Despite having already seen the Charlie Hall Chase meeting, some good early novices and at least one exciting mare at Chepstow, this weekend marks the real start of the jumps season.
As always in horse racing and in fact in sport generally, there are both good and bad feelings about this weekend’s high-profile meeting. Yes, the jumps are back and that is a thrill to many, but already the talk is about the Festival and that can’t be good.
Too Much Focus on Cheltenham Festival?
Flying Fortune, a five-year-old mare trainer by Peter and Michael Bowen, was described as being very exciting by her team when winning recently. She took the £70,000 Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle at Chepstow last month and was all set to run this Friday.
She is now not among the entries, but what was concerning anyway was the language used surrounding her initial nomination. The talk was about getting the mare to the November Meeting to gain course experience in advance of the Cheltenham Festival in March.
Once again, we start this season with the Festival dominating conversation and that cannot be good. While the flat has also had its issues, the jumps scene is really floundering right now, and we haven’t started in the best manner.
Surely, we cannot be talking about Cheltenham Festival targets before most big hitters have even run? Even when an exciting novice comes along like Flying Fortune, there is a whole winter to race over first. Are we to think that we won’t see the best of such horses if we turn up and see them as it is all about March?
More Early Blows Rain Down
The dry weather hasn’t helped of course. We’ve seen some very small fields of late and, while trainers will say the ground conditions are out of their control, we really are on our knees when a high-profile race such as a £40,000 novice at Exeter becomes a walkover and live on ITV no less.
The dry weather, according to some trainers, will lead to a backlog of novice runners yet to appear. That may well be a good thing for those attending meetings in the coming weeks as we’re bound to see larger fields than normal. That will be short lived, however.
Further negatives have been the injury to Flooring Porter, out of action now having looked like the next ‘public’ Grand National horse, and Vauban having been sold to continue his flat racing career in Australia. For what it’s worth, Rich Ricci and co are laughing all the way to the bank after collecting around £1m for the gelding.
November Meeting Exactly What’s Needed
Despite the above, it’s not all bad news. Cheltenham Racecourse received much better feedback after it’s opening meeting last month and we should see a further uptick in racegoer numbers, hopefully happy ones, this weekend.
We have three days of action to look forward to, but can we keep the focus on the races in their own right?
The race formerly known as the Hyde is now the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle which simply makes us think of it as a trial for the similarly named event in March. The Cross Country winner will also be mentioned as a potential Festival favourite, while two races on Saturday are officially named as trials.
The former Prestbury Juvenile Hurdle is now the Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle, while the race registered as the November is now the Arkle Trophy Trial Novices’ Chase. It’s been that way for a while, but perhaps a re-think is needed there?
Nevertheless, the entries look exciting. Our Listed Novices’ Chase features only four runners on Friday, but all four look quality. The same can be said for the Shloer Chase in which the four declared are Unexpected Party, Boothill, Edwardstone and Jonbon.
Despite the presence of some exciting novice chasers on Saturday, all eyes will be on the feature race. The Paddy Power Gold Cup (2.20) should be a belter and is the first really big betting race of the campaign.
Rather typically of recent times, there is a relatively short-priced favourite in it with Ginny’s Destiny hogging the market right now, but it’ll be a terrific race anyway.
Racing continues on Sunday as we witness another major betting heat, the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle. If a winner comes from the top end of the weights, we’ll all be talking about the Champion Hurdle too early yet again, which leads one to rather hope for a handicap blot at the bottom.
Eyes therefore will be on Jacovec Cavern carrying 10-13 and rated 126. Emmet Mullins’ runner hasn’t been seen over jumps for well over 500 days but was sent off as 5/1 joint-favourite for the Cesarewitch five weeks ago and will be as fit as a flea now.
We have an interesting weekend to look forward to.