Road To Cheltenham: round-up of the senior hurdlers over Christmas

This is the third Road To Cheltenham column from the Christmas period and deals with all the non-novice hurdling action up to, and including, 1 January.

Here are the links to the first column, about chasers, and the second, about novice chasers, addressing the 26-29 December time span.

Another Road To Cheltenham column will be published this week to catch up with the novice and juvenile hurdlers, plus the remaining action from all other disciplines either side of the New Year fireworks. Enjoy!

There was a brief moment on the home turn when I wondered whether Constitution Hill would be as impressive in the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle at Kempton as he had been in the Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle, but then he blew Epatante away by five lengths further than he did at Newcastle!

The winner wasn’t impressed much by the tempo set by Highway One O Two – both he and the mare were keen approaching the first hurdle – so he powered to the leader’s outer at the fourth hurdle and was in front by the next.

Unfortunately for his stablemate at Nicky Henderson’s yard, the awkward-jumping Metier then dived right at that obstacle and heftily collided with her hind quarters, briefly unbalancing her. The domino effect on Sceau Royal, who’d jumped the hurdle cleanly on the mare’s inside, was more marked and, in effect, ended the ten-year-old’s race.

For Epatante, it caused more than a length’s increased deficit, requiring her rider, Aidan Coleman, to steadily recover ground in order to slipstream Constitution Hill on the home turn.

Fleetingly, you noted that the long-time leader had not been burned off and the mare seemed to be going okay. Then, as they entered the straight, Epatante was steered towards the inside and soon pushed along, whereas Constitution Hill – though seeking to hang right – was shaken up by Nico de Boinville and taken towards the middle of the track before effortlessly extending his lead. Even before the winner mildly bungled the second last, his chief opponent was beaten.

Epatante also lacked fluency at that hurdle and received two reminders on landing from Coleman, but there was nothing to be done. As he told the Racing Post’s Lee Mottershead: “That’s a freak. What do you do? I thought Epatante ran great. I got off and said to Nicky that she’s no worse a mare than she was at this point last year. She travelled and jumped but just couldn’t go with the winner. Credit where it’s due, his performances are freakish.”

“I’ve never known her better,” Henderson later affirmed. “She looks fantastic. I thought she’d come on a ton for Newcastle. There are options for Epatante to avoid [Constitution Hill] but we’ll talk to JP [McManus, her owner] and see what he would like to do. She’ll be [entered] in the Champion. I think she’s still got every chance of finishing second, but she does stay two-and-a-half [miles].”

It’s worth reminding ourselves that Epatante is a six-time Grade One winner over hurdles, two of those in this contest, and was at her most impressive only eight months previously at Aintree. In making her appear decidedly pedestrian, her conqueror is rubbing up against the best hurdling performances of all time, without even being extended. That is indeed freakish.

“It’s the way he does it that’s just so... different,” Henderson observed, all the time searching for the appropriate superlatives. “There’s nothing flashy about him at all, until he gets out there [on the racecourse] and then he just grows three inches and says: look at me. Having that mind-game [right] makes racing so easy for him because he’s not fretting, he’s not worrying about it, or pulling – you could do anything you like with him.”

Constitution Hill is the best organic advert for Jump Racing in some years, probably since the days of Denman vs Kauto Star, with as much potential to catch the wider imagination as they did. He put numbers on the gate at Newcastle. Kempton’s Boxing Day crowd applauded him into the parade ring beforehand and cheered him back into the winner’s enclosure afterwards. Excitement like this cannot be manufactured or faked; it takes genuine sporting brilliance.

“What an amazing racehorse,” testified de Boinville when interviewed by Racing TV’s Tom Stanley en route to weighing-in (watch below).

“He’s very, very straightforward. You can just ride him any way you like – you can go on, you can take a lead, you can have Metier on your girths halfway around and he’s just a consummate professional.

“I thought he was dossing turning in, hence why he’s made a bit of a mistake two out, but he just needed a bit of a wake-up. All the way around, I’d say he was in second or third gear. And in actual fact, if something had come to my girths, he would have gone away. Honestly.”

That last word was emphasised - but Nico, there’s no need: we believe you.

In the latest on-the-road edition of Road To Cheltenham, Ruby Walsh highlighted Constitution Hill seeking to hang right at Kempton, perhaps indicating a preference for tracks of that orientation – a factor that would worry you for the tightly turning left-handed Old Course were it not for his outrageously emphatic Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle success, the best performance ever recorded by a novice hurdler since Timeform’s records began.

More academically, it might make you think he could be less impressive in the Unibet Champion Hurdle than we’re all feverishly anticipating, when he’ll hopefully face the toughest task of his career and therefore be provided with the component parts to vault Night Nurse and Istabraq in the all-time rankings.

