THE Grade 1 races at Leopardstown were a story of building momentum, starting slow but significance and drama gradually increasing, with the best saved for last in the Grade 1 Nevilles Hotel Hurdle.
The Grade 1 Racing Post Long Distance Novice Chase looks weak form for the grade, a small field dominated by one trainer, and Croke Park, who had looked well-positioned when making all in the Drinmore, was able to pull off the same tactics here, jumping well in the main.
His stablemate and runner-up Better Days Ahead, the only one punters wanted to know in the market, might be able to reverse form granted a stiffer test, while the third Gordon Elliott runner Stellar Story made mistakes, coming into this with little meaningful chase experience having won a slow-paced Grade 2 on his previous start.
Solness proved a surprise winner of the Grade 1 Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase, making all around the outside and building up a lead early, trainer Joseph O’Brien pointing out afterwards that rider J.J. Slevin felt the better ground was wide. Gavin Cromwell said the same after his Paddy Power Chase winner later on the card.
Connections of the second and third will hardly be too disappointed. Gaelic Warrior gave up position and fitness to the winner, this trip on decent ground on the sharp side for him - and he closed all the way to the line - while Marine Nationale spent much of the race down the inner. His jumping was better than Naas, albeit that he is inclined to screw a little in the air.
Suited by the pace
Elliott won a second Grade 1 in the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle with Romeo Coolio seeming better suited by the pace here than he had been in the Royal Bond.
Karniquet ran away with Patrick Mullins early to set a strong gallop, and when he made a terrible mistake at the second, the winner took it up and sustained the pace.
Pulling nine lengths clear of stablemate Bleu De Vassy reads well, though the maiden Eastern Legend was close up in third as the Closutton runners disappointed, and the three Mullins runners here would still look his B-team.
Things really got going on day three with Home By The Lee confirming the impression left by his Lismullen win that he is a much sweeter model this season with a comfortable win in the Grade 1 Savills Hurdle.
Nor did things go ideally for him for having moved into a good position after three out, he briefly hit a flat spot and was forced to the back of the field then made a mistake at the second last but, having been switched in the straight, he hit the front at the last and won going away.
J.J. Slevin said afterwards that Joseph O’Brien has changed a few things with him this season and he looks worth treating as a different horse, one that might get close to Teahupoo at Cheltenham and the 10/1 for the Stayers’ Hurdle makes plenty of appeal for all he turned 10 this week.
The other performance of note in that race came from the third Rocky’s Diamond, running a huge race for a 130-rated four-year-old.
He was trapped down the rail in rear throughout and his hurdling suffered as a result, meeting trouble in the straight too before finishing well.
More broadly, Declan Queally had an excellent Christmas with his horses producing form figures: 22P0314U271, the two winners, Beggars Rock and Carrigmoornaspruce, looking names to note.
THERE is not much more else to say about Galopin Des Champs in the Grade 1 Savills Chase; he is the gold standard staying chaser of recent times both in terms of ability and longevity.
This race raised further concerns about Fact To File’s ability to last the Gold Cup trip, but he is yet short in the tooth and may learn to settle better.
If this is the strong crop of staying chasers it seems, then the horses on the coat tails of the best should be worth considering for lesser races.
The fourth Heart Wood put up a career-best here without fully convincing that he got the trip, and the way he travelled suggests a strongly run two-and-a-half miles might be more his thing,
His owners have options in the Gold Cup and something like the Ryanair, for which he is 25/1, looks more suitable. The fifth, Inothewayurthinkin, might also be worth bearing in mind for stiffer tests, the Grand National in particular.
The John Durkan was an unsuitable test for him, and while this was more his thing, it still didn’t get to the bottom of him.
His jumping was better than at Punchestown, for all he made a bad mistake early down the back straight, and slower ground would suit him better, Gavin Cromwell sounding lukewarm about even running him on a decent surface in the run-up to the meeting.
Race of the meeting
Probably the race of the meeting was the last Grade 1, however. Gordon Elliott had spent the month and a half since the Morgiana playing down his chances of beating State Man again, but he had a plan to play to his mare’s strengths over the inner track that was sharper than ideal.
King Of Kingsfield acted as pacemaker, and as a horse that has often looked a mile-and-six-furlong National Hunt type it suited him well, and both the strong gallop and the lead worked ideally for Brighterdaysahead.
