Angel flying in advance of his Royal appointment
I was happy with Oscars Well at Down Royal yesterday, in what was his first appearance since Cheltenham in March. He settled well, jumped great and cruised up to the lead before just blowing up against two horses in The Real Article and Kalann that have been running all summer.
Robert was delighted with him. It would have been nicer to win but he wasn’t knocked around and it’s a long winter. We’ll either go to the Morgiana or the Hatton’s Grace next. He has plenty of speed to win over two miles but has no problem staying the extra half mile either so it’s good to have those options.
I have 11 runners between today and tomorrow, with the return of Bostons Angel and Saludos the focus of much of the racing public’s attention. Bostons Angel is good. He might be a bit straighter than my other horses running for the first time but if you look at his form, he has always needed a run before he has won.
If you look at that, he might need it but I’m hoping I have him fit enough. It’s a very good race but Sizing Europe is the only one that has had a run and he needed that badly because he was going to get beaten only for Rubi Light falling. He will be much sharper today, we know he is a quality horse and he’ll have the fitness advantage over everybody. But I’m very happy with my fella.
We’re trying Saludos over 2½ miles as an experiment really. If he gets it, it gives us plenty more options with him but if it doesn’t work out, we can always go back to two miles because we know how good he is there.
Citizenship is another new one to the yard having had a couple of runs in hurdles with Gordon Elliott at the beginning of the year. We’ve done a lot of schooling with him and he jumps well now. The ground may be a bit soft for him but I’m very happy with him.
Merveilles and Hebridean will both be a lot fitter than they were in Galway so I’m hoping for the best with them. Meanwhile, whatever Play The Market does this year is going to be a bonus because he’s going to be a three-mile chaser. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. He’s a great, big horse but it will be interesting to see how he goes in the bumper.
I have three running in Cork tomorrow starting with The Quiet Hawk and she seems to be in great form. It’s a fair 3yo hurdle but she’s experienced, having won and been second. Her last run in a hurdle was strange in that the winner went off miles in front and she was the one doing the donkey work trying to catch it. But she still finished second and has had a run on the flat since.
She gets a seven-pound fillies’ allowance which negates her penalty for winning so when you combine that with her experience, you’d have to hope that she’d run a big race.
Jetson is yet another having his first run for me. We’re going 2½ miles and though he might need it, I hope he will run a big race.
Cinder Rua concludes our action in the bumper. She’s a nice 4yo filly, is related to Hide The Evidence, and I’d be happy enough with what she has shown us at home. There’ s not a lot to go on in terms of form in the race, with Myles Sunderland’s Andreas Pride the only one with real experience. So it will be interesting how it pans out.
We finish off the flat campaign at Leopardstown with Backbench Blues in the Nursery and Hurricane Ridge in the Listed race. I’m very pleased with Backbench Blues and he might be my best chance of hitting the 30-winner landmark for the season. Like Hurricane Ridge, though, the question is if he will handle the ground because they’ve been running on good ground until now but I hope they will handle it.
I was happy enough with Chart Master yesterday in the 3yo hurdle. It was a better race than he’d run at Punchestown and he galloped the whole way to the line. He does stay but he gets himself out of it a little bit. He’s still learning so there’s more to come there.
Beir Bua and Mystic Desir both ran well when second at Naas last Saturday. As I said in my column that day, we were very much on a learning curve with Mystic Desir as he was new to us from France. He just didn’t finish out his race, but needed it. We might employ different tactics the next day and wait a little longer with him.
Again, he jumped very well, settled and travelled well until turning in so once we know more about him, I think he will be a very nice horse.
