PAT KEANE: Still no closer to knowing just how good Un Atout really is
At Naas last Saturday, in a novice hurdle, the Gigginstown-owned five-year-old again won in a canter, essentially offering us more questions than answers.
This took his score to three from three — one of them a bumper — and we should now be getting a real handle on the horse. Well, we’re getting there, but suspect there is still a huge amount that remains a mystery.
Un Atout made his debut at Naas in January of last year, taking on just six rivals. His reputation preceded him to the racecourse and he went off at 2-7.
What followed was a demolition job, as he cruised clear up the straight to score with any amount in hand by 24 lengths.
But, rather interestingly, none of the six horses he beat that day has managed a single win between them in the meantime.
It would be a bit like yours truly beating McCririck, doing handstands, over a hundred metres. Impressive, but form of the worthless variety!
Un Atout was then put away, before reappearing in a maiden hurdle at Navan in early December.
This time he went off at 1-2, from 4-6, made all of the running and hardly broke sweat to cope with Fickle Fortune to the tune of four and three quarter lengths.
He beat 13 horses in total then and, worth noting, is that the sixth, Stop The Clock, thirty one and a half lengths adrift, went in at Thurles subsequently. It was only of minor importance, but mildly encouraging all of the same.
And so it was Naas on Saturday and easily Un Atout’s stiffest test to date. On this occasion, he went off at 2-7 and never left second gear at any stage to beat Rory O’Moore by 19 lengths.
Now neither Rory O’Moore, nor the third, Art Of Logistics, smart horses and all as they are in their own right, have any Cheltenham aspirations, so Un Atout’s performance has to be taken in context.
Basically, what his three runs to date have told us is here is a horse with enormous potential, who seems to have a powerful engine, with serious Cheltenham potential.
But the problem, of course, is that he has yet to come off the bridle, has yet to get down and dirty and has beaten nothing of any consequence.
But Mullins, as shrewd an operator as has ever peered through binoculars, will be well aware of all of that.
I hope Un Atout is asked to race one more time before Cheltenham and that it will be in a proper Graded contest, against decent horses.
That would reveal more about him than his other three races put together. I’ve a feeling, however, that he would come through with flying colours and reputation greatly enhanced. Un Atout may very well be the real deal.
a particular racecourse and ground conditions can make to the result of a race were never better illustrated than Tofino Bay beating Aupcharlie in a three-mile novice chase at Naas.
The pair had clashed over the same distance at Leopardstown at Christmas. Most observers agree, I think, that Aupcharlie would have won that day, but for stumbling on landing over the final fence.
In the end he was beaten a head into second by Back In Focus and had Tofino Bay twenty six and a half lengths behind in fourth place.
But over the stiffer Naas track, and on a surface that was far heavier, Tofino Bay managed a dramatic turnaround in form, beating Aupcharlie by half a length. You could argue that Tofino Bay found some 28lbs from Leopardstown to Naas.
But that would represent a literal reading of the bare Leopardstown form and the handicapper’s overall assessment, that there was actually only 6lbs between the pair, was far more accurate.
On Friday night some of the firms priced the race and easily the biggest offer was the 8-1 with Boylesports about Tofino Bay.
When Lord Windermere was taken out of the race on Saturday a Rule 4 automatically kicked in.
But even with the Rule 4, anyone lucky enough to avail of Boylesports’ generosity were on Tofino Bay at savage value.
The return was almost 13-2, which was quite extraordinary about a horse that was returned at 2-1.
a week last night, with racing being held up for some 44 minutes, due to a dispute between HRI and the stalls handlers over insurance.
How difficult was it for HRI to convince the handlers that they were indeed insured? How difficult was it for the handlers to understand what HRI was telling them, presumably in basic English, that they had absolutely nothing to worry about. C’mon who’s codding whom?
