Road To Cheltenham: Got to be in it to win it!

There’s so much to talk about from the past week and yet there’s another busy weekend at the Dublin Racing Festival in our sights, so let’s get down to business without much preamble… except to note that two significant news events have taken place since last week’s column was first published and our Gowran Road To Cheltenham show went live to air.

First, ante-post favourite and dual previous winner Allaho has been ruled out of the Ryanair with a hind-leg sprain.

Second, the red-and-white silks of Caldwell Construction will not be sighted for the foreseeable future after owners Andrew and Gemma Brown announced they are stepping away from the sport. None of their horses will compete at Leopardstown this weekend, making for some notable absentees such as Caldwell Potter, Mighty Bandit and Fil Dor.

This could prove a particular blow to Gordon Elliott and Jack Kennedy – who spoke with conspicuous warmth about the first-named novice hurdler in last week’s show – depending on who snaps up the choicest lots. For those with the appropriate depth of pocket – or perhaps length of nose – . 

Be aware you’ll have a determined trainer to beat. Asked by Racing TV’s Gary O’Brien at Naas last Sunday “How difficult do you think it’s going to be to keep hold of the ones that you… want to hang on to”, a grimly amused Elliott shrugged and said: “I’ll just keep putting my hand up."

Everyone bar Nicky Henderson believed the rescheduled would be a [😉] walk in the park for Jonbon. Clearly, there was a scenario in which he could – even should – have won at Cheltenham, even with the cards falling as they did, but his trainer’s pre-race concerns should also be weighed in evidence.

“I hope we’ve got it right, in that he was seriously prepped for last weekend,” , referring to the race’s original version at its Ascot home where Jonbon would have faced his Arkle conqueror, Champion Chase favourite El Fabiolo. 

“And Jonbon being Jonbon – he isn’t a of a mentality. He is his own, as I think you can all remember in his early days when he used to appear in the paddock dripping with sweat… but now we’ve got through all that. We get it early in the season but we don’t now. And he’s pretty amenable.

“But we’ve got to be very careful. That [coiled] spring, there wasn’t another twist in it for last weekend, so we have to hold him somewhere in that line for a week. It might sound easy; with some horses it would be very easy; with some it’s a thin line between what you do and what you don’t do. He certainly didn’t need any more schooling; he certainly didn’t need any more galloping.

“As I say, we were really ready for last weekend and I was really looking forward to the Fabiolo clash. I know most people think I try and dodge them. I don’t; I was really looking forward to it. So, now we have a different problem on our hands and we’ve got to face it.”

Citing Jonbon’s track record of ‘winning ugly’ in his pre-Festival preps at Warwick and Haydock over the previous two seasons, due to Henderson seeking to strike a balance between winning on the day and yet also peaking him for Cheltenham a matter of weeks later, Luck asked: “Would this be his most vulnerable time of the year?”

“I hope not because last Saturday was hardly a prep for anything,” Henderson replied. “It was a full-blown Grade One clash and we had to be at the top of it.

“The easiest way to get to the top is to take them to the top and let the race bring them off the boil, and then we can, in our own time, start again for March. But [Ascot’s abandonment] forced us into a week longer. As I say, it might sound simpler than what it is with a character like him, who is his own self.”

Setting aside the obvious questions begged by Henderson’s use of the lesser-sighted Constitution Hill as the sturdier comparator – a self-contradicting stance also taken about the Champion Hurdler – his pre-race warning is more striking now Jonbon has been pushed out to 4/1 for the Queen Mum.

Henderson repeated this concern on ITV last Saturday as Jonbon cantered to post, not that his former stable jockey Mick Fitzgerald gave it much credence. “It’s pretty straightforward,” he said, when asked by colleague Ed Chamberlin for his assessment of keeping Jonbon in a holding-pattern for a week.

Now, I’m not suggesting Henderson thought Jonbon would get beaten. The horse was a 1/4 shot. But he was clearly preparing himself and the public for another ugly win. In a sense, I’d argue he was right about that, too. Jonbon could and probably should have been an unimpressive winner last Saturday.