Brighterdaysahead hurdled better and straighter than she had on her two previous starts this season, and sustained the strong gallop to the line, all of the six participants dipping below 98% in terms of finishing speed percentage per Course Track.
Leaving aside tiresome chat about where she will run at Cheltenham, the one minor doubt that remains for that meeting is the how she acts on the track.
The only time she has been beaten was in the Dawn Run, and that looked more to do with the lack of pace and how she was ridden to beat Jade De Grugy, but there is a small lingering doubt that Cheltenham may not be her ideal course.
THE form of Willie Mullins was a surprising talking point during the Christmas racing and the champion trainer did have a sub-par Festive period based on previous years.
Per Matt Tombs (@thespieler) on Twitter, Mullins had seven winners from 72 runners in the four days after Christmas in Ireland, whereas he had averaged 15.7 winners at the same tracks in the three previous years.
For context, Gordon Elliott was seven winners from 69 runners (previous three-year average nine winners), Henry de Bromhead six winners from 43 runners (previous three year average 3.7 winners) and Joseph O’Brien three winners from 15 runners (previous three year average 1.7 winners).
With small samples like this, it is probably best to treat it as variance until it isn’t, but some of the Mullins runners didn’t pass the eye test with their finishing efforts, and it was notable how poorly some of the horses having their second start of the season performed.
It is one thing for a horse to get beaten off a break, something like Gaelic Warrior entitled to need the run while shaping well in defeat, quite another for a horse that already had a recent outing to go backwards from it.
Up to the 29th, Mullins ran 29 horses in December that had a break of at least 100 days before their penultimate start, essentially the winter horses that were having their second start of the season, and as a group they were two winners from 29 runners with just four places, all but three of them running over Christmas and the winners being Galopin Des Champs and Impaire Et Passe.
Some were sent off big prices, but plenty weren’t, and while excuses can be made for the likes of Lossiemouth and Ballyburn, the sharp test of Kempton unsuitable for them, other Grade 1 runners like Dinoblue, Mirazur West, Mystical Power and especially State Man were plain disappointing.
There were other examples in lower class races like Johnny Blue and Argento Boy, horses that seemed sure to improve for their initial starts back, and this might be something to monitor in the early weeks of the new year. Mullins did go on to register a six-timer on January 1st.
FOG form – or to be accurate, mist form – was everywhere during the first two days of Leopardstown, and this, along with the camerawork not always helping, made reviewing the replays a challenge.
The run to two out, often a crucial part of the race here, was sometimes missing, and a little guesswork is needed to figure out what might have occurred.
Even so, there were a handful of good eye-catchers on these cards, not least from the Joseph O’Brien yard that had a fine Christmas. His Dont Tell Jack was tight down the rail in the opening maiden hurdle of the meeting and made a mistake, the rider seeming to lose an iron, and his jumping thereafter suffered.
He found himself a long way back in a race where the field was spread out but made up a lot of ground after leaving the back straight, his final half mile per Course Track sectionals not far behind the winner and runner-up despite finishing seventh. This run, and his previous effort, suggests further will suit.
Yet even faster over the final half mile than Dont Tell Jack was the ninth Come On The Lads (Gavin Cromwell), in fact only the winner Kopek Des Bordes was faster.
From the little that could be seen with the fog, he was right at the back of the field leaving the back straight, before finishing well and he looks a good handicap prospect.
In a competitive novice handicap hurdle on St. Stephen’s Day, the second Cloonainra (John McConnell) had a much more difficult trip than the winner.
She got squeezed out down the inner coming to the first and was forced back to near last. After that she moved wide down the back straight for a clear run but was caught out there in the final half of the race, doing well to come second in the circumstances. This was a fine effort off a break and on handicap debut.
Too sharp
In the same race, Duke Silver (Joseph O’Brien) was effectively last of the main bunch two out but has picked up most of the field to finish fifth, the two miles here looking too sharp and he can win again back up in trip.
The one that might be most capable of landing a big pot is Lark In The Mornin (Joseph O’Brien). The trainer said in a pre-Christmas stable tour that he picked up an injury in the Swinton Hurdle and that he was ‘just ready do start back here’ but he shaped with a lot of promise with a view to something like the two-mile handicap hurdle at Dublin Racing Festival or the County Hurdle.
Having been detached but travelling fine leaving the back straight, he made good late ground from there to finish seventh, faster than all bar the winner in the final half mile per Course Track.
With the four-year-old (now five-year-old) hurdlers having done so well this winter, he looks on a good mark.