I can’t find any instance of him hanging right elsewhere, so I’m inclined to mark it down to “dossing”, as his rider said.

We’re unlikely to see Constitution Hill until March, sadly, because Henderson doesn’t like either Haydock’s “so-called” Champion Hurdle Trial or Wincanton’s Kingwell Hurdle as potential stepping-stones to Cheltenham.

In passing, he threw out that British racing might consider creating a Grade One two-mile hurdle on Festival Trials Day at the end of January – an idea that’s gaining traction in the same way mutterings of a five-day Festival once grew to a shout. I wonder whether they share an origin? Of course, with such a paucity of graded-class hurdlers in Britain, the idea of creating a new Grade One – especially in direct calendar competition with the Irish Champion Hurdle – is utterly tone deaf. Expect it to be more widely advocated soon, therefore.

But just in case the point is missed: it’s competitive graded racing that we’re lacking, not fancy new labels. You’ve got to breed and buy the horses to contest these races – and incentivise those practices via appropriate prize money at all levels, developmentally and upwards, in order to merit a Pattern upgrade at a time when field sizes suggest it should in fact be rationalised. What’s that you say? That’s not as simple as slapping ‘Grade One’ on a race? Funny, that.

Moments later, Constitution Hill’s owner Michael Buckley let slip as a matter of fact that Jockey Club Racecourses (JCR) will stage the Unibet International Hurdle – presumably still at Grade Two level – on Trials Day in 2024 rather than in its usual December slot. What this would mean for Haydock’s mid-to-late January race is not yet known. Surely deletion?

Hopefully, when – you sense there is no “if” here – this news becomes official, the re-siting of the International will be part of a wider coordinated revision of the entire Jumps Pattern, bringing sensible net gains to the sport. It will also be a good opportunity to start calling that race by its proper name, the Bula, again rather than persist with the meaningless title foisted onto it by some bright spark previously.

When interviewed on the Nick Luck Daily podcast on Tuesday (listen again below), Henderson also revealed he’d asked the British Horseracing Authority and/or JCR whether this season’s International – lost when the second day of Cheltenham’s December meeting was abandoned due to frost – might be rescheduled on Trials Day at the end of the month, indicating that Constitution Hill would run were that the case. The answer was clearly no.

On Boxing Day, as he did with the Matheson post-Newcastle, Henderson had also dangled the carrot of the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle and a sooner clash with the division’s long-time champion Honeysuckle than we were all expecting... before withdrawing it in the same breath. He’s since confirmed that was an idea that perished upon contact with oxygen.

“It’s not me – I think most English trainers would agree with me that having an 'away game' that close to Cheltenham is not really how you would normally prepare,” he said at Kempton.

“I hope people understand. Yes, it’s not all about Cheltenham – but it is as far as he’s concerned at the moment because the Champion Hurdle is what this programme we’re on is all about.”

Given Constitution Hill is only six years of age, and his next start will be merely his sixth under Rules, I think it is reasonable that Henderson wouldn’t seek to take in the Dublin Racing Festival en route to the Champion Hurdle. However, were this horse to remain in the two-mile hurdling discipline next season, that conservative approach would become untenable.

At least his trainer implied that, assuming all goes well in March, the novelty of two-and-a-half miles in the Aintree Hurdle is on his agenda. The four weeks that this year separate Cheltenham from Liverpool – the latter is a week later in the calendar than usual – does make the addition of the Punchestown Festival all but impossible, however.

The main threats to Constitution Hill will undoubtedly come from Ireland, regardless of what connections opt to do with Honeysuckle in light of next month’s Irish Champion Hurdle. Willie Mullins has at least two of them in State Man and Vauban, who dominated Leopardstown’s Matheson Hurdle and unlocked older stable companion Sharjah’s four-year grip on this race.

Paul Townend stuck with the then-five-year-old State Man following his transitionary success out of novice company in the Grade One Unibet Morgiana Hurdle in November. On that occasion, he caught Sharjah slightly out of his ground before the home turn and won by four lengths. Here, his mount was better again and extended his dominance over that rival by more than twice that margin.

Sharjah was seeking to outmatch Istabraq and Hurricane Fly, if only in terms of quantity, by winning a fifth Matheson, but blundered badly at the second hurdle and was already floundering against younger legs when looking a shade intractable as the field bypassed the final hurdle (also the first) due to the low sun.

“He threw away his chance at the second hurdle. Patrick [Mullins, his rider] said he wasn’t that same after that, so that was a big disappointment,” his father later reported. Nonetheless, after missing the second half of last season with a setback and now aged ten, this six-time Grade One winner and dual Champion Hurdle runner-up has been definitively ousted from the top of the Closutton pile.

