Cheltenham Festival Reflections
We sent a small but select team to Cheltenham this year and despite not getting our heads in front, we were very happy with our runners’ performances. I’ll start off with the Champion Bumper and Idaho Sun’s cracking run to finish sixth. We were delighted with the run, but we definitely came away feeling “what if?”. They didn’t go a strong gallop, which is very unusual for a Cheltenham bumper, and it just meant they quickened going down the hill. He got a little unbalanced at that stage and lost his position, but once he met the rising ground he stayed on really well. We definitely were left wondering whether he could’ve got closer had there been a proper pace on throughout, but that’s just the way the race was ran on the day.
It was a run full of promise and that’ll be his final outing of the season. He’s already started schooling over hurdles and jumps really nicely and he’s a very exciting prospect to go novice hurdling next term, likely starting off over two miles on soft ground.
We couldn’t have asked for a better run of the race, however, for Beat The Bat in the Coral Cup. He got a lovely passage through and was bang there two furlongs out, but a few just found another gear up the hill and he had to settle for fourth. He kept galloping all the way to the line, though, and on that slightly better ground he probably showed that a further step-up trip would suit. All being well, the plan is to head over to Punchestown for their three-mile hurdle at the Festival at the end of April and start of May. It’s a race we’ve won in the past and hopefully he can get a much-deserved win after his fine runs this season.
Might I also ran well in the Coral Cup, but at his age and with his form profile, it’s hard to win a race like that as there are so many up-and-coming youngsters in the field. He could’ve done with a stronger pace to run at to be at his best, but he wasn’t beaten a long way, and he certainly didn’t disgrace himself. He won’t be going to Aintree but there are still options for him to run again this season. We might just lower our sights with him and hopefully end his season on a high.
Aintree Plans Update
We hope to send a few key runners to Aintree for the Grand National meeting, all of which who missed Cheltenham. We’ll start off with Altobelli who’s very much on target for the festival and we’re looking forward to stepping him up to Grade One company. He’ll probably get an entry in both the Aintree Hurdle and Liverpool Hurdle, and we’ll decide on which route we take nearer the time once we’ve a better idea of the opposition and the ground. Our original thought had been to send him over three, but we’ll see how things stand a little closer to the day.
It was disappointing that we weren’t able to get Gidleigh Park to Cheltenham, especially after seeing the horse he beat at Windsor, Caldwell Potter, bolt up the way he did in the Novices’ Handicap Chase. While it was tough to watch, it obviously gives us confidence as we send him to Aintree. We’re undecided as to which race he’ll go for at the meeting right now. He has the option of the two-mile and two-and-a-half mile novices’ chases, but rather like Altobelli, we’ll make the call nearer the time. He’s in great form and we’re excited to take the wraps off him.
Gin Coco is another horse we’re looking to run at the meeting and we’re hoping to run him in the two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle on the Friday. He goes well fresh, and the form of his Chepstow run looks well-franked by the winner going on to win a big Irish handicap. We’ve purposefully let him have a midwinter break with a view to going for a nice prize in the spring, so hopefully it’ll work out well.
Yard Update
Disappointingly, Anno Power hasn’t been able to recover yet from her injury which has blighted this season, and we’ve roughed her off for this term. She’s still coming back from some lameness behind, so she just needs plenty of time to rest and hopefully the spring and summer will allow her to do that. It was obviously great to see her half-brother, Lecky Watson, win the Brown Advisory at Cheltenham last week, and we know that she’s very talented too. Fingers crossed we can get her back on a racecourse next season to showcase her ability.
We’re thrilled to report that Boothill has made a very good recovery from the nasty overreach he sustained in the Clarence House. It’s gone as well as we could’ve expected, but we’ve obviously ran out of time to get him back for any races this season, so we’ll just let him start his holidays early. He’s done really well post-op and we’ll look forward to having him back next season.
Weekend Preview
We only have the one runner this weekend in the shape of Coconut Grove at Newbury on Saturday (15:50). He’s a four-year-old making his debut for us, and I’d say we’d have to be doing some to emulate what Willie Mullins did with his Triumph winner! He’s a horse we like, and we had been aiming him at the Adonis, with a view to the Triumph, but he had a little hold-up which prevented us running. Saturday is very much a starting point, but if he were to run particularly well, we could look at taking him to Aintree for the Grade One four-year-old hurdle.
Have a great weekend,
Harry