Don’t be in any rush to dismiss Moscow Flyer, warns Harrington
Harrington, who has seen her charge drift from favouritism to 5/1 for today’s race, felt that the Macs Joy performance was quite significant. “Hopefully this augurs well for Moscow Flyer. Our horses have come back to form recently and that bodes well.
“Both Macs Joy and Moscow Flyer have been on the gallops together recently and I’ve been pleased with them. But you never know until they get to the track what the story really is.
“The fact that he made such an improvement on last year when he finished fifth in the Champion Hurdle is very encouraging and has given us renewed heart for Moscow Flyer,” she said.
The horse’s jockey Barry Geraghty was similarly enthused after the second place in the Champion Hurdle by Macs Joy. “The thing is that if Moscow improves just a little on his last run, then he’d beat the rest of them in Ireland, including Central House,” he said.
“Kauto Star is the favourite and the best of the British, but I think he’s a much over-rated horse. He just has not done it on the track and I don’t think he’s that good,” he reasoned.
There was guarded support for their views from Ireland’s senior jumps handicapper, Noel O’Brien, who said that while he felt Moscow Flyer was a stone “and the rest” worse than last year, he felt it was a poor race.
“This is the weakest Champion Chase we’ve had in ten years and if I had to pick a winner, then my heart would say Moscow Flyer,” he said, adding a precautionary rider “but my head would go for Central House.”
Speaking about some of the rest of his rides at the meeting, Geraghty said that he was very keen on the Zaiyad in today's Royal and SunAlliance Novice Hurdle, while he also noted that Lord Over in the bumper was a “good each-way chance because there are no superstars in the race.”
