Cheltenham is back! The weekend just gone saw the first fixture of the 2014-15 National Hunt season stages at Cheltenham and we saw some cracking action with a few old favourites back on our screens. All the big yards were represented, however unfortunately Champion jockey AP McCoy was not, forced to sit out the weekend after a crashing fall a week or so ago.
Let's start with the first race on Friday, where no doubt Present View ran a cracking trial for the Paddy Power Chase back at this course in November. Despite not really respecting his hurdles (he is a far better chaser anyway) and losing a shoe he only went down a head in the finish. We can also definitely expect him to come on for the run and he will be a major player in the November feature race. Losing Blaklion before the start was annoying, I thought he would run a huge race as I was really impressed with him at Perth when the Twiston Davis tram were not really firing but there will be other days for this one. I'm not too sure what the official reason was for the withdrawal but something occurred down the start and he didn't jump off with the rest of them.
Court Minstrel continues to impress over fences, readily winning the 2 mile Novices chase, a task made easier by the fall of the interesting Un Ace. I believe Aiden Coleman was really keen on the chances of Un Ace at the Festival last year so I was interested to see how he would take to the larger obstacles and I'll be looking to see where Kim Bailey turns this one out next providing that fall hasn't left it's mark. We won't be seeing Court Minstrel for a while with Evan Williams keen to avoid the deep winter ground, however when he comes back in spring it will be fascinating to see how his jumping holds up when really put under pressure. Trainer Williams had held concerns over Court Minstrel's jumping given the way he took his hurdles but to date CM has jumped really well, albeit when willing rather easily.
Unfortunately the fancied mare Highland Retreat was a disappointment in the 3m 1/2f Novices Chase on the card which went to The Romford Pele of the Rebecca Curtis yard. He did well to see of Lamb or Cod, whose poor jump at the last was a factor in his defeat as it really knocked him off stride, but the Barry Geraghty ridden horse still ended up winning well.
The easiest winner of the day was probably seen in the Maiden Hurdle, where John Ferguson's Commissioned absolutely hosed up, beating the highly touted (but disappointing on hurdles debut) Ballebolley. Barry Geraghty won't have too many easier winners (until we see the return of Sprinter Sacre....) this season but it was good to see Ballybolley at least improve on his debut. We will certainly be hearing a lot more of the winner and possibly the 2nd horse this season.
Onto Saturday where the most fascinating race on paper for me before the action kicked off was the 3.10, a 2 mile Hurdle where we saw the reappearance of last year's Triumph Hurdle winner Tiger Roll, unlucky 4th in that race Calipto and the Swinton Hurdle winner Ballyglasheen clashing. Tiger Roll had to give weight to the field with his previous Grade 1 win, definitely no easy task. However Gordon Elliott's charge battled manfully, perhaps he wanted it more than Calipto, and came away with victory by half a length. Given the weight he was giving away this was a hugely impressive re-appearance from Tiger Roll, however Elliott has his stable in far better form than Paul Nicholls at the moment and that could be worth bearing in mind. I don't want to take anything away from the winner though and his Cheltenham record is looking more than a little formidable now. Maybe not this year but a potential Champion Hurdler of the future?
I can't believe that John's Spirit managed to win the Handicap Chase at 2.35 for the 2nd year in a row! I thought he was weighted out of it, but I can never get a handle on the Jonjo horses; they win when I don't think they can and lose when I back them! Persian Snow and the winner finished a good distance ahead of the rest of the pack and surely both will come back here in November where they could reoppose in the Paddy Power Gold Cup which John's Spirit won last year. This was the 2nd half of a double for O'Neil after In the Rough won the opener on the card, carrying on his good form from the summer. I often wonder if the summer form will stand up when the big boys come out to play but In The Rough has now won four on the bounce so has definitely earned his keep for the yard! However this was another winner missed by McCoy, for whom this recent absence has been very costly in terms of winners missed as he targets 300 for the season. By the time he comes back he could well have seen 20 horses he would have been riding go on to win; how costly will that be at the end of the season when looking at his final haul?
I was really pleased to see Ulzana's Raid win for Alan King in the 4.25. I had noticed that a horse he had previously beaten had gone on to improve a stone in the handicap since and under Wayne Hutchinson he has gone on to get the hat-trick up here. Carrying top weight and beating a field as impressively as he did here makes me think that there could still be wins to come for this horse when he steps up into graded company, perhaps even over fences in time.
Splash of Ginge was another Twister horse to bounce back from a poor run at Perth earlier this season, showing how important stable form can actually be, as he beat his previous conqueror Ainsi Fideles by a good distance in the penultimate race on the card. Finally we saw an impressive winner of a flat race in the closing race on the card as Moon Racer absolutely bolted up by 12 lengths and could have won by 20. Favourite backers never had a moments doubt and anyone chasing the day's losses would certainly have been pleased if they had got on this one.
I must touch on the flat briefly though as it was amazing to see Noble Mission win the Champion's Stakes at Ascot on British Champions Day, a day that Sir Henry Cecil worked so hard to create and make a success of. Sir Henry had the great Frankel to help him get a winner on the day and it was marvellous and very emotional to see his Widow Lady Cecil take the big race on the card with Noble Mission. I'm sure there will be a few raised glasses at Warren Place tonight and well deserved too.
Many thanks for reading and I'll be back next week as the National Hunt season begins to take over from it's Flat counterpart. British Champions Day really marks the end of the Flat season for me, even though we have Racing Post Trophy day still to come the focus is definitely on the action over obstacles now. If you are reading this on Saturday evening/Sunday morning we even had the reappearance of the top hurdler The New One at Kempton on Sunday to look forward too, even at huge odds on it will still be great to see the Twiston-Davis stable star back out.
Good luck!
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