Dublin Racing Festival: Opportunity knocks for JJ Slevin 

SMART PROSPECT: An easy winner of her Irish debut at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve, Sainte Lucie can put down a Triumph Hurdle marker by winning the Gannon’s City Recovery & Recycling Services Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown today. Pic: Healy Racing

Battle of the giants

It’s not often that two competitors in the same event seem like different species, but sometimes it happens.

There was a gasp from the crowd when Jeannot Lapin and Birdie Or Bust emerged from the fog on the approach to the last fence in a beginners chase at Leopardstown at Christmas, mostly because it looked like neanderthal man was wrestling a woolly mammoth.

Not since Peter Stringer stood next to Devin Toner for the national anthem had Irish sport witnessed such a height discrepancy. Jeannot Lapin prevailed at 150-1 and his trainer, Gearóid O’Loughlin, admitted he wasn’t sure how tall he was because his measuring stick stopped at 17.3 hands and his horse didn’t.

Jeannot takes on another ‘big un,’ the brilliant Marjborough, in the Arkle Chase on Saturday, a clash that reminds us of when Michael Jordon slam dunked over the top of Magic Johnson.

Juvenile hurdlers

It’s been six years since a home-trained winner last won the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham, but the Irish run of victories looks likely to hit a hard stop next month.

Lulamba and East India Dock form the best cluster of juvenile hurdlers produced in Britain in a generation and our last hope of a stout defence lies in the Gannon’s City Hurdle today. Hello Neighbour renews rivalry with Lady Allen Vega who he beat a short head at Christmas in a hard race for baby hurdlers.

On the other hand, Sainte Lucie won easily on his Irish debut at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve and could yet be our best hope of giving the Brits a run for their juvenile money.

JJ Slevin

Although James Joseph ‘JJ’ Slevin’s surname differs from uncle Aidan and cousin Joseph, he still carries the same sense of humility associated with the O’Brien family.

His career has developed solidly in recent seasons and after riding a Grade One double at Christmas he was confirmed as Daryl Jacob’s successor as retained jockey for the powerhouse ‘double green’ ownership team of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede. The arrangement will open plenty of brand-new possibilities for Slevin, 32, including Impaire Et Passe, Jasmin De Vaux, and El Fabiolo this weekend.

Novice chasers

The absence of an intermediate distance Grade One novice chase at Cheltenham this year has happily forced the faster horses into the Arkle and the staying types into the Brown Advisory. Ballyburn looked like an airplane in his novice hurdling season last year but ran into an even faster jet at Kempton at Christmas when Sir Gino beat him an easy seven lengths. There were mitigating circumstances. He jumped poorly, butchered the last fence, and stayed on well to suggest a right-handed track and longer distance will suit him just fine. Willie Mullins has always believed that Ballyburn was a future Gold Cup prospect and his mouthwatering clash with Impaire Et Passe on Sunday should tell a tale.

Handicap labyrinths

Understandably, the DRF spotlights the graded races leaving little mind share for the five white hot handicaps run at meeting. Each of them carries a prize fund of at least €100,000. A super-computer and infinite time would be needed to properly work them out, except perhaps, for one.

Meetingofthewaters, trained by Willie Mullins, was bought by JP McManus for big money in the spring of last year in the belief he was well enough handicapped to win the Aintree National. He could only finish seventh and finished the season rated 149 over fences. He runs in the Race and Stay Handicap Hurdle on Saturday off bottom weight (112) and a win wouldn’t impact the weight he’ll carry in the big, upcoming chases.

Chasing and hurdling are two quite different skillsets obviously, but if you handed Roger Federer a squash racket and six-point start, he’d probably do okay.