Who will sit atop come Cheltenham – and whether Townend’s choice of mount will be so straightforward – is open to question, however, after Vauban defied the pre-race vibes to run full of menace in second. He was beaten four-and-a-quarter lengths at the line, but the detail makes this belated seasonal return even more encouraging.

The novice mare and 200-1 shot She Is Electric took the field along at a good pace – she knows no other way – and State Man gave clear chase in second. Vauban pulled for his head in the early stages, but pilot Danny Mullins fashioned some small cover behind Sharjah with fellow then-four-year-old Pied Piper on his outside.

Jack Kennedy’s mount had narrowly beaten Vauban on their mutual hurdling debut last December but found that rival had graduated to almost three lengths superior in the JCB Triumph Hurdle. Pied Piper had already started his second-season campaign, however, winning at both Cheltenham and Down Royal, so supposedly held the lever of superior match-fitness over his lighter-raced old rival. It didn’t work out that way.

Pied Piper was also a shade keen in the early stages and didn’t jump well – big at the overdue first (usual second), making a clear-cut mistake at the fourth and getting in too close two out (usual third last). Kennedy soon eased off and the partnership rapidly lost touch approaching the de facto last. A preliminary explanation was swiftly forthcoming, however, when the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board vet on duty found the horse to be “clinically abnormal post-race”.

She Is Electric, who didn’t jump as well as she can, was pressed for the lead by the winner nearing the second last and weakened before the next. If connections wish to continue thinking big, Doncaster’s Grade Two Yorkshire Rose Hurdle at the end of the month might be worth a shot, but she really needs her sights lowering.

State Man led on the bridle approaching the last, chased by his two stable companions. Patrick Mullins rode Sharjah to hold Vauban in a pocket, tempting his cousin optimistically to explore a seam on the inside of Townend as they approached the bypassed last.

But State Man was starting to accelerate at the time and, unsurprisingly, Danny Mullins went cold on the idea almost immediately, feathering the brakes and manoeuvring behind and to the right for a clear passage – by which time the winner had lengthened his advantage to a decisive margin. Yet the runner-up then maintained an engaged chase to the line.

Vauban will need to brush up his jumping – he was a tad slow at the third and awkward at the fourth – but was entitled to be rusty after eight months on the sidelines since augmenting his Cheltenham victory with an even more dominant performance at Punchestown. State Man admittedly dispensed with him under mere hands and heels, but he also held superior track position, got first run, a smoother trip, and was match-fit.

The disparity between them will surely shrink at worst but the ante-post Champion Hurdle market identifies the winner as Constitution Hill’s primary opponent at 4-1 (or 5-1 solely with BetVictor) whereas his stable companion is a relatively generous-looking 10-1.

“State Man did everything right,” Willie Mullins observed. “Paul said he was just going to keep it simple, and he did – he just followed the leader and took it off her when he felt the horse was going easy enough. Your eye kept being drawn back to Vauban... only four [years of age]... taking on these horses, having his first run of the season... he ran a cracker. He ran way better than I expected. I was very, very pleased with him.”

Asked by Racing TV’s Gary O’Brien why he’d elected to take on two stable companions at Grade One level on Vauban’s seasonal return rather than contesting the Grade Two four-year-old contest at Limerick that same day – for which just two horses were declared – Mullins explained: “I didn’t want to go down there in that ground for his first run of the season. You could leave your whole season behind in that ground. He’s a horse off the Flat, he’s not so much a jumping-bred horse.

“So, we looked at the calendar to see was there anything else left in January? There was nothing that we really wanted to run in. And so, I said: right, he worked all right the other day, not as good as I’d wanted him to work, but I felt let him have his chance around here, get a run under his belt and that leaves us maybe looking to come back here for the Dublin Racing Festival... or else maybe I can get a five-year-old race or something for him at that stage.”

The Red Mills Hurdle, a Grade Three at Gowran Park in mid-February, might yet appeal as a less fiery option than taking on Honeysuckle and State Man in the Irish Champion Hurdle. It’s a race Mullins has won six times but never yet with a subsequent Champion Hurdle winner.

The trainer agreed with O’Brien that State Man remained his number one hope: “He has to be. He’s doing it right, he’s just going through the motions, improving all the time. There’s no fuss about him. Paul has huge confidence in him. I’m hoping he’ll improve the whole way up to the Irish Champion Hurdle and then maybe onto Cheltenham after that.”

Townend emphasised that the winner’s jumping was “much slicker” at a “better gallop” than in the Morgiana, adding: “Every day he runs, he seems to build on the day before and I don’t think we’ve gotten to the bottom of him yet.”

Asked by O’Brien to compare him with the top-flight hurdlers he’d ridden previously, he said: “He’s getting there. I suppose Hurricane Fly was always a real accurate, quick horse. This lad stays two-and-a-half miles well. He’s got all the attributes; hopefully he’ll put them all together.”

