Collins eyes more glory after Jazzy Matty Festival triumph

Jazzy Matty was the horse that wanted from the Caldwell dispersal sale in February last year. 

There was something about the Doctor Dino gelding, the ability that he showed in his juvenile hurdling year for Gordon Elliott, the attitude.  And a half-brother to Delta Work.  He thought that he could make up into a nice chaser.

He was the only horse that he bid on at the sale, and he got him for €50,000.

“We were thinking that he would go for around about that,” says Cian now.  “I’m not sure how much more we had in us, but we were delighted to get him for that.”

Jazzy Matty made his chasing debut in a beginners’ chase at Wexford in July and in the fog.  You couldn't see much of the far side of the track at Wexford that day but, when they went into the fog in the back straight, Jazzy Matty was travelling well for Jordan Gainford and, when they came out of it, he wasn’t there.

“It’s down as a fall at the third last fence,” says Cian, “But, actually, he was brought down.  Jordan said that he was travelling really well at the time.  He could have won.  We just put a line through it, it was just one of those things.”

Unperturbed, he took Jazzy Matty back to Wexford two weeks later for another beginners’ chase, and he confounded market expectations by winning nicely.

From Tralee in County Kerry, Cian Collins grew up close to Tom Cooper, and he started going in to help out in the trainer’s yard when he was a young fellow.  Cian’s dad was a member of the syndicate that owned Total Enjoyment, whom Tom Cooper trained to win the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham in 2004.  Remember the celebrations?  A Cheltenham Festival winner has always been the dream for Cian Collins.

“He has come out of Cheltenham well and he will go to Punchestown, all going well, maybe for a hurdle race.  He could be a horse for the Galway Plate.”

“He’s in good form and he’ll go to Punchestown too for a handicap hurdle.

“He will go back for the two-mile handicap hurdle at Punchestown in which he finished third two years ago.  He hasn’t run since October, but he goes well fresh, and he goes well at Punchestown.”

“We were always hoping that Jazzy Matty could be a Cheltenham Festival horse,” he says.  “He proved that he could handle the track when he won the Fred Winter Hurdle, and we were hoping that he would be good enough to go back there over fences this year.”

It has been a fine season so far for Cian Collins.  He has run 20 horses in Britain this term, and five of them have won.  That’s a strike rate of 25% on his travels.  And 15 winners so far in Ireland, 50% more than last year, in just his third season with a licence.

Jazzy Matty went to Cheltenham in October for a novices’ chase and, in a slowly-run race in which he had to make his own running, he put up a really good performance for Danny Gilligan in only succumbing late on to the talented Path D’Oroux, conceding 8lb to a horse who was officially rated 11lb superior.  That was a good day at Cheltenham for Cian Collins because, three hours after Jazzy Matty’s good run, he sent out Impero to win the conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle, also under Danny Gilligan. 

“I was thinking about the novices’ handicap chase at the Cheltenham Festival after that, two and a half miles.  But that was shaping up to be a really competitive race and, actually, we were thinking that the fast pace that he would get in the Grand Annual over two miles would suit him well.”

A good run over hurdles at Thurles was a nice sharpener.  Jazzy Matty stayed on well to finish second behind Samui, and they knew that he would come on for it.  Cheltenham preparations after that all went smoothly.  The main worry was whether or not he would get into the Grand Annual on a mark of 135.

“We thought about giving him another run,” says Cian.  “To try to get his handicap mark up another few pounds.  But we decided that we would take our chances.  We knew that he was in great form and we were happy with his handicap mark as it was.”

He got in all right, fairly easily, number 15 of 20.  Cian Collins watched on the big screen, but from outside the parade ring, away from everybody, not inside where you might be the focus of attention.  It’s Cian Collins’ horses who do the majority of the talking.   

There was an added resonance to Jazzy Matty this year too, because Michael O’Sullivan had ridden the Doctor Dino gelding to win the Fred Winter Hurdle in that same place two years ago, a couple of hours after he had won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on Marine Nationale.  The race before Jazzy Matty’s race this year was the Champion Chase, and Marine Nationale had won that.  

“We were talking about it a few weeks earlier,” says Cian.  “About Michael.  About how remarkable it would be if Jazzy Matty were to win.  Then Marine Nationale won the Champion Chase.  We knew that, if Jazzy Matty were to win, it would make it all the more special.”

Jazzy Matty travelled well through his race for Danny Gilligan just behind the leaders.  Moved towards the outside on the run down the hill, he joined the leader Unexpected Party at the second last fence, and he stayed on well over the last and up the run-in to win by a length and a half, probably with a little bit more in hand than that. 

“That was an unbelievable feeling,” says Cian now.  “When he hit the line.  A Cheltenham Festival winner.  And coming back into that winner’s enclosure.”

That was another good day for Cian Collins at Cheltenham.