When the Cheltenham November Meeting rolls around, you know that the Jumps season is really starting to kick into gear, and while the ground isn’t where we’d want it to be for many of our horses, we’re excited to send three big contenders to Prestbury Park this weekend.
First up is Boothill in the Shloer Chase on the Friday (14:20), where he takes on Jonbon and Edwardstone on his seasonal reappearance. He’s not run since his good fourth in the Celebration Chase at Sandown in April, and after a routine palate cauterization done in the summer he’s now in great form at home and we’re looking forward to him taking his chance.
Interestingly, Friday will be his first run at Cheltenham, but I must say that this is by accident and not by design! In all honesty, I see no reason why he won’t be well-suited to the course and distance of the Shloer. In fact, he should be benefitted by the way the race is run, especially if Jonbon bounces out hard in front, sets a strong tempo and tows our guy into the race.
We’re aware that we’ve got to find a bit on the ratings compared to Jonbon and Edwardstone, but being in receipt of a couple of pounds from them both, I think he’s certainly worth running in the race, and I hope he can be competitive. You never know in Jumps racing, either, as they’ve all got to turn up and run their race on the day, so we’re excited to be there and to see him in action.
People will see that Boothill’s also entered at Ascot on the following weekend too, but Cheltenham on Friday is very much his first port of call this season, and we’ll decide about future targets once the Shloer is done and dusted. He’s obviously won the race at Ascot for two years on the bounce, so it looks a race that’s right up his street, but let’s get Cheltenham out of the way first and go from there.
Next up is In Excelsis Deo in the feature on Saturday (14:20). We’re thrilled with how he is at home, and he looks ready to rock and roll again at a track which he clearly loves. We were thrilled to see him get his head in front at the April Meeting after a host of strong efforts at the course, and Saturday looks a perfect starting point.
We’ve put a line through his run at Galway, where things went wrong from flag-fall, and expect him to be right at home over Saturday’s course and distance. The race looks as competitive as one would imagine for a race of its nature. You’ve got Ginny’s Destiny in there who looks a worthy favourite, and of course the Ryanair winner Protektorat who’s a real class act. We’re really happy with our guy, however, and we’re hoping he can power up the hill and do himself justice on the day.
Sunday sees Hymac back at a track he also loves in the 14:55. We’ve had this race in mind pretty much since his win over course and distance in April, and his encouraging win at Newton Abbot the other day was the ideal stepping stone to Sunday. He’s probably racing a couple of pounds outside of the handicap if the top horse declares, but he’s come out of Newton Abbot really well. We’re hoping he can get into a similar rhythm around Cheltenham on Sunday as he did in April, and if he does, we’d be delighted as he ought to go close.
While the finish was a little tighter than we’d hoped, we were very happy to see Anno Power get the job done at Sandown last weekend. She’s a mare with an awful lot of ability and is certainly one we’ve got high hopes for. She’s come out of Sunday relatively well, albeit she was a touch lame, so we’ll let her recover from that effort in time and look forward to the rest of the season with her.
The lack of rain is still proving a real issue for us, as we’ve got a load of horses ready to run who we’re not going to risk on such quick going at this stage of the year. One of those is Gidleigh Park, who’s a hugely promising novice chaser for the team. We have him entered to run on Monday at Exeter, but the way things are with the weather suggest he’s probably an unlikely runner. Fingers crossed we get luckier with the weather and then we can get his season started sooner rather than later.
Have a great weekend,
Harry