THERE has – rightly enough – been a lot of talk about Majborough this week after his impressive chase debut win at Fairyhouse, but he’s not the only high-class chase debutant to emerge from Closutton in recent days and I was delighted to see Lecky Watson make the perfect start to his own chasing career when finding too much for Supreme winner Slade Steel at Naas.
This is a horse I’ve been looking forward to seeing over a fence for some time, and while I normally keep my observations for British tracks, I have to make an exception for this gelding, who looks destined for better things.
An above-average bumper performer, when his best effort was an unlucky fourth in the Champion Bumper when allowed to start at 80/1, the unfurnished Lecky Watson always looked the type to do better with a jumping test over a distance of ground and duly won his maiden hurdle over two miles and seven furlongs at Thurles.
Dropped back in trip subsequently, he made the frame in both the Grade 2 Navan Novice Hurdle and the Grade 1 Lawlor’s Of Naas before finishing a creditable fifth in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham in March on his return to three miles.
Better for a fence
Despite that useful hurdles form, Lecky Watson gave the impression he was the sort to do better for a fence, and in most of his races in bumpers and over hurdles he tended to race a bit too enthusiastically to show himself to best effect.
That and his physique have always led me to believe that he would only really bloom when put to fences and he did everything he could at Naas to prove that point, particularly as he showed himself much more amenable without his usual hood, making the running but doing no more than Paul Townend asked him, and jumping with alacrity throughout.
Willie Mullins was very pleased with what he saw, noting how nimble the big horse was when required, while also showing a willingness to come up when Townend asked him, and such a display is always more pleasing to the purist than one where a chaser always looks to go long, however thrilling such a spectacle can be.
Lecky Watson’s admirable display was rather lost in the fact that the script called for a win for Slade Steel on Rachael Blackmore’s comeback from injury, but I’m more than happy for this handsome chesnut to stay a little under the radar.
He wouldn’t be the first hard-pulling hurdler to be transformed by a switch to fences, and he seemed to really enjoy his new role, which augurs well for the future. Although he stays three miles, I think he’ll be fully effective at an intermediate trip and by setting just a fair gallop, he made the Naas contest a relative test of speed at the trip as the fast final sectional shows.
He strikes me as the ideal sort for the P.J. Moriarty Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival. I’ll be straining every sinew to be there to see him in the flesh.
THE card was hardly a stellar one, and the huge entry didn’t quite translate to the declarations we might have hoped for, but it was a real pleasure to see jump racing return to Windsor last week, with the new layout looking a real winner and the course providing enough of a test to lure better horses there for future meetings.
It’s been 19 years since the previous incarnation of jumps racing at Windsor, and that was just a temporary return with Ascot being redeveloped in 2004/5, but I recall watching National Hunt racing on the television from Windsor back in my formative years.
It’s funny which memories abide, and which fade away, but the one that really sticks with me is watching Wishlon, trained by Epsom veteran Ron Smyth and ridden by Ian Shoemark, winning the New Year’s Day Hurdle in 1989, just a few days after finishing third to Kribensis in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton as a 33/1 novice.
Wishlon had Mole Board and Celtic Shot behind him at Windsor and went on to take the Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown, leading to romantic notions of him going on to win the Champion Hurdle.
His trainer had ridden three individual winners of the Champion Hurdle in the 1940’s, all trained by his uncle Vic Smyth, and that nod to the heritage and tradition of the big race made me root for Wishlon, as did the fact that he was still an entire, but the fairytale wasn’t to be for Wishlon, who failed to build on his early promise, with his only subsequent wins over hurdles coming at Plumpton.
Highlights of the month
Dear old Wishlon won’t be back in the New Year, but Windsor will, with the Berkshire Winter Million offering one of the highlights of the month in a three-day spectacular where Ascot’s Clarence House Chase card is the filling in a sandwich where Windsor provides a little more than just the bread and butter.
Friday January 17th features the Sovereign Hurdle at the Thameside venue and Sunday’s highlight is the Fleur de Lys Chase, somewhat incongruously named now that it has moved from Lingfield, which has the Fleur de Lys as its symbol.
The return of top-class racing to Windsor for the first time since Baracouda landed the rearranged Long Walk Hurdle almost exactly two decades ago is a real boon to jumps racing in the London catchment area and it promises to be a big hit with racegoers as well as television viewers.
The track is not famed for its viewing, but it is a wonderful venue for seeing racehorses close up in the pre-parade and paddock, and the latter is one of the most picturesque in the country. It’s good to see it get some grassroots action and the opening fixture at the new jumps course promises much for the immediate future.