James Bowen had ended up back in the hot seat after Seven Barrows’ Number One jockey Nico de Boinville suffered a flare-up of the collarbone injury he sustained shortly after Christmas, having worked tirelessly to get himself fit. Back in the saddle two Sundays ago, he was stood down three days later by the racecourse doctor at Chepstow. Of course, de Boinville himself was deputising on this horse for the long-sidelined Aidan Coleman.

Henderson several times referred to the getting-to-know-each-other-better exercises Bowen and Jonbon had carried out pre-race, but horse and jockey still seemed at odds in the public glare of last Saturday. From the outside, such analysis can only be speculation but Jonbon also didn’t seem comfortable at most stages of the race, even if tactical mistakes were an additional factor.

Having been characteristically side-eyeing his surroundings and on his toes in the paddock, followed by sweating his way to post, Jonbon bounced out prominently on the outside of last year’s Clarence House winner Editeur Du Gite and his soon-to-be successor Elixir De Nutz.

Asked up by Bowen at the first, Jonbon held his own but even at the second he lost time and ground against the other two – particularly Elixir De Nutz, whose jumping was slick and already in the superior rhythm that would ultimately win him this Grade One, his first over fences. Remember, Jonbon had also jumped much more scruffily when winning the Tingle Creek than on his previous start than on seasonal debut in the Shloer.

At the third came the first signs of a major problem. First, Editeur Du Gite made an optimistic reach for the fence and crashed through it, whilst later in the same second Jonbon seemed indecisive about how he was going to get across it, putting in a short stride but lacking the agility he’d displayed in this scenario both at Sandown and Cheltenham previously. Then, he managed not to touch a twig; here, he brushed through plenty of them.

With Elixir De Nutz having inherited a narrow lead as a result, both his rivals then skied the fourth in an unsettled response to their preceding errors. During ITV’s live race commentary Fitzgerald said of Jonbon that he’d “love James to be a little bit more aggressive on him, give him the signal, send him forward”. Ruby Walsh agreed: “This fence is a decision for James [Bowen] now, Fitzy. I’d be sending him down to it.”

“You send them to every single fence when you’re retired,” their ITV colleague Richard Hoiles observed wryly. My Road To Cheltenham co-presenter went into greater detail on his thinking during his Analyse This feature this Thursday night, however.

Anyway, send him to the fifth Bowen did not and Jonbon carried on jumping awkwardly, covering the pace on the wide outside. Upsides in front, meanwhile, Elixir De Nutz continued with greater fluency and efficiency than Editeur Du Gite on his inner.

Nube Negra tracked their shadows and Fugitif – dropping back to two miles for the first time in 14 months – found elite pace at this trip too rich for him. Further detached after mistakes at the fifth and sixth, he received a reminder from Gavin Sheehan.

From the seventh, Jonbon began to lose ground more markedly against the leaders at each obstacle, and to lug distinctly to his left from the eighth. At the ninth, Niall Houlihan niggled Editeur Du Gite on the approach and at the next – six out – his mount forfeited his position, whilst Elixir De Nutz went on and Nube Negra made an error. Sheer ability, if nothing else, took Jonbon into a pressing second at the top of the hill after the fifth last.

Four out was pivotal, with Jonbon seeming to struggle to get off the ground – plunging through it, eating turf and losing his back end – yet somehow Bowen kept the partnership intact after calling a cab in flight and being thrown forwards around his mount’s neck on landing. This knocked Jonbon back to fourth place, Bowen initially seeming reconciled to giving his mount time to recover, and left Elixir De Nutz alone in the lead, pursued by Nube Negra.

Approaching three out on the leader, 18-year-old Freddie Gingell allowed himself a peek over his right shoulder. It was at this fence, however, where Elixir De Nutz made his sole mistake, pretty much walking through it. Yet even without making such a striking error, data shows Jonbon fared worse than the leader on all metrics even at that fence with a ponderous leap in reaction to the fright of the previous one.

