YOU KNOW THAT the National Hunt season is getting rolling when you start to read about Clan Des Obeaux and Road To Respect and Bristol De Mai and Envoi Allen and Delta Work and Samcro, and about advanced plans for their respective seasonal debuts.
File photo of Shane McCann on Samcro, at Gordon Elliot's Yard in Longwood. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
That’s the thing about National Hunt racing: the protagonists return. You know that they will, and you wait for them patiently. You get to know them through the years, you become familiar with the personalities. It’s like seeing old friends again after a few months’ absence.
From a betting perspective, you get to develop an opinion on the conditions that suit a horse. Soft ground or good ground, a galloping track or a sharp track, right-handed or left-handed, undulating or flat. Every run generates a piece of evidence so that you can accumulate a bank information of that lends a sense of robustness to an opinion. Best in the autumn or best in the spring; Best fresh or best after a run or two.
It has been better on the flat in recent years than it used to be. The top flat racehorses generally race more often than used to be the case. All things being equal, Enable is set to stay in training next year as a six-year-old, which was obviously great news when it broke. Magical, the just-retired Magical, raced six times as a two-year-old and six times as a three-year-old and nine times this year as a four-year-old. The racehorses are the stars of the racing show, and the more often they race, the more readily the racing public can identify with them.
But commercial realities dictate that the best flat horses’ racing careers will still generally be more fleeting than the best National Hunt horses’. Masar only raced two more times after he won the Epsom Derby. Australia and Harzand both won the Irish Derby after they had won the Epsom Derby, then both raced just two more times each. Neither raced as four-year-olds. Actually, none of the last five Derby winners raced on as four-year-olds.
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The stars of flat racing usually leave you wanting more. Sea The Stars was never going to race on beyond his three-year-old season. The heights that John Oxx’s horse hit, the following that he garnered, he did it all in two racing seasons. There was a momentum behind Sea The Stars by the end of the 2009 season, when he won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Think how far beyond the racing pages he could have gone if he had raced on for another season or two.
Frankel raced on as a four-year-old, and the Sir Henry Cecil-trained colt went stratospheric in the racing public’s consciousness. Ridden by Tom Queally in all 14 races, 14 victories, it was great that Khalid Abdullah’s horse did race at four but, while it was never seriously entertained as a realistic possibility, it would obviously have been fantastic if he had raced again at five, at six.
Contrast that with the stars of the jumping game. Desert Orchid raced for eight seasons. He raced until he was 12, and he won the Irish Grand National and the King George in 1990 as an 11-year-old. Kauto Star also raced until he was 12, Paul Nicholls’ horse bagging a final King George in 2011 at the age of 11 under Ruby Walsh, to go with his other four King Georges and two Gold Cups and two Tingle Creek Chases.
And Tiger Roll. The modern day pin-up. The Gigginstown House horse has raced 35 times now and, remarkably, when he won the Grand National again under Davy Russell last April, on his 35th run, he probably put up the best performance of his career.
Tiger Roll. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
His path back to Aintree this season, in search of a Red Rum-emulating third Grand National, will be closely monitored. Every step that Gordon Elliott’s horse takes will be news, and will take him even more deeply into the public’s consciousness.
To put it into context, in last season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, we had the horse who won the 2018 Gold Cup and the 2016 Welsh National and the 2016 Hennessy Gold Cup, as well as the 2018 King George winner, the 2018 Welsh National winner, the 2017 and 2018 Betfair Chase winner, and the 2018 RSA Chase and 2017 Pertemps Final winner. Add the 2019 Irish Gold Cup and 2018 Punchestown Gold Cup winner, the 2019 Thyestes Chase winner, the 2018 Savills Chase winner, the 2019 (other) Savills Chase winner, the 2018 Gold Cup runner-up and 2017 King George and 2017 RSA Chase winner, the 2018 Gold Cup third and 2018 Grand National fourth, the 2017 Neville Hotels Chase winner, and the 2016 King George and 2016 Stayers’ Hurdle and 2015 Long Walk Hurdle winner.
