Welcome back to my blog. I would like to thank members and readers of my first blog for the great response and feedback received,
Action took place at Navan on Saturday with a quality card, the feature was the Navan handicap hurdle grade b of 50k, which was taken by Kilfenora ridden by Mark Walsh for trainer Eddie Harty, that’s two grade B wins in a row for this horse and he may well progress out of handicaps.
A beginners chase on the card had a high profile horse called Minella Indo ridden by Rachael Blackmore for Henry De Bromhead, last year’s shock winner (50-1) of the Albert Bartlett Hurdle at Cheltenham festival made most of the running to win the race with a nice horse in Captain CJ in second, I think Captain CJ is one to put in the tracker, there is a nice handicap chase in this horse.
Action across the sea was just as exciting, Haydock had the Peter Marsh grade 2 of 75k, won by Vintage Clouds, ridden by Danny Cook and trained by Sue Smith for owner Trevor Hemmings. We will next see this horse in the Scottish national , his owner has won a few nationals in his time and he has another great chance of adding to that list.
The new Unibet hurdle grade 2 of 75k was also on the card, it had an exciting finish to the race, with Pentland Hills traveling nicely true the race took the lead after the last hurdle, Nico de Boinville then asked him to go win the race , but on the heavy ground Pentland Hills didn’t extend clear, which left the door open for Ballyandy and Sam Twiston Davies to rally on the run in and pip Pentland Hills on the line to win by a nose. Ballyandy traded at huge odds in running.
Jessica Harrington took another big Saturday race with Magic of Light winning the mares hurdle for the 2nd year in a row at Ascot, making most of the running, Robbie Power had no worries on the 5-2 shot. The Mares Hurdle at Cheltenham is her next target, before returning to Aintree for the grand national, which she came 2nd in last year.
Defi Du Seuil jumped his way into the champion chase picture after beating the brave Un De Sceaux in the Clarence House chase , Defi tracked the gallant Un De Sceaux in second throughout the race, outjumped his rival at the 2nd last to take the lead and galloped all the way to the line to win by 2,75 lengths, trainer Phillip Hobbs said after the race that he is entered in both champion chase and Ryanair at the festival, talks will be had to decide which to go for, maybe they will wait to see what Altior can do when he makes his eagerly awaited return to the track,
Looking ahead to this week action will take place at Gowran Park, the Thyestes Chase is on Thursday and I’ve got a selection in the race for you, this horse is trained by a small enough stable which mostly guarantees good odds on runners from the stable , the horse in question is Ex Patriot , his form over course is 1st 4th , ran a great race last time at Cheltenham over shorter distance to finish 4th only beaten under 5 lengths , trainer Ellmarie Holden is well able to get one ready for the big day and this horse can run very well at odds of 12-1. it’s a good each way price.
Cheltenham will host its festival trials at the weekend, its sure to be another great weekend of racing with some clues for the big week in March. Then we have the Dublin Racing festival the following weekend.
Thanks for reading,
Jamie