I found this data fascinating, in that I think most people would expect the metrics to show more detriment to EDN, given the visual impression of his error, and not so much impact as the data reveals from ‘merely’ Jonbon’s deliberate leap.

Entering the straight off the home turn, Gingell shook up his mount and Nube Negra instantly weakened to such a degree that he would be caught by the rallying Fugitif for third after the last. Bowen, however, asked Jonbon to go with the leader and, although his mount was by then lugging even more noticeably left on the flat and in the air, he snatched a narrow lead on rising two out.

Having watched Ruby Walsh riding in such circumstances often enough over the years and since having stood next to him many times during a broadcast, I suspect he’ll say this was a challenge better left to the last on a horse who, on the evidence of the previous fence, had lost confidence in his jumping and would benefit from as much recovery time as possible after such a serious error.

In actuality, however, Jonbon was already about half a length up at the last, where his leap was again strangely inhibited whilst Elixir De Nutz landed running and took back the lead. Although Bowen’s mount stuck likeably to his task under pressure, he also lugged ever more markedly to his left, in behind the winner. Bowen having switched his whip hand to his left, by the line Jonbon had grimly clawed back the deficit to a neck but the two-year elder grey still held on.

So, what had been widely supposed as a day of great opportunity for Bowen – and he did indeed star in the opening contest on Sir Gino – ended up being an unexpectedly special one for Gingell, whose mum Kim passed away when he was just fourteen.

It was his first Grade One success, but also provided the same milestone for his uncle Joe Tizzard, who last season took over the training licence from his and Kim’s dad, Colin. Everyone – those who were there and those who couldn’t be – would have been bursting with pride.

It’s been a breakthrough year for young Gingell, formerly a star pony racer, and Elixir De Nutz has been essential to his success. Together, they have each scaled new heights in a combination of fearless belief. Their hat-trick began with Haldon Gold Cup triumph in November, extended through victory at Newbury’s Coral Winter Festival and, reunited after the horse’s mutually prejudicial battle with Editeur Du Gite in the Desert Orchid, culminated with this success – and despite him for the first time being unable to claim on this horse.

En route, Gingell has also caught Paul Nicholls’ attention. The champion trainer has entrusted him with some key rides, resulting in ten winners to date, including Truckers Lodge’s London National last month. The future looks bright.

For Gingell’s mount, this might well prove his pinnacle as he needed much to go wrong with Jonbon to triumph here. However, he is in the form of his life and an accurate jumper. With – at worst – third up for grabs in the Champion Chase, this 22/1 success was a reminder to all that you’ve got to be in it to win it.

As for Bowen, he quickly dusted himself off after this experience with a Grade Two victory for the Henderson yard on Marie’s Rock – see below – following on from the first Grade One success of his young career on stablemate, the novice hurdler Jango Baie, on Boxing Day.

It’s true Jonbon has often tended to lug to his left – his head carriage in this regard was the subject of much discussion when he won Haydock’s Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle two years ago. He has also adjusted noticeably left since taking to fences, but his fluency in this discipline has regressed with each of his three starts to date.

As a reminder, this is what de Boinville said after winning the Shloer on him, : “He’s just a very intelligent horse. He’s very quick with his feet. He’s so slick at his fences. He gets back down on the floor very fast.” That now seems a long time gone, doesn’t it? Yet nobody from the Seven Barrows team has said anything to indicate there was a niggling physical problem last weekend.

Of the others, Fugitif’s run style perhaps lends him an outside chance of picking up the pieces for a place in the Ryanair, having proven this trip to be unsuitable yet finishing strongly. But even that would likely require a career best. Nube Negra – flattered when second in the Desert Orchid last time – needs his sights lowering, but this was probably a throw-out effort from Editeur Du Gite, who appeared unsettled by that early error. Nonetheless, the upshot could send him towards the Ryanair, over a trip I can’t see suiting; it hasn’t to date in his career.