That would be like a King George or an Irish Champion Stakes or a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in which you had Enable, Waldgeist, Sea Of Class, Found, Golden Horn, Minding, Poet’s Word, Magical, Cracksman, Crystal Ocean, Highland Reel, Roaring Lion and Postponed. Or something like that.
This year’s National Hunt season has been building momentum already, and it stepped up a gear at the weekend. Battleoverdoyen won the beginners’ chase at Galway that has been the springboard for many an exciting staying novice chaser in the recent past, the one that has been won in recent years by, among others, Jessies Dream and China Rock and Last Instalment and Don Cossack and Presenting Percy.
Mount Pelier jumped well in winning on his chasing bow at Galway on Saturday, while Dancing On My Own was impressive in making all to win his maiden hurdle at Wexford on Sunday. Forest Bihan out-speeded Kalashnikov and Frodon to land the Monet’s Garden Chase at Aintree on Sunday, and Champagne Classic made it two wins from two runs this season already when he won nicely at Wexford on Monday. And they were back racing at Cheltenham over the weekend, the first meeting of the season there, where Saint Calvados and Al Dancer and Tobefair and Slate House all impressed.
It all steps up another notch this weekend. Samcro could make his chasing debut at Down Royal on Friday, while Road To Respect and Delta Work and Clan Des Obeaux all hold entries in the Ladbrokes Champion Chase there on Saturday, and La Bague Au Roi and Definitly Red and Aso and Black Corton and Elegant Escape could all line up in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby on Saturday.
Then we’re into the Fortria Chase and the BetVictor Gold Cup and the Morgiana Hurdle and the Coral Hurdle and the Betfair Chase. High class National Hunt racing every weekend. Then onto the Troytown Chase and the Ladbrokes Trophy and the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle and the Tingle Creek Chase and the John Durkan Chase and the Hilly Way Chase, as the fledgling National Hunt season takes flight.
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Donn McClean: Big names return as National Hunt season takes flight
YOU KNOW THAT the National Hunt season is getting rolling when you start to read about Clan Des Obeaux and Road To Respect and Bristol De Mai and Envoi Allen and Delta Work and Samcro, and about advanced plans for their respective seasonal debuts.
That’s the thing about National Hunt racing: the protagonists return. You know that they will, and you wait for them patiently. You get to know them through the years, you become familiar with the personalities. It’s like seeing old friends again after a few months’ absence.
From a betting perspective, you get to develop an opinion on the conditions that suit a horse. Soft ground or good ground, a galloping track or a sharp track, right-handed or left-handed, undulating or flat. Every run generates a piece of evidence so that you can accumulate a bank information of that lends a sense of robustness to an opinion. Best in the autumn or best in the spring; Best fresh or best after a run or two.
It has been better on the flat in recent years than it used to be. The top flat racehorses generally race more often than used to be the case. All things being equal, Enable is set to stay in training next year as a six-year-old, which was obviously great news when it broke. Magical, the just-retired Magical, raced six times as a two-year-old and six times as a three-year-old and nine times this year as a four-year-old. The racehorses are the stars of the racing show, and the more often they race, the more readily the racing public can identify with them.
But commercial realities dictate that the best flat horses’ racing careers will still generally be more fleeting than the best National Hunt horses’. Masar only raced two more times after he won the Epsom Derby. Australia and Harzand both won the Irish Derby after they had won the Epsom Derby, then both raced just two more times each. Neither raced as four-year-olds. Actually, none of the last five Derby winners raced on as four-year-olds.
The stars of flat racing usually leave you wanting more. Sea The Stars was never going to race on beyond his three-year-old season. The heights that John Oxx’s horse hit, the following that he garnered, he did it all in two racing seasons. There was a momentum behind Sea The Stars by the end of the 2009 season, when he won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Think how far beyond the racing pages he could have gone if he had raced on for another season or two.