Whilst it plainly wasn’t on his mind to ride the younger horse on this occasion, Townend acknowledged that splitting State Man and Vauban had been preoccupying him. “I was doing a lot of thinking about it during the autumn, [what to do] if they did clash,” he admitted. “But I was delighted to see the other horse run so well as well and he can only improve.”

As it turned out, Brazil was beaten in that Limerick match by his lightly raced novice opponent, No Looking Back. The 2-9 favourite would have been ill-suited to making his own running, but Mark Walsh had no choice but to set out in front in this Grade Three contest for four-year-olds – won in 2018 by the ill-fated Espoir D’Allen en route to Champion Hurdle success.

The mouse jumped marginally better than the cat but when Phillip Enright wiped the mud from his goggles approaching the second last, it signalled his hopes were high on the winner. Getting a good jump there, he used his impetus to pounce and head Brazil before the last. He then got in too tight and briefly conceded ground but drew away again on the run to the line.

“Mark didn’t let it turn into a dawdle around – he went an even enough gallop all the way,” Enright told Racing TV’s Johnny Ward. “Just going to the second last, we were quickening, and my fellow winged it and landed running, so I kept going forward. He got underneath the last a little bit but, in fairness to the horse, when I grabbed hold of him, he picked up again.”

Brazil had previously taken advantage of Fil Dor’s blunder at the penultimate flight to win the Fishery Lane but had shaped then as though he might be better with a lead for longer. Yet trainer Padraig Roche deems him a stayer, so Walsh was between a rock and a hard place here – albeit an up-tempo pace might have helped. No Looking Back is probably a decent novice, nonetheless.

Back at Leopardstown earlier in that same day, Shewearsitwell accounted for odds-on favourite Queens Brook by four-and-a-half lengths in the Grade Three EBF Mares’ Hurdle despite jumping deliberately throughout. Afterwards, Willie Mullins admitted she was aided by the removal of two obstacles due to the low sun.

“Halfway down the back, I was saying to [assistant trainer] David Casey, who was sitting beside me, should we put cheekpieces on her to tidy up her jumping? Her jumping wasn’t good enough – she was losing half a length,” he said.

“She got a very bad fall last season, and she hasn’t forgotten that, so I was delighted to see the last hurdle out and then she just started to pick up. Once her jumping was done, she clicked into gear. It’s taking a while to get her confidence back over hurdles. It will come eventually and when it does, she’ll improve more.”

That bad fall came in this race 12 months ago when, having already pecked badly at the previous flight, she stood off unfeasibly far from the fourth hurdle and took a crashing fall, fracturing bones in her face. She returned to the track after a four-month lay-off and had since won twice, including a last-gasp success in a Pertemps Qualifier at Punchestown in November.

Queens Brook attempted to concede 3lb to the winner and sat closer to the pace, making her only real mistake when putting down when asked to press the leader My Design at the fifth. However, she looked vulnerable from some way out as Shewearsitwell consistently made ground against her on landing from each hurdle.

The winner will still need something like cheekpieces to smarten up her jumping if she’s going to make an impact in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle – the race in which Queens Brook finished a good second last year. Shewearsitwell is a best-priced 12-1 with Coral, and the runner-up at 14-1 with Bet365.

On New Year’s Day at Cheltenham, fellow mare Marie’s Rock returned from an eight-month break with a career-best defeat of several geldings with big targets on their agenda – despite carrying a Grade One penalty for her rewarding campaign last season.

After typically taking some time to settle in the Grade Two Relkeel Hurdle (sponsored by Dornan Group), the eight-year-old mare travelled strongly just behind a relatively modest pace set by Dashel Drasher. Rider Nico de Boinville was confident enough to delay her challenge in the straight, only producing her at the last. She then ran on strongly up the final hill, pulling six lengths clear.

“I was a bit worried about this ground,” de Boinville admitted afterwards. “But there’s no-one better than the boss [Henderson] really, and that was an absolutely cracking performance to get her ready for this first time up. I thought it was an open race on paper, but she’s seen it out and she loves this hill. I was just amazed about how she went through that horrible stuff down the inside, but she’s a proper Grade One mare.”

Henderson indicated Marie’s Rock will head – groan – straight to the Close Brother Mares’ Hurdle, having ripped up the pre-season plan of trying three miles earlier in her campaign because he wasn’t happy with how she was training at the time. That suggests she might not get an entry in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, despite the possibility that stablemate Epatante could join her in the 2m4f Grade One, rather than contest the Champion Hurdle for a fourth time.

Fellow Seven Barrows inmate First Street narrowly failed to peg back Dashel Drasher – the latter is discussed in the stayers’ section – for second, having been less well positioned further back in a contest that quickened into a sprint from two out.

