Symphony sizing up Fingal clash
The five-year-old completed a hat-trick at Cheltenham seven weeks ago on his first race outside Ireland, and now faces his stiffest test to date.
“He seems to be improving all the time,” County Waterford-based De Bromhead told At The Races.
“We loved him last autumn and he was a little bit disappointing in his first couple of runs, but we stepped him up in trip and he won well in Killarney, and at Fairyhouse he beat a nice horse of Willie Mullins (Pickapocketortwo).
“Then he went to Cheltenham and won a Neptune Novice Hurdle there.
“Most of his form is on good, lively ground and he’s now stepping up against the winter horses. We’ll have to see if he can keep his form in that kind of company.
“He deserves a crack at it. We’re looking for as nice a ground as we can get and it seems pretty good ground at Sandown at the moment.
“We’re looking forward to running him and it looks a good race. Philip Hobbs speaks very highly of Fingal Bay. He’s already proved he’s a very nice horse. There’s Simonsig and plenty of others in it.
“It’s a very hot race.”
Peter Casey meanwhile was delighted with Jack The Bus after his comeback run in the Troytown Chase at Navan on Sunday.
The 11-year-old won the valuable handicap last season but had been off the track since.
He ended up finishing seventh behind Groody Hill and will now run in the Paddy Power Handicap at Leopardstown over Christmas.
“He ran a great race. We‘ll probably head to Leopardstown with him,” said Casey.
“He’d been off a year and he‘s great this morning. He‘s been down in the spa for an hour and there‘s not a bother on him.
“He’ll improve a lot from that. He was getting into the race going down the back and Robbie (Power) thought he‘d win but then he took a blow, which he was entitled to do.
“The Paddy Power at Christmas is what we‘re thinking”.
