FIREWORKS are likely at this weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival, but it can be questioned whether anything over hurdles will manage to top what Benie Des Dieux achieved when trotting up in the John Mulhern Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park last Thursday week.
Apple’s Jade ended up running a stinker, and Benie Des Dieux might not have been left with a lot to beat on the day, but she did it most stylishly and in an apparently good time.
Her 161 figure is the equal of what she achieved when downing the French superstar De Bon Coeur at Auteuil in May, and it must be remembered that she will receive a 7lb sex allowance if going for the Stayers’ instead of the Mares’ Hurldle at the Cheltenham Festival.
She would be my idea of the likeliest winner whichever race she turns up in.
Best winners
Total Recall was a smart winner of the Goffs Thyestes Chase later on the same foggy Gowran Park card, his 153 time rating identifying him as one of the best winners of this historic race this century.
The winning performances at Naas on Sunday of Stormy Ireland in the Limestone Lad Hurdle and Carefully Selected in the Grade 3 novice chase were backed up by the clock, though the latter was not foot perfect and still had a fight on his hands when 143-rated Spyglass Hill departed two out.
They both get 151 figures, with Stormy Ireland’s time eight to 10 seconds quicker than the other two hurdles at the shortened two-mile trip; despite having run numerous times, it is possible that she will be underrated for this, along with runner-up Franco De Port (145, and an interesting one for better handicaps if so).
The Big Getaway was less impressive on the stopwatch – 108 on overall time, boosted to 129 on sectionals (similar late splits to Stormy Ireland at shorter) – in winning the maiden hurdle but is a big unit with the likelihood of a big future further down the line.
Noteworthy Allaho
Fairyhouse on Saturday was fairly low-key on the whole, but it is best not to skirt over one winning performance in particular, that of Allaho in the opening beginners’ chase.
Allaho set off quickly enough, and certainly finished more quickly than the other two chase winners on the card, scoring by 21 lengths from the useful Milan Native and posting a 153 figure by my reckoning which takes him to joint fourth in the novice chase standings (and top of them in the week under review).
He has a variety of options at Cheltenham but should be a significant player whichever one is taken up.
Minella Melody also ran pretty fast in winning the Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle with a 136 performance on time, about five below the usual winning standard of the same category at the Cheltenham Festival.