Nonetheless, third place – eight lengths clear of Knappers Hill in fourth – after working hard to get into contention in the straight, was at least as good as his previous Gerry Feilden success and confirmed him as a second-season hurdler on the up. Despite rider James Bowen’s post-Newbury advice, he again ran in a pacifying hood – perhaps because he was stepping up in trip.

Knappers Hill raced widest and, despite a relatively sedate early pace, found little up the hill after seemingly going okay on the outside of the winner on the home turn. He did manage to get past Brewin’upastorm, however, who jumped hesitantly at times and hung left in the straight.

Back in sixth, I Like To Move It – who won a five-hurdle Unibet Greatwood via a positive front-running ride – was held up in mid-division here and never threatened to get involved. Again, he wasn’t well positioned given how the race developed and appears less suited to these tactics.

Botox Has was under pressure before three out, where he made a mistake and quickly lost his pitch, whilst Tritonic watched from rear and was outpaced from the top of the hill. Langer Dan, laid out for last season’s Martin Pipe only to be brought down at the second and then gain compensation at Aintree, was also in the wrong place but he was never asked (or perhaps able) to get competitive. He did not have a hard race and, having already been dropped 3lb since his seasonal debut, is again starting to look feasibly handicapped when eased in grade.

Returning to the winner, Marie’s Rock triumphed twice at the highest level last season – first when springing a surprise in the Festival’s David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle, beating Queens Brook by just under two lengths, and then at the Punchestown Festival, with Epatante in a close-up third and Shewearsitwell beaten further in fifth.

The winner wears her head at a jaunty angle and refuses interviews, as ITV Racing’s Matt Chapman learned at Cheltenham! It had looked for a time as though the raw brilliance she displayed as a novice back in 2019 would be thwarted by a stress fracture and subsequent intractability, as she struggled to recover her form and ran just twice in the 2020/21 season.

However, a step up in trip last Christmas unlocked her latent ability and she has met defeat just once in five starts since, when badly hampered and pulled up in the 2021 Lanzarote Hurdle. Her defeat of Epatante might be explained by the latter having taken in Aintree as well as the Festival last season, leaving her stablemate the fresher horse at Punchestown, but their best form is not now too-far dissimilar, and Marie’s Rock deserves to be a point shorter than the general 4-1 on offer.

Even if you argue mitigating factors for the margin of Epatante’s defeats by Constitution Hill – an error three out at Newcastle and that baulking at Kempton – she has still thus far been well below her best. The Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle is increasingly looking like no soft option this term.

There’s room at the top of the staying division. With Cheltenham’s dual titleholder Flooring Porter producing another underwhelming display, Klassical Dream and Teahupoo missing from action, and Paisley Park taking his turn to beat Champ again, the ante-post market for the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle is just as undecided as it was pre-Christmas.

Quite rightly, after following up his surprise Lismullen Hurdle success with victory in the Jack de Bromhead Christmas Hurdle last Wednesday, Home By The Lee has widely ascended to the fore as best-priced 6/1 favourite. Some bookmakers retain Flooring Porter as their marginal leader, though, whilst the 12-month-missing Blazing Khal snaps at their heels on the basis of three mere novice wins.

Home By The Lee travelled far more fluently than usual at Leopardstown, necessitating only mild nudging as the field passed the stands on the first circuit. The pace was steady, however, with Danny Mullins again riding Flooring Porter in a conservative – even defensive – manner up front.

JJ Slevin this time opted to race on the outside of the pack from the outset, giving his mount plenty of space, and it’s reasonable to judge this to have contributed to Home By The Lee’s improved form. When he lost his position in the early stages of the Lismullen, Slevin switched to the outside and immediately got a better response from a horse he’d previously been scrubbing along.

In last year’s Stayers’ Hurdle, when Mullins orchestrated proceedings with finely judged front-running ride, Home By The Lee got stuck on the inside at the top of the hill before two out when hitting his customary flat spot and found neither room nor time to recover.

Last week, Slevin ensured his mount was never too far from the leader and even took the lead approaching the second last. That development was interesting because Mullins didn’t react, as if seeking to conserve Flooring Porter’s energy for one final rally rather than – as he has typically ridden when on song – continually inching out a little bit more from his mount to defy all comers.

At that hurdle, Flooring Porter went characteristically out to his left, requiring Mullins to haul him back on course, whilst Slevin got into the drive position and Ashdale Bob arrived, going best under Keith Donoghue, between horses. As this trio quickened towards the last, and 50/1 outsider Meet And Greet emerged from the pack to give chase, Flooring Porter was the first to crack.

The remaining pair jumped the last together but, even though he had been under the sterner pressure from his jockey, Home By The Lee pulled clear by three lengths from a one-paced Ashdale Bob. Mullins stopped riding 50 yards from the line, appearing to mistake the winning post before belatedly stirring back into action but too late – the pause enabled Phillip Enright and Meet And Greet to catch him for third.