Jonbon’s defeat does intensify some interesting potential Champion Chase by-play for JP McManus, however, contingent on how his mare Dinoblue fares against her stablemate El Fabiolo in Sunday’s Dublin Chase at Leopardstown.

Jonbon retains a Ryanair entry himself and Dinoblue is said to be bound for the Mrs Paddy Power Chase, but a big run could change at least the latter scenario. Of course, McManus also has Trials Day winner Capodanno – discussed in the next section – in the Ryanair whereas his reigning Mares’ Chase winner Impervious is sidelined with injury.

, RTÉ and Racing TV’s Jane Mangan argued the best progeny of Dinoblue’s sire Doctor Dino – State Man, Sharjah, Sceau Royal – are all two-milers. I guess La Bague Au Roi, a Grade One winning chaser over three miles, offers hope but it’s an interesting thought – even if Willie Mullins is confident of his mare’s stamina.

Finally, just to note that Nicholls scratched Greaneteen from both the Champion Chase and the Ryanair on Tuesday after reporting the horse had suffered a small hairline fracture. Having not been sighted since being thumped almost 19 lengths by Jonbon in Sandown’s Celebration Chase last April, that “minor” problem also means he misses this entire season.

Capodanno emerged from the Cotswold Chase not only with the trophy but also the associated prize for the best round of jumping. However, had Stephen Mulqueen’s right-hand leather not snapped, leaving his stirrup lying on the turf after the fourth-last fence, the unlikely recipient of the latter award would have been Ahoy Senor. And who’s to say he couldn’t have won both?

Apart from trying to convince Paul Townend to go faster at various points, it was an undramatic race for the winner. Never the most fluent of jumpers, here Capodanno could not be accused of making a mistake – even if he was awkward, upright or cumbersome at points.

He settled matters with an injection of pace whilst the field bypassed the second-last, prior to idling on the rise to the line. He was also advantaged by the weights, however, receiving between 3lbs and 6lbs from all rivals.

Prior to this, Capodanno had steered a wide course when thumped more than 23 lengths by stablemate Galopin Des Champs in the Savills Chase – might have been a benefit. This takes the score on that theory to 1-1, Mr Christian, following Appreciate It’s Thurles flop. (Though you could also argue Diol Ker did no different in the Thyestes after his wide line in Leopardstown’s Christmas staying handicap and Minella Cocooner, predominantly for fitness reasons no doubt, did a lot better at Navan after steering a middle course in the festive beginners’ chase won by Fact To File.)

That’s also two races in a row in which Capodanno has jumped better than is usually the case – perhaps the dominant reason why this was his first chase success out of novice company since the 2022 Punchestown Festival. Most unusually for a chaser trained by Willie Mullins, he’s not entered in the Gold Cup but only in the Ryanair. Yet in the deeper waters of either race, you wouldn’t expect him to make it three times a charm with his ungainly technique.

Presented with a golden opportunity to dominate as he had in last term’s Brown Advisory, especially when Mulqueen took back Ahoy Senor to accept a lead after the first fence, The Real Whacker failed to sustain the sort of rhythm that made him such a difficult opponent as a novice. We’ve previously illustrated his former verve on the Road To Cheltenham show by contrasting him in pictures and data with Gerri Colombe’s more deliberate jumping when they met last March.

Having strode clear from the second, The Real Whacker seemed to change his mind mid-air at the sixth – a fence at which the novice Stay Away Fay also stood off too far but somehow managed to negotiate without falling, even if clearing it at an oblique angle. Both reacted reticently at the next obstacle, but the more experienced horse never recovered his confidence even though he continued to lead unmolested.

At the moment, The Real Whacker is failing to make the grade in the big league albeit, unlike the King George, he did at least get involved in this race under his preferred tactics and rallied strongly from the last to secure second. As Racing TV analyst Martin Dixon argued last Saturday, he’s shaping as if in need of some headgear to help Sam Twiston-Davies at his fences.

