Hennessy Gold Cup 2013 Preview

You Can't Stop The Rock - Rocky Creek is a strong Hennessy fancy

This Saturday sees the staging of probably my favourite national hunt race of the season, the steeped in tradition Hennessy Gold Cup.

The Newbury race has been won by some greats of the jumping game over the years, Mandarin, Arkle and the mighty Denman all won the race twice while Mill House, Burrough Hill Lad and One Man also feature on the roll of honour.

Over the last decade the race has consistently been a vital piece of form for the remainder of the season, producing multiple Grade 1 winners, whilst also setting the pulse racing with thrilling narratives throughout the race.

Denman’s three runs in the race (his two post-Gold Cup win especially) were some of the most emotionally charged races I’ve ever witnessed and Bobs Worth’s win in the race last year was another pulsating afternoon of sport.

This year’s renewal might not quite have that sort of star power, but in a typically competitive running we could potentially have an array of stars emerge from the race when it’s all said and done.

Cheltenham 2014 Ante-Post – Triumph Hurdle

What's All The Huss About? - Royal Irish Hussar looks a good bet for the Triumph

My regular Festival Focus pieces for all the big races at the Cheltenham Festival will begin in the New Year, but between now and then if any decent looking bets appeal to me I’m keen to get them up and on.

It’s one of the most difficult weeks of the year to find a winner (Sprinter Sacre aside) so the stronger your ante-post portfolio is finding just one winner might be enough to nearly cover your week.

The Triumph Hurdle is a notoriously difficult race to take a long range view in with many of the likely participants not even appearing on a race course until the weeks leading up to the festival – last season Our Conor whilst having run earlier in the season didn’t really announce his arrival on the juvenile hurdling scene until 9th February.

That said, we’re not even in to December yet but I think I may have found one that will certainly go close in the Triumph this year if not take all the beating.

Nicky Henderson’s ex-Aidan O’Brien inmate Royal Irish Hussar is unbeaten over timber and couldn’t really have been more impressive in notching the last two of those three wins.

The latter victory was in the Triumph Hurdle Trial at Cheltenham and he has already proven he can come up the hill strongly albeit in a lesser race.

He can currently be backed at 16/1 with one bookie, with others having him in at 8/1 which obviously is good value. The concern is it is Ladbrokes that have him at the big price and they famously have an ear to Coolmore which would seem to suggest that for whatever they aren’t convinced by this son of Galileo, yet.

I am though and on Timeform figures he’s already put up a rating good enough to have made the frame in last year’s Triumph.

Another strong effort in his next run and you’d think Royal Irish Hussar would be single figures across the board, so now is the time to back him before the magic sign follow suit and cut him for the final day opener.

Recommendation:

0.5pt e/w Royal Irish Hussar @ 16/1 (Ladbrokes)

Betfair Chase 2013 Preview

Pipe Dynaste-y - The Pond House form can continue in the Betfair Chase

It often seems like it takes forever for the national hunt season to really get going but then once it does there’s no time to catch your breath.

This Saturday truly is another day worthy of the ‘super’ tag so often haphazardly thrown around these days and the feature race of the day looks set to be an absolute humdinger.

Many are dubbing it a mini Gold Cup and they wouldn’t be far wrong with a mostly high class field of ten currently standing firm.

Gold Cup winner Bobs Worth makes his seasonal reappearance, as does last year’s winner of this race Silviniaco Conti and last year’s leading novice chaser Dynaste also makes his first start of the campaign as we get to see just how good he actually is.

Throw in former Gold Cup winner Long Run, the highly-rated Cue Card and the enigmatic veteran Tidal Bay and you have the ingredients for (forgive me) a mouth-watering Lancashire hotpot.

Top Ten Performances of the Flat Season 2013

There may have been a rather large Frankel-shaped hole in the 2013 flat season but you can’t live in the past and thankfully new equine stars emerged, stepped up and thrilled with their performances over the past season.

Across the globe we were witness to some incredible displays that will live long in the memory and contributed to another fantastic season of flat racing.

As is now customary, my countdown of the ten performances that stood out most to me over the past season follow and as always my selections are based on a tried and tested method of form, visual impression and most importantly: bias.

The idea of the list if to highlight individual brilliance and horses that single-handedly stole the show so many of the pulsating Toronado-Dawn Approach clashes and a lot of the Breeders’ Cup action doesn’t make it in given that a lot of those races’ magic was down to more than one horse.