Mullins later testified that he had “felt his mount change his stride pattern and eased off to see if he was alright before pushing him to the line when Meet And Greet joined him closer to the finish”. He also reported to the clerk of the scales that his mount had taken “a false step” at the 50-yard marker.

Leopardstown’s stewards were having none of it, however, suspending Mullins for five days for failing to obtain his best possible placing and ordering that he forfeit his riding fee.

Now aged eight and heading straight to the Festival, Home By The Lee has clearly matured but in truth he hasn’t needed to find more than a handful of pounds’ improvement to feature among the major players in this division this season. He is still yet to achieve the calibre of form Flooring Porter regularly realised during the past two seasons – albeit there is only a further handful of pounds in it now. Nonetheless, that makes more attainable the standard currently set at the top.

“When he won there,” trainer Joseph O’Brien told Racing TV, referring to his Lismullen victory, “we thought he’d come here and a reproduction of that would obviously see him right in the mix again. But I thought today was probably a career best because he really went through the race with enthusiasm that he doesn’t normally have, jumping and travelling.”

Asked whether it was the plan not to let Flooring Porter get too far clear in-running, the trainer said: “Not really, to be honest, because normally we’re not able to go with them horses, yet today he was travelling really comfortably most of the way. In fact, I was worried that we were so close to them because we were using more energy than we normally do, but he was going easy and so JJ [Slevin] was very comfortable there, and we knew that he’d find plenty.”

Of course, Home By The Lee’s new-found easy proximity to the leaders was at least partly a function of the slow pace set by Mullins – so, there’s a lesson there for the Flooring Porter crew, if their horse is currently able to realise it. He went hard for his 2021 Cheltenham success and slow last year, so provided he is well they have options.

However, Mullins’ ride last week makes you wonder whether all has been plain sailing behind the scenes. The horse’s characteristic zest has been missing in two starts now, his jumping less than fluid, and he plainly lost concentration approaching one flight. I wonder whether trainer Gavin Cromwell will reach for cheekpieces at Cheltenham?

That said, there might be a mitigating factor in what happened at the start. In his role as Racing TV pundit that day, Ruby Walsh felt Leopardstown’s starter appeared anxious not to have a repeat of last year, when Klassical Dream stole a march on the field and Flooring Porter was caught wide, out of his ground. It led to a procession – a fast-run procession, but the dye was cast at the start. 12 months on, the starter sent the field back three times and that might have had an impact on a quirky horse – albeit Flooring Porter would have responded keenly, not dully, in the past.

Runner-up Ashdale Bob made his statutory error at the sixth, but he was still produced with every chance at the last before finding comparatively little. Third in a muddy Coral Cup last season from a mark of 152, this was by far his best effort since – but he does like a crossbar.

Six-year-old Meet And Greet would have run a stormer even if he hadn’t been gifted third, doing well to rally so effectively after walking through three out. He’s clearly a smart nascent stayer, his erstwhile career-best coming on his sole previous start over three miles when third to currently crocked The Nice Guy in Punchestown’s Grade One novice event last April. He shouldn’t be underestimated in future.

Back in fifth, having been supported into 7/4 favourite, Bob Olinger again cut a sorry figure. Keen in the early stages, he seemed to relax towards the rear under Rachael Blackmore but there was again no verve as she asked him to creep closer. A mistake three out didn’t help and he was nudged along to make inroads on the leaders approaching the next, but they sped away from him on the home turn as he again hung left into the inside rail.

Some have suggested trainer Henry de Bromhead should drop Bob Olinger to two miles, and this race was not definitively preferred over the Matheson until declaration time, but sadly this once-brilliant talent seems to be ailing – and taking on Constitution Hill is surely not the best medicine.

Commander Of Fleet raced prominently until weakening quickly three out and blundering at the next. Saldier remains unproven at this trip and played no part, as did stablemate Mr Adjudicator.

Beacon Edge hated this soft ground and was pulled up after a mistake at the eighth.

The grand old warrior Sire Du Berlais didn’t want to play, needing some persuasion even to start and, after one hurdle, to stay in touch. It might be the dual Pertemps winner and 2021 Stayers’ Hurdle runner-up has had enough of racing now that he’s turned 11, after a long and honourable career for owner JP McManus.

His last two performances have been his worst since 2019 and this latest reluctance is a further deterioration. A final switch of headgear could be one remaining throw of the dice available to trainer Gordon Elliott, if he wants to persist.