Harry Cobden fairly described third-placed Stay Away Fay’s jumping as novicey and, whilst it withstood this stern-enough test, it could not yet be described as an asset. Having made it clear pre-race that he was using the Cotswold as a better-spaced stepping-stone to the Brown Advisory than next month’s Reynoldstown Chase at Ascot, Paul Nicholls scratched this horse from the Gold Cup three days later. He surely never intended to run anyway.

And so, to Ahoy Senor. As usual, he adjusted right and met some fences stiffly, but Mulqueen undoubtedly got him rolling at a track – perhaps the only track in the country – that truly suits him. After The Real Whacker again stuttered into six out, Ahoy Senor moved up effortlessly on his inner and the harder-working Royale Pagaille on his outside, the latter only to forfeit that ground at the very next fence.

At the top of the hill, The Real Whacker was working to maintain his lead while Ahoy Senor continued to lob along and the other three remaining runners loomed up on their outer. Then, as he brushed through the top but essentially jumped the fourth-last soundly, Mulqueen’s stirrup-leather dropped out of the saddle. He looked back and down twice, surely in disbelief that one horse can be this star-crossed.

From then on, Mulqueen didn’t have enough control, fighting to keep himself and therefore his horse balanced with a stirrup for only one foot. He said afterwards he’d tried to hook his unsupported foot into Ahoy Senor’s side “to keep my weight off his back” whereas ITV analysts Fitzgerald and Walsh felt he should have kicked his left foot out of his remaining iron and ridden like a “pony-club job”.

Whatever, this was the last thing Mulqueen needed on a horse as headstrong at Ahoy Senor when careering downhill in a line of five towards the tricky third last. Somehow, the partnership got over it safely, though nodding on landing. Royale Pagaille and Stay Away Fay made actual mistakes but Mulqueen’s particular issues meant his mount recovered his equilibrium less swiftly on landing.

Then, what fresh hazard was this? Ahoy Senor was racing closest to the inside rail, still travelling strongly, as they turned the bend into the straight, where – unexpectedly for the remaining jockeys – bypass procedures were in place around the second-last fence to protect fallen Datsalrightgino and those tending to him behind the screens on its landing side.

On that bend, Townend’s body language suggested he had his opponents covered and, positioned on the outside to boot, was best equipped to react to this changing circumstance. He shook the reins at Capodanno, took the lead and in effect finished the race. Both The Real Whacker and, more markedly, Royal Pagaille were momentarily caught out by this change of pace, whereas Stay Away Fay and Ahoy Senor were able to stay with him to some extent.

All change at the last, however, in a race that was unevenly run and became more of a test of speed than stamina. Capodanno bounded clear, Stay Away Fay hung initially right before rallying, The Real Whacker stayed on strongly again, Royal Pagaille plunged through it to the ground and Mulqueen – who had by that point kicked his other foot out of its iron – understandably lost all semblance of poise on a fading Ahoy Senor.

With that luckless rider declaring his mount to be “on his way back”, Lucinda Russell is inclined to have a second attempt at the Gold Cup rather than pursue her more unorthodox Stayers’ Hurdle thought. It’s extraordinary how this horse, about whom we know so much, also remains something of an enigma after 18 starts. Will he even stay the Gold Cup trip, if he gets that far?

I should add that we did note him holding his tail stiffly erect at one point in this race during our post-race analysis on Racing TV – a trait that can signify a back issue.

Jamie Snowden, Gavin Sheehan and the GD Partnership sadly lost their Coral Gold Cup Trophy winner Datsalrightginoin this race. He sustained an injury on take-off at the ninth according to his jockey, but sadly ran loose for some time before – Richard Hoiles reported on ITV from his commentator’s vantage point – being caught. The horse was then swiftly attended by the racecourse’s veterinary surgeons, who were afforded time and space to make a considered diagnosis behind the screens thanks to the well-drilled actions of Cheltenham’s field force.

