The Sire is Back!

Well this weekend was fairly quiet on the Cheltenham front.....no no no sorry wait, that was what I was planning to write last weekend when looking ahead to this weekend. However with the news early last week that the reigning Champion Chaser Sire De Grugy was to line up at Chepstown any previous blog intros had to be scrapped as whatever Gary Moore's stable star did on Saturday was sure to have big ramifications on the Champion Chase market. So as this was the biggest news of the weekend lets start with that

Sire Back with a Bang!

Sire De Grugy, make no bones about it, had been awful in the jumping department at Newbury last time out and Gary Moore took the bold decision to send the apple of his eye to Chepstow for a handicap chase, where he would be giving lumps of weight to the opposition. The smart Far West carried 9-13, less 5lbs for his riders claim as well, Grey Gold had 10-6, Mister Grez 9-7, less his riders 7lbs claim yet SDG was lumbering a whopping 11-12 round on soft going, make no mistake it was going to take something smart from SDG to win this. And fortunately for fans of this horse that is exactly what we got!

Sire De Grugy put in a spectacular leap at the last (Getty Images)

Sire De Grugy had the crowd gasping at his jumping, but this time it was in awe rather than shock, as he put in a completely different round than we saw at Newbury. His jumping was beautiful, especially spectacular at the final 2 fences where he soared over them in the style we became accustomed too last season. He absolutely blitzed the opposition and won easily in the end by a comfortable 7 lengths.

This was much more like it and really injected some current season star dust into the Champion Chase market where he was trimmed into around 7-2 from the 5-1 mark, 2nd favourite in the market behind Sprinter Sacre. However you could argue that based on what we have seen this season SDG should be favourite, ahead of Sprinter in the market, as he was far more impressive here than SS was when seen at Ascot. Granted at their best you would fancy Sprinter to come out on top but from what we have seen now SDG will certainly be near his best in March, but will Sprinter??? I don't think that the proximity of the Champion Chase to this race should be used as a negative, SDG seems to thrive on racing so don't let that put you off if you were impressed here. All in all he looks, to me, the most likely winner of the Champion Chase at this point in the season but let me know what you think. Were you as impressed with this performance as me??


Beltor Belts his rivals at Kempton!

Sorry for the awful header for this but lets gloss over it and talk Triumph Hurdle horses. Beltor looks a serious tool based on what we saw in the Adonis hurdle at Kempton on Saturday. Trained by Robert Stephens, hardly a huge name in his 2nd season in training, and formerly in the care of Sir Mark Prescott Beltor was a hugely impressive winner on the Kempton card earling quotes of 12-1 for the Triumph Hurdle. He cruised into contention coming up the home straight and once sent to the front by Tom O'Brien there was no other winner. He dispatched smart horses like Bivouac and All Yours with ease and if trained by Nicholls, Henderson or Mullins you fancy he would be a good deal shorter in the Triumph market.

Beltor on his was to a hugely impressive victory in the Adonis Hurdle (Edward Whitaker)

Zarkandar won the Adonis on his way to glory in the Triumph and based on what we saw on Saturday Beltor has a really good chance of replicating that horse. He obviously has a good deal of speed, a faster pace will only help him settle and afterwards Stephen's quotes would indicate that it was all roads to Cheltenham now. For me this was one of the most impressive performances of the season from a Triumph hurdle bound horse, he beat some really solid opposition and if you got some of the 16/1 around immediately after this victory you have a very nice bet on your hands!



Elsewhere this weekend

Lets just have a brief recap of the other performances of note this weekend

• Irish Saint dispatched Melodic Rendezvous with ease on his way to the Pendil Novices Chase, but with stablemate Ptit Zig also entered in the JLT I think Nicholls may wait for Aintree with Irish Saint. He was really impressive here, jumping was lovely and MR couldn't live with the pace he set from the front, making an awful mistake 5 out and finishing well beaten in the end. MR just doesn't seem to have taken to fences and I would be shocked if he still went to Cheltenham this year.
• Days of Heaven was another who could be Aintree bound after taking the Dovecote in impressive fashion. Cheltenham is off the agenda as this horse is easily wound up but when he properly learns to settle, which he has been getting better at recently, he will be a serious horse and Chasing is on the agenda for next season.
• Rocky Creek did his Grand National claims no harm at all as he took the big feature chase at Kempton. This was the performance we were waiting for from Rocky Creek and the breathing operation he has reportedly undergone over the summer looks to have worked wonders. 
• Milborough won the Eider Chase up at Newcastle and now looks to be bound for the Scottish National after showing endless stamina over this testing trip and track. Summery Justice looked to be coming to claim him at the end but under his good claiming jockey Graham Watters he held on, finding a 2nd wind and winning cosily enough.

That's all from me this week, the Cheltenham study really does start here and I'll be posting a series of race previews ahead of the start of the Festival. This Tuesday marks the fortnight to go banner, it really is coming at us quickly...I can't wait!

Thanks for reading

Alex