Donn McClean Reflects On A Busy Festive Period Of Jumps Racing

When the dust settles, you take stock.

There was so much racing over Christmas, so much top-class racing, with many of the best National Hunt horses in Britain and Ireland in action.

There were questions going into the week, and answers were provided to many of those questions, and there were some questions to which answers weren’t really provided.

And then there were new questions. 

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Galopin Des Champs provided one of the answers – and one of the performances of the season so far – when he won the Savills Chase at Leopardstown by 23 lengths under Paul Townend. Strangely, if this year had been last year, he probably wouldn’t have run in the race.

Actually, Galopin Des Champs didn’t run in the Savills Chase last year.

Willie Mullins’ horse started off last season by winning the John Durkan Chase at Punchestown. He skipped Christmas, went to Leopardstown in February to win the Irish Gold Cup, then went to Cheltenham in March and, famously, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The John Durkan Chase was run on December 19 last season, a week later than scheduled, as dictated by the weather.

But even if it had been run in its correct slot last season, it would still probably have been too close to Christmas to allow him take his chance in the Savills Chase.

Willie Mullins is usually not inclined to allow his John Durkan horses to run in the Savills Chase.

Or he wasn’t. Until this year. The tweaking of the programme this season to create a two-day meeting at Navan in mid-November – the amalgamation of Fortria Chase day and Troytown Chase day – and a two-day meeting at Punchestown in late November – when Morgiana Hurdle day and John Durkan Chase day came together – has created sufficient breathing space.

There was a four-and-a-half-week gap between John Durkan Chase day this year and the Christmas festivals, and that was a long enough gap. 

It makes sense. It was a good tweak to the racing programme. You want to see the best horses run in the best races. The John Durkan Chase and the Savills Chase are both Grade 1 contests.

They are run over different distances, the former over two and a half miles, the latter over three, but the same horses are attracted to each race. It makes sense that a horse can run in both, that participation in one does not effectively preclude participation in the other.

The winners were the racegoers. Savills Chase day at Leopardstown was greatly enhanced by Galopin Des Champs’ presence.

We didn’t get the Fastorslow question answered, mind you. Martin Brassil’s horse was a late scratching from the Savills Chase because of the ground. 

We still don’t know if Galopin Des Champs would have exacted his revenge, having finished behind Fastorslow in the Punchestown Gold Cup in April and again in the John Durkan Chase in November.

Given the magnitude of the performance that Willie Mullins’ horse put in the Savills, it is probable that it would have required a career-best from Fastorslow if he was to confirm placings with him, but we don’t know that he wouldn’t have done so.

The next time they meet, maybe at Leopardstown in February, maybe at Cheltenham in March, that will be box office.

State Man was superb again in winning the Matheson Hurdle, and he remains the chief threat to Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle picture.

Willie Mullins’ horse faced a legitimate challenge from his stable companion Impaire Et Passe, but he saw off the pretender with a little bit to spare.

He is a real star, State Man. Perhaps still an under-rated star. He was beaten by Constitution Hill in last year’s Champion Hurdle, and he fell in his maiden hurdle on his first run for Willie Mullins but, other than that, he hasn’t been beaten since his arrival in Closutton.

He has now won seven Grade 1 races. He’s just unlucky to be born into the same era as Constitution Hill, who won the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton with minimum fuss.

Can he beat him? Ever? That’s another question. It’s a big ask, Constitution Hill is so good.

Paul Townend felt that State Man just wasn’t at his best at Cheltenham last year. He has to have another crack because, if he won’t, who will? As things stand at present, if Constitution Hill is to be beaten, then State Man is the horse who is most likely to beat him.

Irish Point threw his hat into the staying hurdlers’ ring when he won the Jack de Bromhead Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown. Gordon Elliott’s horse had never been beyond two and a half miles before in his life, we weren’t certain that he would get the trip.

A dual Grade 1 winner over the intermediate trip, he got the trip all right. He probably improved for it. He was seriously impressive in winning, Jack Kennedy didn’t even have to get really serious with him. He is exciting.

The complication, with an eye on the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, is that trainer Gordon Elliott and owners Robcour also have Teahupoo, game Hatton’s Grace Hurdle winner, third in last year’s Stayers’ Hurdle, and on track in his bid to go two better this term.

