Triumph Hurdle moves, Champion Chase shakers and the rest of the weekend

January ended and February began, this time a month on and the Festival will be on our doorstep! I can't wait! There is still plenty of build up to come, of course we have the many festival preview nights where pretty much every horse entered up at Prestbury Park will get a mention somewhere up and down the country. On the track this weekend we had a few pointers, probably most noticeably in the Triumph Hurdle, so lets start by looking at how that market shapes up after Sandown and Musselburgh over the past 2 days. From there we will check out the likes of Hidden Cyclone and Gitane Du Berlais who also impressed this weekend and finally look ahead to next weekend.

A huge flop for me came at Sandown Park where I really fancied Bristol Du Mai to serve it up to good handicapper Garde La Victoire and potential Supreme horse Jollyallen. The latter wouldn't have enjoyed the ground whereas we knew Bristol Du Mai would take to it after his Chepstow success so to see Bristol Du Mai the first of the trio beaten, well before the final fence, was a real let down and out go his Triumph Hurdle hopes really. I doubt we will even see him in the race with the owner's having hot favorite Peace and Co as well as Top Notch and Vercingetorix ahead of him in the market now. I've not seen any excuses for this run come out, perhaps the stiffer track found him out? If that's the case then Cheltenham is definitely off the agenda. 

One horse who was more successful in staking his claim for the Triumph hurdle was Nicky Henderson's Hargam, who won as he liked up in Scotland on Sunday. He didn't race anything like the opposition Bristol Du Mai did but he still won with his head in his chest and shortened into a general 7/1 chance. Good ground is important to this one but he should get that on the final day of Cheltenham and importantly we know he will act on the track. Mind you Peace and Co, the favorite in the market, is also proven round the Prestbury undulations...at least we are assured a right good showdown!

Hargam (left) is now a general 7/1 chance for the Triumph Hurdle

Incidentally Jollyallen, another AP ride, goes for the Supreme, and deservedly so. He will appreciate the likely better ground and goes to the Supreme with a fair chance, especially with his game attitude and experience of getting into a few good ding-dongs under his belt. Don't write him off as an e/w play, for all I expect him to come up short for win purposes. 

Also at Sandown Park on Saturday we had another demonstration of the huge strength in depth of the Willie Mullins stable as he sent over Gitane Du Berlais, by no means the number one novice chaser in the Mullins pecking order, to see off Irish Saint and Champagne West, a couple of Britain's best hopes in this division. Gitane Du Berlais holds entries in the Arkle, JLT and RSA, as well as a few handicaps, such is the strength in depth of the yard she comes from so really is no sort of ante-post proposition at the moment. However the fact that she can be sent over to take these Grade 1 races shows you just how much we will have to respect whatever Willie has for these races. You would think in Un De Sceaux, Vautour and Don Poli Willie could sweep these races up in a fairly short prices treble so it may be that this horse who has dispatched a couple of 'our' bigger hopes in the Novice Chase division is thrown into a handicap. Where does that leave the British Novices then!?!?!?

Gitane Du Berlais, not even Mullins 5th string novice chaser in reality, dispatches Irish Saint with ease

But Back over in Ireland on Sunday it was quite the opposite story as Willie saw defeat for one of his Champion Chase hopes, Twinlight, as Hidden Cyclone posted his best round of fencing for some time to take the Tied Cottage Chase. If Hidden Cyclone had any pretensions to the Champion Chase crown (as tipped up by Pricewise) he had to be taking this really receiving 8lbs from Twinlight, and win he did from the front in very nice fashion. 12/1 is his general price for Queen Mum glory now, although one suspects we will see more activity in this market next weekend (more on that later). However it was encouraging to see Hidden Cyclone jump nicely to take this Grade 2, he certainly deserves his place in a potentially very open Champion Chase. Whether his jumping holds up when he doesn't get to lead, which must be unlikely with Special Tiara in opposition, remains to be seen and I have my doubts.

A quick round up of some other action this weekend....

• November Handicap winner on the flat Open Eagle made his hurdling debut for Willie Mullins, however he was very disappointing and was a well beaten 8/13 favorite. He didn't quicken when required and Cheltenham must be off the agenda now.
• Some Plan was a nice winner from the front in the Scottish Supreme Novice trial, beating the highly fancied El Namoose from the John Ferguson yard. He is still an outsider for the actual Supreme in March and may prefer Aintree as a track but this was still a nice run.
• Dawalan continued to show the benefits of his summer breathing operation as he took the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle qualifier up in Scotland. He has won his last two now but has probably shown his hand in terms of his mark now though with Cheltenham in mind.
• Pain Au Chocolat heads to the Triumph for Alan King on the back of winning a joke of a race at Sandown Park. They were literally walking for about 20 seconds at the start of this race before going no sort of gallop for the first part of the race; hardly a good trial for the Triumph!

Looking ahead to next weekend and at Newbury we have the return of Sire De Grugy for the Gary Moore yard. I'll be watching with huge interest as a good reappearance could see the reigning Champion Chaser regain favoritism in the market, a flop and the market will look even more open than ever. The Betfair Hurdle also features on the card at the Berkshire Venue and it looks like being an interesting Saturday, lets hope it beats the weather!

Thanks for reading!

Alex