Gordon Elliott could send his Grade One Aintree festival heroine Mange Tout back to Liverpool this weekend.
Taken out of her intended comeback at Down Royal last week due to Elliott’s dissatisfaction with ground conditions there, the four-year-old filly is one of six entries left in the Grade Two William Hill Molyneaux Hurdle on Saturday.
It is part of a two-day fixture originally set to take place in Exeter and Wincanton that had to be refixed to Aintree due to the effect the dry summer had on ground conditions at the two West County tracks.
The irony is that watering is necessary at Aintree this week for two days of action worth about €570,000 in all.
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The prize money doesn’t appear to have attracted much interest from this side of the Irish Sea, but Elliott is also ready to take a look at Saturday’s other Grade Two, the Boodles Rising Stars Novice Chase, with Chanceawetmorning.
Mange Tout got the best of Selma De Vary in a memorable clash in the big juvenile hurdle at Aintree in April, a performance advertised by the runner-up’s subsequent winning form at Auteuil in France’s version of the Triumph Hurdle.
The Elliott filly could end up taking on a potential Champion Hurdle contender in Mydaddypaddy. Dan Skelton’s horse finished third in last season’s Supreme at Cheltenham.
Skelton predicts significant improvement in his charge. “Can he be Champion Hurdle material? Who knows, but we’ll give it the best shot we can. I hope he’ll be able to start off at Aintree at the weekend, but we’ll wait on the ground before deciding,” he said.
Another home hope is Alexei. “He definitely runs and it looks a lovely starting place,” said his trainer, Joe Tizzard. “He’s in real good form, he summered really well and, I’m a bit biased, but I think he looks like he’s improved. I couldn’t be happier with him.”
Closer to home, the burgeoning National Hunt campaign is set to take another forward step on Thursday with the reappearance of reigning two-mile champion chaser Il Etait Temps.
The diminutive grey was the middle leg of a Willie Mullins Triple Crown at last year’s Cheltenham Festival when landing the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Along with Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle and Gaelic Warrior in the Gold Cup, he also helped Paul Townend become the first jockey to win all three main festival features in a single week.
Il Etait Temps began last year’s campaign with an easy 18-length success in the Grade Two Clonmel Oil Chase and is on course to defend that title later this week.
He is one of nine entries left in the €70,000 Grade Two contest over two-and-a-half miles that Mullins has won seven times in the last eight years.
Tuesday’s domestic jumps action is at Fairyhouse, where Elliott runs two in a conditions hurdle, neither with Jack Kennedy aboard.
Instead, Elliott claims off the Gigginstown pair Generous Risk and Riskaway, leaving the champion jockey to ride Jessica Harrington’s Quinta Do Lago for the first time. The Punchestown festival winner got back to action with a recent spin on the flat, and Kennedy’s booking can only help his chance.
Meanwhile, a decision on whether the brilliant Blue Bolt will continue to race in 2027 or be retired to stud is likely to be made later this week by her Juddmonte ownership.
An otherwise faultless season for the Andrew Balding-trained filly ended in an anticlimax at the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday night when she never figured as a hot favourite in the Filly & Mare Turf. Before the race, she got uncharacteristically upset in the stalls and beat just one home.
“She’s all good after the weekend, apart from a couple of cuts and scrapes and scratches on her from messing around in the stalls,” said Juddmonte spokesman Barry Mahon.
“It was a disappointing effort. I’d say it was just the long season catching up with her. Colin (Keane) felt she was sluggish from the gate and sluggish the whole way through, so it was probably just one of them lacklustre end of season runs,” he added.
Juddmonte recently retired their other top mare, Kalpana, to the paddocks and could do the same with Blue Bolt.
“She owes us nothing and she’s been a star all year to be fair. We’re delighted that she’s back safe and sound and I think the owners are going to let us know this week what they want to do, whether she’ll stay in training or retire,” said Mahon.
