out of Charles O’Brien’s yard after winning a Ballinrobe bumper, has obvious potential for a constantly upwardly mobile operation.
We mentioned last week the similarity between the conundrum Henderson was placed in the future campaigning of his two smart novice hurdlers from last season and that six years previously when Altior and future dual Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D’Air needed separating. Again there was a JP issue when Constitution Hill and Jonbon went to Cheltenham last year with mixed opinions in the yard as to which was the better. In the event, it was a no contest, Constitution Hill coming out on top by 22 lengths but with Jonbon second.
Perhaps surprisingly, that was still good enough to beat a trio of Willie Mullins challengers including the 2021 Festival bumper runner-up Kilcruit, third, and Bring On The Night fourth. Mullins might have had one in the first two though as Dysart Dynamo was going easily when falling three from home.
Henderson decided to go post-Cheltenham to Aintree with Jonbon, a mission he accomplished with a hard-fought victory, but there has been nothing hard-fought about his first two chase runs at Warwick and now Sandown on Saturday. In winning by eight lengths from Boothill, he was beating one of the beneficiaries of the Great Ascot Disappearing Act.
Harry Fry’s seven-year-old had been the recipient of the £65k first prize in the Hurst Park Handicap Chase, the race intended for Edwardstone.
Now that Aintree has separated its two previously joined at the hip big autumn handicaps over the Grand National fences, both the Grand Sefton, at the original date, and turn-of-the-month Becher Chase have attracted big fields.
Saturday’s version provided a big long-distance double in valuable handicap chases on successive weekends for the Skeltons. Their Ashtown Lad finally brought all his promise over several seasons to fruition in the style of a horse that could one day go well in a Grand National.
The success followed last week’s Coral Gold Cup win at Newbury for Le Milos, both horses getting exceptional rides from Harry Skelton, happy to have won a jockeys’ championship but happier still that all his energies can be put to the family business.
You could expect both horses to be among the entries for the 2023 Grand National, but I fear those two and pretty much everything else will have to work hard to get past the present incumbent Noble Yeats. He had a nice sideways look at some of the obstacles he encountered last April when he scooted round three miles, one furlong of the Mildmay Course on Saturday in the Many Clouds Chase, a £45k Grade 2 contest.
In the old days the perceived wisdom was that once horses win the Grand National, not only do they lose their speed, but they also find the hike in their ratings prohibitive. In out-speeding such smart performers as Dashel Drasher and Ahoy Senor in the last quarter mile on terms akin to their respective handicap ratings, Noble Yeats is clearly still improving – and fast! The Emmet Mullins-trained and Robert Waley-Cohen-owned seven-year-old could run up a sequence in the great race to challenge the memory of Red Rum and Tiger Roll.
Noble Yeats was the youngest winner of the race for more than 80 years. He is the first seven-year-old to have been successful since Bogskar in 1940. He was rated 147 going into the National this year and that had risen to 160 before Saturday. It looks sure to be set for another small increase, but weight may be less crucial than handling the fences at Aintree.
The two greatest Grand National exponents of my lifetime both began their careers in the race as eight-year-olds, which gave them plenty of time for multiple challenges and successive wins.
After all that I need to return briefly to one of the few races on infamous Ascot Saturday that wasn’t significantly affected by non-runners. That was the fillies’ hurdle race when many thought Coquelicot might have been flattered because basically Rex Dingle rode the pants off his rivals, getting a lead they couldn’t peg back.
Therefore, when she turned up again for another very strong mares’ race at Sandown on Saturday, they all knew what was coming – if they didn’t, they needed locking up! With Aidan Coleman taking over, ‘Cookie’ again made all the running, this time with some classy females snapping at her heels for the last mile. I told the owner/editor two weeks ago that Ascot was merely the start, rather than the end of her success story.
