Cheltenham nerves kicking in
I do get nervous before the big races and the big meetings and as everybody knows, when it comes to national hunt racing, there is none bigger than Cheltenham. The fine weather we’ve been having is definitely something I’m delighted about as the better ground will suit well. It’s still a bit tacky at the moment, which shows you just how much rain fell but if it keeps going as it is, it will be fine. But of course we know from bitter experience that it can change in a matter of minutes. We’ve had it all at Cheltenham – Mediterranean sun, heavy winds, lashing rain and ski-slope snow so it’s pointless making any predictions about the ground until we get there.
Oscars Well and Bostons Angel both worked this week and we were very pleased with them. They won’t school until next week so that will put off any potential heart attacks until then! But right now, they are where we’d want them to be to give of their best in a week and a half.
In every newspaper you open or racing channel you look at right now, there’s some news about horses that are ruled out or might not make it or are waiting for Aintree. The picture is becoming clearer but it heightens the anxiety because, when you’re this close, any sort of setback means that to all intents and purposes, you’re not going to make it.
We could well be starting our UK campaign a little earlier as Alpine Eagle has been entered for next Saturday’s Imperial Cup at Sandown. It will all depend on what weight he gets. You don’t always know how the Irish will be treated by the English handicapper. I hope he gets in and around the same mark as he has here. He’s well exposed so that should be the case.
Fran Berry sat on Pathfork for the first time yesterday and was very happy with him. He has developed well and is doing all that we’d want of him at this stage. As I’ve said before, while Cheltenham is like the Olympics for jump racing, I have another Olympics to prepare for with Pathfork and Laughing Lashes and I can’t take my eye off the ball there with the two Guineas races less than two months away.
On to the more immediate racing and I only have three runners this weekend, starting with two at Gowran Park today. Both Top Of The Rock and Ricardian are on retrieval missions after failing to completely the course the last time.
Top of the Rock seems to be in good form and must have a chance, while I’m looking for an improved run from Ricardian and thought we’d get it the last day but he unseated Mark. We should know more today. They have both been schooled since those runs and jumped well so hopefully those mishaps were just a glitch.
The Engineer runs in the bumper at Naas tomorrow. He’s an Old Vic who had a nice run in a maiden hurdle won by So Young at Christmas. You are allowed run them in two maiden hurdles and still switch back to bumpers so I decided to run in a hurdle first because he’s a little bit of a nervous horse and I thought that help him get some confidence.
He is a five-year-old so really he’s a horse for next year and a good prospect but it would be great if he could win a bumper. Tomorrow’s race is a good one - as all bumpers are at this time of the year - so we just have to take our chance. I would certainly be hoping for a good run as that hurdle race should have done him good but I would say that, while he’s a lovely horse, he’s definitely one for the future.
I was very, very pleased with Jenari in the four-year-old bumper at Leopardstown last Sunday. He did everything right and probably just ran into a better horse in Dermot Weld’s Waaheb, who was long odds on, finishing at 4/9.
They went no gallop, which wouldn’t have helped Jenari very much, but he still put it up to Waaheb, getting within a length and a half, and the two of them pulled right away from the third horse, who was nine lengths further back. That would indicate that they are two decent horses.
He’s entered in a four-year-old bumper in Gowran at the beginning of April but we might go straight to Punchestown. He will improve for the better ground so he could be one to keep an eye on.
