CHELTENHAM preview talk bedamned, the most interesting thing to happen in Irish racing over the past seven days came in an auction maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse last Saturday, where Great Attitude landed a sizeable gamble on debut, backed from as big as 125/1 in the earlies into a starting price of 8/1.

The execution of the market move was excellent. There was nary a word for the horse in the overnight and early morning prices, before the money came late and hard across all markets from online to shops to the track itself.

His backers had few worries in the race itself, as it developed in the way Irish maiden hurdles do; the fancied ones went to the lead and Great Attitude was ridden with intent, sharply away and hurdling well. He lived up to his name in terms of resolution, something that couldn’t be said about his two market rivals, De Temps En Temps and Kish Bank, neither willing under pressure.

Another layer was added to the gamble by Great Attitude being linked in multiple bets with Sticktotheplan in the bumper, who had been backed from a 9/1 early price into 11/10 SP, returning a Betfair SP of 2.64; that last price was the most surprising of the day, as he faced opposition from some of the top bumper yards, along with horses that had form.

The late exchange markets, largely governed by algorithms, can take little cognisance of earlier moves and gambles like this are often pushed out late, but the opposite was true here.

According to plan?

Sticktotheplan could only manage fifth, but he was more findable for punters than Great Attitude, who came from the Tom Cleary yard that had trained only two hurdle winners in the last 15 years, though the support may have sent punters sleuthing.

All easy in hindsight of course, but their research might have shown that Great Attitude had been trained by Cormac Farrell until January 30th, the same trainer as Sticktotheplan, while both horses had been owned by Douglas Taylor, known to land a gamble or two, until the same date. Farrell and Taylor are involved in Copper Beech Stables per the trainer’s website.

It is fair to say that Farrell would get more respect in the early betting markets with a debutante in either code than Tom Cleary, Farrell having won with a first-time starter on the flat at Dundalk in January (ridden by Rory Cleary), but whatever about the links and the source of the support, these punters certainly selected a race with a high degree of difficulty.

Integrity scale

Since the start of 2024, there have been 384 maiden hurdles run in Ireland and, prior to Saturday, just four had been won by horses having their first run of any type, including point-to-points. Two of those four were Bective Stud-owned horses trained by Gordon Elliott, both winning races where an odds-on favourite flopped, while the other two were returned at SPs of 100/1 and 50/1 respectively, so it was fair to say that neither was expected.

It may have only been an auction maiden hurdle on Saturday, but Great Attitude was taking on runners from the Gavin Cromwell and Gordon Elliott yards, the first of those a seemingly well-fancied Paul Byrne-owned runner, so one would think backers were going in with their eyes open.

Perhaps I am becoming too hardened, but a market move like this would not register on the integrity scale for me; if someone wants to go for a gamble first time up, they are brave as these horses find it hard to win, and good luck to them if they are able to ready one.

More broadly, the reality is that followers of horse racing – and, in truth, Irish horse racing in particular – must accept grey areas around integrity, as handicaps and betting are central to the sport. Indeed, for many, this is part of the attraction and, while I wouldn’t put myself in that category, I am willing to accept it as part of the puzzle.

What worries me about integrity is not these known unknowns, but rather the unknown unknowns, those times when you have had a bet, and you feel you never really had a chance. Saturday’s gamble was not one of those.

IT is late in the day for Cheltenham pointers, most of the relevant form in the book, but the rescheduled card at Punchestown on Thursday last produced not one but two Festival favourites in Jade De Grugy (Mares’ Hurdle) and Gameofinches (Champion Bumper).

Should they make their Cheltenham targets, they would be backing up after 19- and 20-day turnarounds, a window that is tight by Festival standards, while these Punchestown runs came on testing ground.

Since 2010, there have been 222 Irish-trained winners at the Festival, with 11 of them (from a total of 193 qualifiers) having run in the previous 20 days, so such winners are unusual, but not unprecedented.

Of those 11, five were handicappers, two came in the Mares’ Hurdle (Apple’s Jade and Black Tears, both of whom ran in the Quevega like Jade De Grugy), one each in the Champion Bumper, the Triumph, the Supreme and the Hunter Chase.

In midwinter, Jade De Grugy seemed down her stable’s pecking order of the Mares’ Hurdle behind Lossiemouth and Kargese, not least because chasing was the plan.

Peter Moloney, representing Kenny Alexander, said in early January: “The plan was to go chasing with her, but she had a small setback and she’s had a few weeks off and only just come back into training. At this stage, we will probably stick to hurdling with her, as it will be the latter third of the season when she will be running, so there is no point running over fences at that stage of the year.”

Changing

That isn’t the sort of comment that would scream solid favourite, and it is hard to know what effect a quick return would have on a mare that was having her first run in 326 days, but things have changed in the Mares’ Hurdle recently and the race may not take as much winning as seemed likely earlier on.

Jade De Grugy won the Quevega well enough and was carrying a big penalty, while her overall form is strong; the only disappointing run of her life came in a Dawn Run that was tactical and neither she nor Brighterdaysahead showed their best.

Aside from the winner, the second Mousey Brown shaped well off an absence too, travelling strongly down in trip, and looks to have more to give both over hurdles and fences, her yard showing signs of a return to form lately.

Gameofinches was a particularly impressive winner of the bumper, powering through the race to beat horses like Begorra Man and Casterly Rock that had decent form, in a good time too.

He is a big horse and did well to cope with Punchestown’s tight track configuration last Thursday, though the Champion Bumper with its likely full field will present a tougher challenge again. Still, he adds another string to what has become a strong Willie Mullins bumper team since the start of February.