Understandably, this is not a much-heralded job but it is a critically important one and, on another day, those procedures might have facilitated a less-injured horse being saved. They certainly ensured the safety of those treating Datsalrightgino, and that of the unwitting other jockeys and horses in the race. Hoiles rightly drew attention to their discipline and praised their work.

Royale Pagaille's fall is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season, it has since been reported, with Venetia Williams describing him as being "very sore". It is to be hoped that there might still be a hurrah or two left in him despite his rising years, perhaps at his very happiest hunting ground in the North-West.

Unless all moons align for Ahoy Senor, however, it seems highly unlikely the Cotswold will have any bearing on the Gold Cup. The same will not apply at Leopardstown this Saturday when, although no more than five horses will line up for the Irish Gold Cup, two of that number will be Galopin Des Champs and his twice conqueror, Fastorslow, whose trainer Martin Brassil deliberately missed “a grueller’ against that rival over Christmas.

The other three are the favourite’s stablemate I Am Maximus and the Gordon Elliott-trained pair, Conflated and Coko Beach, with Gerri Colombe now heading straight to Cheltenham on the back of just two runs – as his trainer was first inclined to do – joined by his lightly raced owner-companion in the Robcour silks, Gentlemansgame. 

News also emerged this week that Royale Pagaille was 'very sore' following his fall at the final fence in the Cotswold Chase and Venetia Williams says

Should Lossiemouth run in the Champion Hurdle? Of course, she should. Any horse able to dominate a Grade Two in second gear, as she did the Unibet Better-Loved-As-The-Bula Hurdle, should be taking on the best around – even if that best is as dazzling an opponent as Constitution Hill.

Admittedly, it’s the style of her success last Saturday that drives this argument because she did not need greatly to improve on her best juvenile form – triumphs at the Cheltenham and Punchestown Festival – to beat a still sub-par Love Envoi by six-and-a-half lengths and, in receipt of a greater amount of weight, a clutch of sub-premiership performers by even further.

But everyone who watched her breeze up on the outside of the duelling leaders, Rubaud and Love Envoi, before pinging the last flight and bounding clear without a second glance knows this was not a victory that can be fully measured without your eyes – even if her finishing speed percentage and distance put between herself and her rivals off a steady pace is a heavy hint.

Yet it will not be the Champion Hurdle next. Because she has just turned five, she will be going to the Mares’ Hurdle, the same at Punchestown and then France, before being targeted at The Big One in 2025.

This campaign has been contextualised by racing manager Joe Chambers, on behalf of owners Susannah and Rich Ricci, as a form of learning from last season’s experiences with their 2022 Triumph Hurdle winner, Vauban, who didn’t scale the heights of stable companion State Man, let alone Constitution Hill.

On the show that accompanies this column, Ruby Walsh conveyed that similar discussions were being had around the Closutton breakfast table last term, with positives drawn from the enforcedly light campaigning of the fragile Quevega from her four-rising-five season onwards. Together, these thoughts cast the dye probably not only for Lossiemouth but also Gala Marceau – and any other Mullins-trained juvenile who shapes like a championship contender in future.

Recent history is also summoned in favour of this stance because of how few horses of that vintage have managed to win Champion Hurdles – not that many have tried. In 2019, the ill-fated Espoir D’Allen became the first five-year-old to win the Champion Hurdle since Katchit 11 years earlier. Prior to that, the last to triumph was See You Then in 1985.

Yet it was previously a more routine occurrence, with Night Nurse in 1976, Persian War in 1968, Kirriemuir in 1965, Anzio in 1962, Sir Ken in 1952, Distel in 1946 and Brains Trust in 1945. Before World War II struck, it was even claimed by a quartet of four-year-olds – including Brown Jack in 1929, subsequently a prolific Cup horse on the Flat. Of course, times have changed – as have breeding and modern training methods.

The modern argument goes that Lossiemouth is being given further time to mature, that to over-face her now risks regression or ultimate sub-achievement. It helps, of course, that modern programming provides a fistful of less competitive Grade Ones that can be taken in as an alternative in the meantime. Without those, the decision wouldn’t be so easy.

