Following last weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival drama, it’s a case of “after the lord mayor’s show” in Ireland, with much of the focus instead on the last major cross-channel trials for Cheltenham.
An impressive victory for Haiti Couleurs in Newbury’s Denman Chase in particular, would cement the Welsh star as a major Gold Cup player and ultra-testing ground should be right up his street.
Conditions might be more of a problem for the prime Arkle hope Lulamba when the novice takes on senior opposition in the Game Spirit Chase. It’s a route Nicky Henderson has used before with subsequent superstar performers Sprinter Sacre and Altior.
Such is the fixation with Cheltenham in just over four weeks’ time that Newbury’s hugely valuable William Hill Hurdle doesn’t have a single Irish raider. It’s 21 years since Essex was the last Irish-trained winner of a race still widely known as the “Schweppes”.
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Only Emmet Mullins has been tempted by Warwick’s black-type action, and he sends the Cork winner Good Girl Kathleen there for a Grade Two mares’ hurdle. Donagh Meyler teams up with the novice who landed a Grade Three event at Cork in December and drops in trip for this. The card is subject to a 7.30am inspection.
Just as last weekend, the weather fates could play a hand at home too, with Sunday’s Navan programme dependent on the track passing a 3pm Saturday afternoon inspection. The course was unfit for racing on Friday due to waterlogging, although officials are pinning their hopes on a favourable weather outlook.
“From later today we do have a more favourable forecast and it is to be mainly dry and breezy tomorrow into Sunday,” the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s clerk of the course Brian Hamilton said. “Due to the current conditions and the favourable forecast we will have an inspection at 3pm on Saturday to assess the situation and we’ll give a further update then.”
Navan’s feature is the Grade Two €45,000 Boyne Hurdle, where Gordon Elliott has half the six-strong entry, including last year’s winner Maxxum.
No such uncertainty surrounds Saturday’s Naas action, although ground conditions are sure to be ultra-testing.
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A year ago, Dinoblue used the BBA Opera Hat as a prep for finally scoring at Cheltenham in the mares’ chase. She is currently a general 7-4 favourite to repeat that victory next month but a heady 159 rating ensures she’ll be much shorter than that in this contest. Her owner, JP McManus, has two other hopes in the six-runner Listed contest.
Three of the five runners in the Naas bumper are newcomers, including Gigginstown’s €175,000 purchase Todo Bien. The sole filly, Coole Cafe, disappointed on her last bumper start but before that had scored well over hurdles. The Gavin Cromwell team are in better form now and it looks significant that’s he’s giving Coole Cafe another try on the level.
Classic-winning trainer and jockey Donnacha O’Brien will have an intercontinental focus on Saturday.
His first-ever National Hunt winner, Kilmeaden, will try to follow up in the Naas opener over flights and, three hours later, O’Brien’s Comanche Brave (Ryan Moore) will line up in the inaugural Abu Dhabi Gold Cup. The $1 million mile contest is the most valuable race ever run in the emirate.
The lucrative pot has attracted another Irish hopeful in Johnny Murtagh’s Chicago Critic. Last year’s Amethyst Stakes winner will be ridden by Ben Coen.
Comanche Brave hasn’t appeared since finishing third to Alakazi at the Irish Champions Festival in September. He was also third in Royal Ascot’s Jersey Stakes. He has drawn in stall 12 in the 16-runner contest that also includes Colin Keane’s mount Jonquil.
“It’s great to be here, the horse had a good season last year, he handles fast ground and we were looking for opportunities to travel with him in his four-year-old year,” O’Brien told media in the Middle East.
“There’s fantastic prize money here in Abu Dhabi and the logistics, with stabling at Meydan, have made it easy for us. Ryan Moore told me it is a very fair track with a beautiful surface so I’m looking forward to Saturday,” he added.
The prize money Kilmeaden is running for is tiny in comparison but it’s still an intriguing little contest in its own right.
The filly Highland Crystal has to concede weight to geldings for winning a Listed contest at Newbury in November. Genealogy ran well at Ascot last time. Kilmeaden and Saratoga renew rivalry after clashing on the flat at Listowel last September. Saratoga won on that occasion but was in receipt of 8lbs.
There’s little doubt though that the most apt winner of the weekend will surely be if Apples Jane can land the race named after her illustrious mother when she lines up in Sunday’s Ryan’s Apple’s Jade Mares’ Novice Hurdle.
Apple’s Jade won 11 Grade One races during a stellar racing career before being sold by Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary for €530,000 to Noel and Valerie Moran’s Bective Stud in 2020.
Her first foal needed eight goes to win a race but eventually scored in a hurdle at Ayr last week and landing a Listed contest like this would make her a valuable proposition in her own right. The course and distance winner Zanoosh could prove a better prospect on the likely going.
Jack Kennedy is on Staffordshire Knot in the Boyne Hurdle but Danny Gilligan is Maxxum’s usual rider and the horse ran a fine race when third to Teahupoo over Christmas.