Frankel raced on as a four-year-old, and the Sir Henry Cecil-trained colt went stratospheric in the racing public’s consciousness. Ridden by Tom Queally in all 14 races, 14 victories, it was great that Khalid Abdullah’s horse did race at four but, while it was never seriously entertained as a realistic possibility, it would obviously have been fantastic if he had raced again at five, at six.
Contrast that with the stars of the jumping game. Desert Orchid raced for eight seasons. He raced until he was 12, and he won the Irish Grand National and the King George in 1990 as an 11-year-old. Kauto Star also raced until he was 12, Paul Nicholls’ horse bagging a final King George in 2011 at the age of 11 under Ruby Walsh, to go with his other four King Georges and two Gold Cups and two Tingle Creek Chases.
And Tiger Roll. The modern day pin-up. The Gigginstown House horse has raced 35 times now and, remarkably, when he won the Grand National again under Davy Russell last April, on his 35th run, he probably put up the best performance of his career.
His path back to Aintree this season, in search of a Red Rum-emulating third Grand National, will be closely monitored. Every step that Gordon Elliott’s horse takes will be news, and will take him even more deeply into the public’s consciousness.
To put it into context, in last season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, we had the horse who won the 2018 Gold Cup and the 2016 Welsh National and the 2016 Hennessy Gold Cup, as well as the 2018 King George winner, the 2018 Welsh National winner, the 2017 and 2018 Betfair Chase winner, and the 2018 RSA Chase and 2017 Pertemps Final winner. Add the 2019 Irish Gold Cup and 2018 Punchestown Gold Cup winner, the 2019 Thyestes Chase winner, the 2018 Savills Chase winner, the 2019 (other) Savills Chase winner, the 2018 Gold Cup runner-up and 2017 King George and 2017 RSA Chase winner, the 2018 Gold Cup third and 2018 Grand National fourth, the 2017 Neville Hotels Chase winner, and the 2016 King George and 2016 Stayers’ Hurdle and 2015 Long Walk Hurdle winner.
That would be like a King George or an Irish Champion Stakes or a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in which you had Enable, Waldgeist, Sea Of Class, Found, Golden Horn, Minding, Poet’s Word, Magical, Cracksman, Crystal Ocean, Highland Reel, Roaring Lion and Postponed. Or something like that.
This year’s National Hunt season has been building momentum already, and it stepped up a gear at the weekend. Battleoverdoyen won the beginners’ chase at Galway that has been the springboard for many an exciting staying novice chaser in the recent past, the one that has been won in recent years by, among others, Jessies Dream and China Rock and Last Instalment and Don Cossack and Presenting Percy.
Mount Pelier jumped well in winning on his chasing bow at Galway on Saturday, while Dancing On My Own was impressive in making all to win his maiden hurdle at Wexford on Sunday. Forest Bihan out-speeded Kalashnikov and Frodon to land the Monet’s Garden Chase at Aintree on Sunday, and Champagne Classic made it two wins from two runs this season already when he won nicely at Wexford on Monday. And they were back racing at Cheltenham over the weekend, the first meeting of the season there, where Saint Calvados and Al Dancer and Tobefair and Slate House all impressed.
It all steps up another notch this weekend. Samcro could make his chasing debut at Down Royal on Friday, while Road To Respect and Delta Work and Clan Des Obeaux all hold entries in the Ladbrokes Champion Chase there on Saturday, and La Bague Au Roi and Definitly Red and Aso and Black Corton and Elegant Escape could all line up in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby on Saturday.
Then we’re into the Fortria Chase and the BetVictor Gold Cup and the Morgiana Hurdle and the Coral Hurdle and the Betfair Chase. High class National Hunt racing every weekend. Then onto the Troytown Chase and the Ladbrokes Trophy and the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle and the Tingle Creek Chase and the John Durkan Chase and the Hilly Way Chase, as the fledgling National Hunt season takes flight.
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column DONN MCCLEAN The42 Racing