And, just to add to the complexity, the owner’s Bob Olinger ran out an impressive winner of the Relkeel Hurdle over two and a half miles at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day under Rachael Blackmore.

All things being equal, though, the Henry de Bromhead-trained gelding will probably be targeted at the Aintree Hurdle in April. Plans for him can start there and work back, and they may not take in the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

The novice chasers were busy too over Christmas. Marine Nationale was brilliant in winning his beginners’ chase at Leopardstown.

All that trainer and owner Barry Connell told us about his schooling over fences, about how good he was, about how athletic he was, was in evidence in the race.

His jumping was superb for a chasing debutant, he and Michael O’Sullivan relaxed easily into a racing and jumping rhythm that saw them coast to victory, and last year’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner is fully deserving of his position in the Arkle market, clear at the top.

Facile Vega couldn’t find the same rhythm in the Grade 1 Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown, and could only finish fourth of four, so he will have to bounce back next time.

By contrast, his stable companion Gaelic Warrior was very good in winning the Faugheen Chase at Limerick.

Words exchanged between the winning rider Patrick Mullins and the rider of runner-up Il Etait Temps, Danny Mullins, the winning rider’s first cousin, generated as many column inches as Gaelic Warrior’s performance, but that shouldn’t detract from the quality of it.

Betting sites reacted by cutting Gaelic Warrior’s odds for the Turners Chase at Cheltenham to even money and a shade of odds-on in places and no better than 5/4.

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Willie Mullins’ horse is a serious talent, no question, but that is very short for a horse about whom there remains a doubt at a left-handed track. He jumps to his right, that trait was again in evidence at Limerick.

He has run at Cheltenham twice, and he has been beaten there twice. He hasn’t yet gone left-handed over fences, but there is a chance that his tendency to go to his left may be more pronounced over fences than over hurdles. He still has to answer that question.

Cheltenham Festival targets for the top novice chasers may be interdependent. There is the possibility that Facile Vega could step up in trip and join his stable companion Gaelic Warrior in the Turners.

If that happened, would Fact To File – impressive winner of the two-mile-five-and-a-half-furlong beginners’ chase at Leopardstown over Christmas – step up in trip for the Brown Advisory Chase?

And would that have implications for Indiana Dream – also, like Fact To File, trained by Willie Mullins and owned by JP McManus – impressive winner of a two-and-a-half-mile beginners’ chase at Navan in early December.

And where would it leave Corbetts Cross, also owned by JP McManus but trained by Emmet Mullins?

Corbetts Cross kept on to finish second to Grangeclare West in the Grade 1 Neville Hotels Novice Chase at Leopardstown, and it looks like the Brown Advisory Chase is a good target for the impressive winner all right.

Corbetts Cross was right there at the final flight in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle at Cheltenham last March when he ran out, but we don’t know if he would have got the better of Stay Away Fay on the run-in if he had jumped the obstacle.

He is a pacey and classy individual, he won a hot beginners’ chase over two miles and five and a half furlongs at Fairyhouse in early December, when he had Monty’s Star and Three Card Brag – more of whom anon – behind him, and it may be that he will be more effective over intermediate trips than over staying trips.

Blood Destiny was one of the top juvenile hurdlers last season, and he was impressive in winning his beginners’ chase over two and a half miles at Naas in mid-December.

Two and a half miles looks like a good trip for him, he kept on well to beat a talented rival in Heart Wood, but he also has the option to drop down to two miles.

Found A Fifty appears to be equally versatile. A game second to I Am Maximus over two and a half miles in the Grade 1 Drinmore Chase at Fairyhouse in early December, Gordon Elliott’s horse dropped down to two miles and a furlong at Leopardstown and landed the Grade 1 Racing Post Novice Chase, the race in which he had Facile Vega back in fourth.

Monty’s Star jumped superbly and kept on well for Rachael Blackmore to get the better of old rival Three Card Brag in a three-mile beginners’ chase at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve, and Henry de Bromhead’s horse could be a contender for either the Brown Advisory Chase or the National Hunt Chase.

Three Card Brag didn’t lose much in defeat, he kept on well to finish a clear second to a talented and progressive rival. Could he do better over a longer trip, and maybe with a stronger pace that he didn’t have to set himself? 

That’s just another one of the questions. Answers forthcoming.

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