Underestimate Sports Line at your peril

By Pat Keane

Thursday, January 28, 2010

IT isn’t very often a horse heads to the racecourse seeking a four-timer, gets beaten and emerges with reputation not just intact, but enhanced.

I feel that was the case with Sports Line, who was mugged late by An Cathaoir Mor in the Arkle at Leopardstown last Sunday.

Sports Line went to Leopardstown unbeaten for over a year. In that time he had two hurdle races and then made a first-class debut over fences at Navan.

The jury had to be out, however, regarding his true worth and this was easily his stiffest test to date.

In the end he didn’t quite measure up, but I have a feeling if Ruby Walsh could ride the race again might just do things a little differently.

I have learned over the last couple of years that Walsh is his own biggest critic and us armchair experts have little difficulty riding the best races when perched neatly and safely high up in the stands.

In any case what we can say with a fair degree of certainty is that this Arkle was run at a furious gallop.

The time recorded by An Cathaoir Mor, as published in Monday morning’s papers, was nothing short of astonishing.

He ran the two miles and a furlong a whopping 14.5 seconds faster than that taken by Dooneys Gate in the following handicap chase. That really tells it all.

It wasn’t as if they walked in the handicap either, because the first two, Dooneys Gate and Show Blessed, pushed the pace along from the start in that race.

Major Finnegan (Davy Russell) and Take The Breeze (Tony McCoy) tore into each other throughout in the Arkle.

Sports Line was always close up behind and, to my eyes, none of the trio ever managed to get in a breather.

Both Take The Breeze and Major Finnegan absolutely limped home, legless from the suicidal pace they had set.

And that’s why I think Sports Line came out of this Grade 1 a far better horse than he was when the starter left them go.

Alright, he didn’t quite do as much as the other two, but did go along at a fair old lick all the same.

And yet it was only on the run in that he finally cracked, as An Cathaoir Mor went by to score by a length and a quarter.

Sports Line beat Take The Breeze and Major Finnegan by 20 lengths and a neck and, to his eternal credit, did not stop when An Cathaoir Mor threatened to go clear of him.

We already hold a particularly strong hand for the Arkle at Cheltenham, with Sizing Europe and Captain Cee Bee. Underestimate Sports Line at your peril!

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A COUPLE of pundits, whose opinion I would respect, didn’t seem that taken by the performance of Solwhit at Leopardstown on Sunday.

Ladbrokes certainly took a stand as well, remaining completely unmoved and keeping the horse at a stand-out 6-1 for the Champion Hurdle.

The rather muted reactions had to be regarded as a trifle surprising. Solwhit had just done all that was required of him, which is a lot more than can be said of many other Champion Hurdle aspirants.

I think we have to understand the type of horse Solwhit actually is. Let’s start by deciding what he definitely isn’t and that’s a Kauto Star, an Istabraq or even a Dunguib, he just doesn’t do spectacular.

To my way of thinking he simply does enough and that has been his way since the first day we saw him jump a hurdle in this country.

When he beat Sublimity at Christmas, Solwhit won by two lengths. He beat Muirhead at Punchestown by two and a half lengths.

When dealing with Punjabi at Punchestown in April the verdict was a short head and his superiority over Fiveforthree at Aintree, prior to that, was only half a length.

So, here’s one little piece of food for thought. Solwhit scored by four and a half lengths last Sunday, the widest winning margin he has ever managed over hurdles.

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THE massive effect the downturn in the economy is having on Irish racing was fully illustrated by both Navan yesterday and Thurles today.

Not one horse was balloted out at the two meetings and there was no need for the reserve system to kick into place either. What an extraordinary change in such a relatively short period of time.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, January 28, 2010