Stable companion Zanahiyr was third in last season’s Champion Hurdle but ended that campaign with a heavy fall at Aintree when booked for second behind Epatante. He’s now run poorly in two starts this term but whereas in the Lismullen he returned with a wound to his right fore-cannon and further grazing, and had reportedly undergone further wind surgery since, there was no such excuse for him pulling up here. He’s clearly got a problem.

Yet Elliott, who also trains Teahupoo, might yet produce a potential Stayers’ Hurdle candidate from leftfield in the shape of Maxxum. He was an effortless winner of the Pertemps Qualifier that preceded the Christmas Hurdle over the same course and distance. Unsurprisingly, given the sounder clip the handicappers went until slowing comparatively from three out, he also recorded a better overall time.

Davy Russell discussed Maxxum on the second show in this series (watch again below), having ridden him to victory at Navan in mid-November. Last week at Leopardstown, having jumped economically in mid-pack in the hands of Jack Kennedy, Maxxum laughed at a 17lb rise in the ratings to stride clear by 16 lengths on the bridle from stablemate Eric Bloodaxe.

“The plan was to go to the Pertemps – whether we go straight there or not, we’ll see what the handicapper does,” Elliott said of the winner on Racing TV. “I thought it was a good performance. He could even be a horse that you could step up to Grade Two or Three company over hurdles.”

That sounds as though the Pertemps will remain Maxxum’s Festival target, however, even though he has been reassessed to an Irish mark of 138. (Remember the British handicappers keep their own ratings file on Irish horses, as a result of a number of disparities between the two systems, so that mark is likely to be different at Cheltenham.) However, Elliott also didn’t dismiss the idea of entering him in the Grade Two Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park later this month.

Two days earlier at Kempton, Paisley Park gained his revenge on Champ in the Long Walk Hurdle – rescheduled from Ascot – following their epic duel in Newbury’s Long Distance Hurdle last month.

Trainer Emma Lavelle made plain beforehand her concerns about the suitability of the track for an old soldier who famously hits a flat spot mid-race. The market overreacted by pushing him out to joint-third favourite in a field of five, but failed to factor in Champ’s longstanding preference for racing left-handed as the 7/4 market leader.

That proclivity was apparent from the first hurdle and would go on to interfere both with Champ’s rhythm and rider Jonjo O’Neill Jnr’s ability to measure out the pace as astutely as at Newbury. There were some good leaps but always drifting out to the left, and some stuttering ones, such as at the fourth and sixth flights. At four and three out, however, he was good.

That was where both Not So Sleepy, trying three miles for the first time and racing keenly, lost his pitch pressing the lead and the mare Miranda, hitherto unbeaten at Kempton but taking a step up in grade, started to be niggled along more markedly. Harry Cobden had also briefly got after her as the field headed out for its final circuit, passing the exit to the racecourse stables.

After three out, Paisley Park began to be driven along by Aidan Coleman whereas Jamie Moore shook up Goshen – another debutant at the trip – and shortly took closer order with the leader. Coleman then administered two reminders entering the home turn and, crucially, his mount managed to retain contact with the leaders. When he undertook a flailing Miranda on the bend and Champ received a flick of his own entering the straight, it was apparent Paisley was close enough.

Ultimately, it was easier than you might have expected. Both Champ and Goshen were already under maximum pressure after the penultimate flight whilst Paisley Park was making inexorable progress towards the inside. The crowd roared him home and he took his rivals’ measure at the last before powering away for an authoritative four-and-a-quarter-length victory.

“He means everything to us,” said Barry Fenton, husband and assistant trainer to Lavelle. “He’s been our flag-bearer now for many a year and he just keeps turning up. This year he feels every bit as good as he has, if not even a bit better. Last year, for whatever reason, everything was a bit hard work training at home, but this year he just seems bright and happy and enjoying himself.”

We can see on the racecourse what Fenton sees daily at home. Having battled back from arrhythmia of the heart, Paisley Park looked reluctant to start on several occasions last season but does indeed now seem a happier, more straightforward horse.

Fenton also revealed that Coleman had been worried about the tacky, holding ground – “probably his least favourite”. “But I just said to him: sure look, it’s Paisley Park, Aidan. You don’t know what’s going to happen. He seems well in himself. Maybe he’ll do it for us,” Fenton said, his affection for the horse so palpable. “He’s a fighter. He’s a poker player. I’d hate to play poker with him – you wouldn’t know what he’s got up his sleeve.”

Goshen clung on for second and is worth persisting with at this trip. His horizons are constrained, given he must race right-handed and clearly prefers hurdles to fences, but by combining a Flat campaign with selected Jumps targets, he can continue to give joy to the Moore family and those who follow this similarly charismatic horse.

Champ hung left to the nearside rail after the last and clearly found Kempton – where he was beaten in a bumper – a bit too tightly right-handed for his liking. After recent career-bests both on the Flat and at the course-and-distance over hurdles, Miranda was disappointing – beaten a long way from home and barely lifting a leg at the second last when already well held.

