Il Etait Temps can make class tell at Clonmel
CLASSY SORT: Il Etait Temps got the better of Jonbon when winning the Celebration Chase at Sandown last April. Picture: Healy Racing
Il Etait Temps may not be at his best at this time of the season but he is a classy sort and can make it count against his three rivals in the Grade Two Clonmel Oil Chase, the feature of the year at Powerstown Park.
Willie Mullins’ seven-year-old boasts a record of five wins from seven starts over fences, and four of those victories have been at the top level. He missed most of a year prior to his only outing of last season but was clearly none the worse for the break.
He has never raced over a trip as far as this but that is only worthy of consideration because it is his first run of the season and he is entitled to need the outing.
However, that’s an extremely minor concern as he put up what was, arguably, the best performance of his career to date when winning the Celebration Chase at Sandown on return from his long absence.
Former Irish Grand National winner Intense Raffles is an interesting rival. He likes to go on about his business from an early stage and if there is a chink in the armour of the selection and Gentleman De Mee, he will expose it. At double-figure odds, he is not unappealing.
Mullins saddles Spindleberry in the listed T.A. Morris Memorial Irish EBF Mares’ Chase, and she can maintain her unbeaten record over fences. A useful hurdler, she has brought her form to a whole new level since being sent over the larger obstacles, and there is no reason to believe she has yet found her ceiling in that sphere.
She has previous with chief rival Bioluminescence, which she beat by six and a half lengths when they clashed in February at Fairyhouse. While she is 12lbs worse off this time, she was stretching right away in the closing stages and value for even more than the winning margin. She can confirm the form despite the turnaround.
Kobalt St Georges was a well-backed winner of a handicap chase just two weeks ago at this venue, and can follow up in the Prior Park Service Station Clonmel Handicap Chase. The conditions will be a little more testing this time but that is of little concern. He gives the impression he will be a considerably better chaser than he was a hurdler and yet on ratings he is rated only 6lbs higher. With Robert Tyner’s team in great form, he can continue to make hay.
12:37 I Am Lorenzo
1:12 Scope To Improve
1:47 Rising Dust 2:22
Spindleberry (Nap)
2:57 Il Etait Temps
3:32 Kobalt St Georges (NB)
4:07 Panjandrum
12:37 Kovanis
1:12 If You Believe
1:47 Intent Approach
2:22 Bioluminescence
2:57 Intense Raffles
3:32 Onefortheditch
4:07 Grandy Lane