(Also, for the class of race, the £8k and not a lot more to the winner, looked meagre in the extreme for 0-130 animals. But the sporting owners that make up this fun syndicate operation put Saturday winners a long way over expensive dinners!). Don’t worry boys and girls, there will be other big days from this lovable mare!
TS
https://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Edwardstone_TingleCreek_2022.jpg319830Tony Staffordhttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngTony Stafford2022-12-04 22:37:192022-12-04 22:37:19Monday Musings: Vindication for the Absentee Triumvirate
The punters were loving it in the packed grandstands at Leopardstown during the two days of the Dublin Racing Festival as favourite after favourite went in, writes Tony Stafford. A host of Grade 1 races meant a conveyer belt of superb winners, confirming the power of the big stables almost in the manner of the Cold-War style May Day Parades in Moscow’s Red Square.
For armoured tanks and missile launchers read Mullins chasers and hurdlers, Elliott juveniles and handicap chasers not to mention the odd De Bromhead stealth bomber still to taste defeat in 14 faultless sorties.
Honeysuckle and Blackmore; Chacun Pour Soi and Townend; and, most demoralising for all the existing Gold Cup stars, a demolition job by Conflated and Russell in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup, at 18-1 which brought only a temporary respite for the layers on Saturday.
Conflated can certainly describe Mr Ryanair. He has the twin roles of running Ireland’s most visible and visibly competitive airline along with a still massive undertaking with Gigginstown House Stud. The culls in the latter direction have clearly become evident. Only nine in the maroon colours appeared during the two days and 15 races of the Festival, a long way short of the days when the sort of big-money handicap chases and hurdles on offer here would have usually included half a dozen of his representatives in each. Whatever happened to all those caps? JP’s are all different colours to theirs so no taker there!
Gordon Elliott’s suspension last year coupled with the Covid restrictions were a convenient moment conflatedly to confirm Michael O’Leary’s support for Elliott and at the same time accelerate the cull. The horse Conflated, happily for the magnate and his racing manager brother Eddie, ran in the Gold Cup despite Eddie’s view he had no chance.
The relative outsider, although well backed in the lead-up to the race, had far too much speed for last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Minella Indo – showing something of his true self – and the rest. The one coming through late into the Gold Cup field often beats the established stars at Cheltenham. He usually has had fewer hard battles and knocks lingering in the recesses of his consciousness to shrink from on the big day.
We – or at least our trainers – moan about the way the Irish come and pinch our biggest prizes every March, with last year’s almost total oblivion, perhaps, being the final straw. Paul Nicholls seems to err on the cautious side at Cheltenham these days in favour of more serious involvement at Aintree at the Grand National meeting but he did make a challenge for two of this weekend’s big prizes.
Frodon, who had beaten Minella Indo at Down Royal on their joint reappearance back in the autumn – with Galvin splitting the pair – does not have a Cheltenham entry this year. This was his Cheltenham, running in a three-mile rather than three-and-a quarter-mile Gold Cup on Saturday.
The near-veteran put up his usual prominent showing under Bryony Frost, but when the taps were turned on over the second-last they were immediately raising a white flag, coming home a remote last of the seven finishers more than 20 lengths behind Conflated.
Then yesterday, Greaneteen, outpointed last time by Shishkin at Kempton having previously won the Tingle Creek, was utterly rolled over finishing last of five, miles behind Chacun Pour Soi in the Dublin Chase, a Grade 1 extended two-miler.
Those two obviously below-par performances will have been a sobering experience for Nicholls, a man who recently clocked up his domestic century of winners this season, just after Donald McCain and before the upwardly and geographically-mobile Irishman Fergal O’Brien.
More to the point though at a time when complaints about UK prizemoney are unrelentingly put forward by trainers and owners alike, surely it was an indictment of the lack of enterprise here that no other UK trainer – and there are more than 500 of them if you include permit holders – was daring enough to have a shot at the €2,881,500 on offer for the 15 races.