Paisley Park has contested four Stayers’ Hurdles – winning in 2019, seventh the following year and third for the past two seasons – but in a year when he is as good as ever and many of his prime opponents are not operating to their previous best, he is probably over-priced. Odds of 14/1 do not reflect the fact he boasts the best three-mile form to date this season.

Clearly, when conditions are suitable, Champ is of a very similar standard but he went into last year’s Stayers’ Hurdle in better form than Paisley Park and still finished behind him. It will be interesting to see whether either of these 11-year-olds turn up for the Cleeve at the end of this month, given their last outing has ended up so much closer to Trials Day than scheduled.

Following his six-length second to Marie’s Rock in Cheltenham’s Grade Two Relkeel Hurdle over 2m4f on New Year’s Day, trainer Jeremy Scott is inclined to pitch ten-year-old Dashel Drasher into the Stayers’ Hurdle, too – a logical facet to the mix-and-match hurdles-and-fences campaign that he’d previously mooted.

To date, Dashel Drasher’s chase form is a few pounds better but he’s yet to try three miles over the smaller obstacles. Scott might be torn between returning to Lingfield’s Fleur de Lys Chase, in which the horse ran so well last season, and having a crack at the Cleeve. Given Paisley Park and Champ might both be absent from the latter, that’s the way I’d lean. It would also tell you whether the Stayers’ Hurdle is the correct next step.

This is the time of year when horses failing to take to their chosen discipline are reinvented as staying hurdlers – either by their connections or by meddling analysts like me. In the latest Road To Cheltenham from Leopardstown, Jane Mangan advocated this for Ahoy Senor, given he won the Grade One Sefton Novices’ Hurdle in 2021 and his second-season chasing campaign seems to be coming apart at the seams.

However, trainer Lucinda Russell has since claimed to be “delighted” with Ahoy Senor’s 33-length fifth in the King George. “He just improved so much with his jumping,” she said. “I think going right-handed probably helped him – he just jumped perfectly. He got a little bit tired in the ground but that’s fine – his targets are in the Spring so hopefully there will be better ground then.

“I think he kind of improves a little bit for racing as well. Certainly, Derek [Fox, his rider] said at home, even, he’d improved from his first run to the second, from the second run to the third, so hopefully if he can improve again, that’ll be fine.

“He only had two runs over hurdles and two point-to-points, one completed. It’s not like Irish point-to-pointers – when you buy them at five, they’ve had a couple of schooling bumpers, a few schooling hurdles. I don’t think he’d had that, so he’s relatively inexperienced and he’s having to learn... He’s starting to improve again now.”

Even if you can’t agree with Russell’s working-out, I think she’s come to the right answer when mapping out the second half of Ahoy Senor’s season as: either the Cotswold or Denman Chase, prior to the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Aintree’s Betway Bowl. Both Cheltenham’s New Course and Newbury will suit this horse better than anything he’s encountered before over fences.

Finally, three absentees must be mentioned.

It was perhaps odd that neither Teahupoo nor Klassical Dream contested Leopardstown’s Christmas Hurdle after their seasonal debut 1-2 in the Hatton’s Grace, Honeysuckle in their wake - ableit this race may have come too soon afterwards. That form over 2m4f is slightly better than any of the three-mile contests discussed above.

Teahupoo is believed to need deep going but it turned out very soft over hurdles at Leopardstown. Klassical Dream is less ground-dependent and there has been no mention from Closutton of a problem, but there wouldn’t be. The latter is dangerous to dismiss ante-post, given his excellent record fresh, albeit he did only muster fifth in the Stayers’ Hurdle last year.

Charles Byrnes reported that Blazing Khal had suffered another setback in early November, after missing out on last season’s important Spring novice-hurdling targets with the first in a series of niggling injuries. However, last week he still couldn’t be sure when the horse would return.

“It’s slow progress with him,” Byrnes told the Racing Post. “We’re hoping to get him out in the next two or three weeks. It’s just been niggly things. I haven’t given up hope yet but I wouldn’t be rushing into backing him either. It is frustrating. The division looks to be open.”

Byrnes knows what it takes to win the Stayers’ Hurdle, having triumphed with Solwhit in 2013, but this update could hardly be described as positive and time is ticking away for a relatively inexperienced but seemingly problem-prone horse. In that context, 7/1 looks short – even if his trainer is understandably feared.

Advised 01/12/22: Noble Yeats at 66/1 for the Boodles Gold Cup with William Hill

Advised 01/12/22: Ahoy Senor at 25/1 for the Boodles Gold Cup with various bookmakers

Advised 14/12/22: Hiddenvalley Lake at 8/1 with Bet365 or William Hill for the Albert Bartlett