I'm back again to have a look back at a brilliant weekend of jumps racing, on both sides of the Irish Sea, with the Hennessy Gold Cup the feature in Britain, with three Grade 1's at Fairyhouse on Sunday. On top of that, we also had Newcastle and the Fighting Fifth Hurdle.
Let's get on with it, and look back to Friday where Newbury hosted the second day of their Hennessy meeting, and Doncaster were also in action too.
At Newbury, Dynaste was the main attraction, and he duly justified skinny odds with ease, beating Court In Motion by a very easy four and a half lengths. He has lots of options for the Festival in March, but at the moment, I would say the Jewson over two and a half miles is where I would go. It was brilliant to see Fair Along back winning as well later in the card, he has raced at six Cheltenham Festivals and is still going strong, a great servant. Puffin Billy was again very impressive in the maiden hurdle, and continues to look every inch a star. To Doncaster, and the opening race winner God's Own created a big impression on me. He travelled so well throughout and then with two extravagant leaps at the final two flights, scooted clear to win comfortably. Another that was visually very impressive was Red Devil Boys, the winner of the bumper for John Ferguson. He nearly came down on the home turn, but was never ridden at any stage and won by eleven lengths hard held. What he beat is another matter, but it was some performance.
To Saturday and the meetings at Newbury, Newcastle and Towcester. Newbury kicked off with AP McCoy at his brilliant best to deliver She Ranks Me right on the line to win the valuable Mares Novice Hurdle. Big Buck's won his fourth Long Distance Hurdle with any amount in hand as he sauntered clear to win by nine lengths. It was also nice to see Reve De Sivola back to a bit of form finishing in second. At Fishers Cross was a taking winner of the handicap hurdle over two miles, despite jumping poorly throughout, still won by six lengths. Then it was time for the Hennessy, and what a race it was. As the good early pace was set by the bold Fruity O'Rooney and First Lieutenant, the former started to weaken turning for home and it was Bobs Worth and the enigmatic but super talented Tidal Bay left to tackle First Lieutenant. Bobs Worth jumped into an outright lead at the last under Barry Geraghty, and couldn't be caught, winning by three and a quarter lengths to Tidal Bay, First Lieutenant a great run in third and The Package in fourth. Bobs Worth again proving how good he is left handed, now six unbeaten that way round, and as a genuine Gold Cup contender, even favourite with some firms. I also thought Teaforthree ran a great prep race for the Welsh National just after Christmas back in sixth.
Up at Newcastle, they had the Fighting Fifth hurdle as their feature race. On very testing ground, the performance by the ten year old Boris The Blade off top weight and without a win for the best part of three years, was a joy to watch. He made all, jumping really well and fending off the persistent challenge of Shadow Boxer; who was getting a stone and seven pounds off the winner, up the straight, a great ride by Richie McGrath. The feature race saw a high class but select quartet head to post, which included a Supreme Novice Hurdle winner Cinders And Ashes and a Triumph Hurdle winner in the shape of Countrywide Flame going against each other. It was Countrywide Flame who proved victorious, winning readily by twelve lengths under Denis O'Regan. It was visually impressive, but he did have the benefit of a recent run and clearly coped with conditions much better than his rival, who I think will be much closer on better ground. A horse to watch from the Maiden hurdle for handicap hurdles is Honeypot Lane, who is trained by Tim Walford and has shown ability in both hurdle starts amid greeness, and when upped to two and a half miles on better ground in low grade handicap hurdles, will be very interesting.
At Towcester, it was a pretty moderate card for a Saturday, but riding honours went to Felix De Giles for his great ride aboard Armedanddangerous. He raced lazily and needed a lot of organising and driving, but made all and won by a length and a half.
Sunday gave us the top class Fairyhouse card, Leicester were also jumping and Kempton provided a card of 'Jumpers Bumpers'.
We will start at Fairyhouse, and Our Conor was a nice winner of the opening Juvenile hurdle. The first of the Grade 1 races, the Royal Bond Novices Hurdle went to Jezki and Barry Geraghty, despite not jumping with much fluency repelled Champagne Fever and stablemate Zuzka on the run-in to score. He is a really nice horse and is a name that will be mentioned plenty more as the season progresses. Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins then won the next two Grade Ones on the card with Arvika Ligeonniere and Zaidpour. The former made all and was a long way clear from a very early stage, but kept up the gallop and won eased down by eleven lengths. Zaidpour may be difficult to place later in the season, but won comfortably beating Monksland and Voler La Vedette.
Leicester was only given the go ahead shortly after midday, and there was a shed-load of non runners. The only point of note was Neil King recording a double, with two game horses in Delgany Gunner and A Little Swifter.
Kempton hosted some nice jumpers bumpers, which I am quite a big fan of as they help all areas of the industry, trainers, jockeys and punters. I was impressed with the debut of Tradewinds in the opening race, as a false stride on the turn away from stands put him on the back foot, he had a lot of ground to make up turning in, before drifting to the middle of the track eventually staying on well for second, a horse to watch out for. Long Run's half sister Free Thinking was an impressive winner of the mares bumper on her debut under Sam Waley-Cohen, and together with the fourth Boracha, who is related to to the likes of Bacchanal, and clear needs a trip, need to be kept on-side. Cousin Khee showed a nice turn of foot to win later on in the card for Dougie Costello, a high class bumper horse who will be very tough to beat if contesting similar contests this winter.
Will
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