In all, 91 prizes were available over the two days and between them Messrs Mullins and Elliott snaffled 42% of the money – Mullins €702,000 from seven wins, five thirds, five fourths, seven fifths and three sixths; and Elliott almost precisely half a million from three wins, seven second places, two thirds, two fourths, six fifths and one sixth place.
In an almost exact proportion of prizes they collected 41 of the 91 on offer. The usual suspects filled in for the rest with Henry de Bromhead just about keeping his head above water with Honeysuckle’s wide-margin victory in the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle.
Understandably Honeysuckle was roared all the way from the winning line to the enclosure by an enraptured crowd finally allowed to give vent on a racecourse to their feelings. For what it’s worth, my view watching from the owners’ room at Kempton – my first time at one of my favourite spots on the circuit for almost two years – was that there were a couple of slightly worrying elements.
She probably got a little lonely out in front and while there was never a proper challenge, it wasn’t as smooth as some of the earlier wins. You have to wonder – well I did anyway – whether she might be getting bored with the whole “I’m miles better than the rest of you” girl-power routine?
Why Kempton, you might ask? Well I was there to watch the comeback of Jonathan Barnett’s Year Of The Dragon – sorry mate, it’s the Year of the Tiger! – after seven months off. A strong-finishing third, while a little short of peak suggests a win next time. February 24 at Newcastle fits William Knight’s penchant for sending his horses to that northern outpost. Fill your boots!
On another fill your boots theme, I had a nice chat with Dermot Weld at the sales at Newmarket on Thursday and he had news of his Chester Cup winner from last year. His Falcon Eight, under Frankie Dettori, took advantage of lenient UK handicapping to win the big staying prize from a mark of 104.
This Thursday he will have his second run over hurdles in a near-three-mile novice event at Thurles and as Dermot said: “When he wins he’ll go to the Albert Bartlett. And by the way, the English trainers were moaning about his handicapping and getting their knickers in a twist but he had been dropped only 4lb!” True enough Dermot, but to be dropped at all after finishing fourth in the Irish St Leger wasn’t exactly harsh treatment by BHA’s finest! We’ll be cheering for you on Thursday though with our vouchers for the potato race at the Festival warming our inside pockets for the next few weeks.
Returning to Leopardstown, surely the most eye-opening performance of the lot was Saturday’s bumper victory of Facile Vega, trained by Willie, ridden by Patrick and the second foal to run of their great champion mare, Quevega. I sort of hinted what I would be doing if I owned a mare of such quality – much as Michael Tabor did in his mating for Refinement that produced Walking On Air - and send her to Derby runner-up Walk in the Park. Suppose it’s easy if you own both the mare and the stallion!
It worked fine for Facile Vega’s workmanlike first run but here he was so dominating in outclassing a field of previous winners that the trainer seems set for a ridiculous 12th success in the Champion Bumper with a horse that is odds-on even before the entries are known.
Last year’s winner of that race, Sir Gerhard, was not the first string when he made it 11 for the maestro that day and, with Rachael Blackmore riding, he overcame hot favourite Kilcruit and Patrick Mullins, who himself had been ultra-impressive in this race twelve months ago.
Yesterday, in the Cheveley Park Stud colours and with only a single defeat – by Kilcruit when they reconvened at Punchestown, the gelding brought his tally to five out of six with an easy win in the Grade 1 novice hurdle. Now we have to wait and see whether another re-match is possible. More pertinently, perhaps, will be which Nicky Henderson star, the afore-mentioned Walking On Air (who would need to be supplemented) or Constitution Hill or Jonbon, he prefers to face before deciding on the Supreme or Ballymore.
The relentless march of the big Irish stables with their ability to identify and then secure with their greater financial power the best prospects is a trend that no end of BHA committees, tough talk from trainers and retaliation from handicappers will arrest any time soon. Major owners increasingly have their horses trained over there as there are meetings like last weekend’s when they can tilt for almost €3 million. Would it were so in England!
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