There is also a belief in the connected benefit of postponing a clash with the best hurdler for more than 20 years until he’s another year older. Walsh even voiced this variable on ITV last Saturday, by implication revealing he does think Constitution Hill’s legacy-building is on the clock.

Of course, this reasoning contains a hidden assumption that a five-year-old always improves for greater maturity – that Lossiemouth will be better equipped for the Champion Hurdle in just over 13 months’ time than she would be next month.

Yet we know the reality is some horses are precocious, reaching their peak at an earlier age than others. I’m not suggesting this will necessarily be the case with Lossiemouth but it is an element in the chain of logic that’s too often too easily under-weighed.

I’m no fan of placing a horse’s career into fast-forward, but must it be acknowledged elite sport relies on the best facing the best and that racing fans are increasingly tired of waiting for clashes that never happen. We had it with Constitution Hill and Honeysuckle previously; one deemed too young to travel to Punchestown and the other, later, to be on the downgrade. So, it never happened. Oh well. Until the next time. Repeat to fade.

There is an additional argument in the case of Lossiemouth, specifically, in that her latest Cheltenham success exuded speed rather than stamina. Interestingly, when Nick Luck tracked down the mare’s breeder Ian Kellit,

So, there is a chance the greater accent on stamina brings her closer together in ability with peers who stay better – albeit the fact she won last term’s Triumph over 2m1f on the New Course, a test of stamina for a juvenile, tempers that concern.

So, in conclusion, do I think Lossiemouth should run in the 2024 Champion Hurdle? Yes. Do I think ducking that race with a five-year-old mare on her second start out of juvenile company is as defensive as the reigning Champion Hurdler – fully mature, currently at the peak of his powers and, we’re told, completely sound bar one dicky scope – having run once since April, in cakewalk, when he lines up at Cheltenham 11 months later? No, I don’t.

Do I think both positions come with risks just as present but more tacit than those their connections vocally fend off? Yes, I do. Tick tock. But do I think the ultimate fault for the frustration felt by fans season after season lies with those who created the opportunities for such dilution? Yes, yes, and yes again.

An array of mares, now set to face Lossiemouth about 40 minutes after next month’s Champion Hurdle is completed, were in action last weekend.

At Doncaster, Ashroe Diamond showcased a slick hurdling technique in the Yorkshire Rose Mares’ Hurdle, providing Patrick Mullins with his first success at the track. She simply out-speeded her closest rivals – her younger stablemate Gala Marceau, who was conceding weight and race-fitness in third, and the Nicky Henderson-trained Under Control, who showed the benefit of wind surgery in second by bouncing back from her Gerry Feilden disappointment.

In a steadily run affair over two miles, Ashroe Diamond had the toe to get away from them whilst Gala Marceau shaped as though she would do better with this run under her belt and over a longer trip. Were all three to run in the Close Brothers David Nicholson, you’d favour the youngest mare to come out on top.

At the same track the following day, Marie’s Rock got her head back in front – and generally raced with more focussed zest than in her previous two starts this season in the Warfield, rescheduled from Ascot.

For the third time running, the race wasn’t set up ideally as this free-goer saw plenty of daylight in a small field of mismatched mares over a trip – three miles – that probably doesn’t quite play to her strengths. She also made a mistake three out but was able to shrug it off.

Marie’s Rock need to recover her form further to put her in the mix for Cheltenham but her one-and-a-half-length margin of victory over last season’s Dawn Run winner You Wear It Well was more comfortable than the literal distance. She now ranges from 7/1 to 14/1 for the Mares’ Hurdle – a race she won two seasons ago – whereas this column has her at 33/1.

As that’s a win-only selection, Lossiemouth’s likely presence is far from ideal but Marie’s Rock is something of a cigar-or-bust-type horse anyway. A larger field and hopefully a stronger pace – there was no such thing last year when Honeysuckle and an on-song Love Envoi dominated – will see her to better effect.

Last Saturday’s edition of the was jokingly referred to on ITV as the best veterans’ hurdle ever staged at Cheltenham. Nonetheless, it produced a rip-snorter of a finish among horses beloved for their long and active careers – and further reward for Emmet Mullins’ enterprising way of campaigning his horses.

The event was staged at an uneven gallop, with various of the contenders yo-yoing to the front and back of the pack. Dashel Drasher, Botox Has and

Noble Yeats

set off up front initially, but Flight Deck wasn’t able to go with them and didn’t seem to be enjoying the crowd. Champ made a mistake at the second hurdle and Strong Leader a bigger one – the first of many – whilst Paisley Park, three times winner of this Grade Two, took up his usual position behind the pace on the inside.

The pace slowed mid-race, enabled Flight Deck and Strong Leader to get back on terms for a while until both made mistakes at the fifth last. Dashel Drasher lacked fluency at the next, a function of being stretched to hold his prominent inside position, and then Botox Has – sporting a first-time visor – made his statutory blunder at the next, checking Champ on landing.

As is often self-defeatingly the case over hurdles at the New Course, the pace started to wind up on the downhill approach to two out – far too far out to be scenting victory. Flight Deck lost his position definitively whilst Noble Yeats, Paisley Park and Strong Leader all became outpaced. Dashel Drasher and Botox Has made precipitately for home.

Predictably, it was all change in the straight, however, as the leaders started to paddle and Harry Cobden – riding Noble Yeats for the first time and clearly suiting him, even if he knew he’d had to work hard afterwards – managed to latch him onto the leaders on the inside of the track. Paisley Park was began his trademark rally towards the stands’ rail and even the blunder-prone Strong Leader got a roll on.

But Noble Yeats was closer to the leaders and responded soonest of that trio, whilst Paisley Park inched steadily closer as the line yet again came too soon. By the line, Strong Leader was being held in third place, however. They had entered the straight in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

The winner is a remarkable horse, campaigned with flair. Having won the National as a novice at the age of seven and finished fourth in last term’s Gold Cup, he now has a Grade Two hurdle on his CV and a serious chance in the Stayers’ Hurdle – especially if that race is more strongly run than this one.

For Emma Lavelle and Andrew Gemmell, Paisley Park’s proud but frustrated trainer and owner, it was yet another agonising finish. “It’s wonderful to own him,” Gemmell agreed, “But I just wish he could win one more!” “It’s exhausting but maybe he’s just saving himself for the Stayers’ Hurdle,” joked Lavelle. “This horse has got a terrific sense of humour.”

Earlier in the week at Gowran Park, the giraffe-like Monkfish gained his first success since the 2021 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase when he was the great Gold Cup hope for the following season. As is well documented, wear and tear on his large frame has meant last Thursday’s John Mulhern Galmoy Hurdle turned out to be merely his fourth start since, three of them over hurdles.

Ridden patiently by Paul Townend in very testing conditions – and perhaps wisely keeping away from the bog-like outside on his first two visits up the straight – Monkfish was able to pounce and circle the whole field at the last. It was a talented enough, if no longer or never top-flight trio of opponents – Summerville Boy, Ashdale Bob and Thedevilscoachman – and the big horse was much better than them.

Ricci and Chambers’ immediate reaction was to pinpoint the Stayers’ Hurdle, to enable the Mullins team to keep his frame in full working order by keeping him away from what chasing does to his body, but this is the Closutton Order and Mullins likes reinforcements in the Gold Cup. Never say never.

Advised 16/11/23: Envoi Allen at 16/1 for the Ryanair Chase with Paddy Power 

Advised 04/01/24: Appreciate It at 12/1 for the Ryanair Chase with Paddy Power

Advised 18/01/24: Slade Steel at 14/1 for the Baring Bingham (formerly Ballymore) Novices’ Hurdle with Paddy Power 

Advised 01/01/24: Marie’s Rock at 33/1 for the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle with Bet365

Advised 25/01/24: Protektorat each-way at 33/1 for the Ryanair Chase with various firms