Thursday 5 March 2015 22:50, UK
Donn McClean examines the enviable Cheltenham Festival team of Gigginstown House Stud and finds depth beyond the big names.
Imagine you were appointed CEO of Gigginstown House Stud.
Imagine you applied for the job, you got to the interview and, after a rigorous selection process, you got the job, permanent, pensionable, health insurance, free flights, the works. And imagine your first day in the job was the day on which Cheltenham Festival targets had to be determined. What would you do?
Road To Riches, Gold Cup. Easy one to kick off. He has a chance too. You couldn’t have said that the Gamut gelding was a Gold Cup horse before he lined up in the Galway Plate last summer, racing off a mark of 149. But he turned that Galway Plate into a procession. Then he won the JNWine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal, and he won the Lexus Chase. Now he is a 167-rated horse, and he is second only to Silviniaco Conti in the Gold Cup pecking order.
That Lexus win was a sort of coming-of-age for the Noel Meade-trained gelding. Not only did he prove that he could win a big race going left-handed – Eddie O’Leary actually believes that he is a better horse going left-handed – and on easy ground, but he also proved that he didn’t have to lead. And he proved that he had stamina. He out-stayed On His Own and Sam Winner up the hill, and you need buckets of stamina to out-stay On His Own and Sam Winner up a hill.
What would you do with the novice chasers? (You will find them in the embarrassment-of-riches file.) You might put Clarcam in the Arkle for now, Valseur Lido in the JLT Chase, Don Poli in the RSA Chase, Very Wood in the National Hunt Chase. And if you changed your mind between now and next Tuesday, nobody would mind too much because they would all have bet them on the non-runner-no-bet basis offered by Sky Bet and some other firms.
So how is Clarcam going to beat Un De Sceaux off level weights in the Arkle at Cheltenham when he couldn’t beat him when he was getting 10lb off him in the Frank Ward Solicitors version at Leopardstown in January? Not easy. Trainer Gordon Elliott says that you shouldn’t be afraid of one horse, so why not? You certainly wouldn’t be afraid of anything else in the race anyway.
Valseur Lido has a half a length to find with Apache Stronghold on their running in the Flogas Chase at Leopardstown last month, but that was the Willie Mullins-trained gelding’s first run since he was so impressive in winning the Drinmore Chase the previous November. It is reasonable to expect that he will come on at least a little for that run.
Don Poli is also trained by Willie Mullins, and Don Poli could be monstrous. He has shaped like a potentially top-class staying chaser since he won the Martin Pipe Hurdle at last year’s Festival. Interestingly, that is the race that the Gigginstown/Mullins horse Sir Des Champs won at the Festival as a hurdler, and Sir Des Champs finished second in a Gold Cup.
Don Poli stayed on really well to get the better of Apache Stronghold in the Grade 1 Topaz Chase over three miles at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival, leaving the impression that we haven’t got near the bottom of him yet. The Poliglote gelding is as exciting a young chaser as there is in training at present.
Savello could return to attempt back-to-back wins in the Grand Annual, but he is rated 155 now over fences, 8lb higher. By contrast, the Tony Martin-trained gelding is rated just 139 over hurdles and that could make a County Hurdle attempt quite attractive.
Which would leave Very Wood in the National Hunt Chase. The Noel Meade-trained gelding overcame an 11th-hour injury scare last year before he sprang a 33/1 shock in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle. That is Cheltenham Festival winning form.
He seemed to lose his way a little after he had landed his beginners’ chase at Galway in October, but he found it again with an impressive victory in the Grade 2 Ten Up Chase at Navan last month, when he beat a good horse of Tony Martin’s, Noble Emperor, into second place. The Martaline gelding should be well primed now, and his stamina knows no limit.
Don Cossack is a worthy favourite for the Ryanair Chase, he is unbeaten this season, four for four. The Gordon Elliott-trained horse was mighty impressive in winning the Grade 1 John Durkan Chase, and it looked like he was just getting the better of Champagne Fever anyway in the Kinloch Brae Chase when the Willie Mullins horse fell at the final fence.
So he has never won over fences going left-handed, but he is pretty good going right, and he won two bumpers and one hurdle race going left. Actually, he has only run three times left-handed over fences: he was second to a red-hot Ballycasey in the Grade 1 Dr PJ Moriarty at Leopardstown, he fell early on in the RSA Chase at Cheltenham last year, and he finished second behind new Gold Cup favourite Holywell in the Mildmay Chase at Aintree, when his rival’s superior stamina proved conclusive.
He appears to be an improved horse again this season anyway. He is now reaching the dizzy standards that his trainer set as legitimate targets for him since he was a youngster.
Novice hurdlers? Petite Parisienne in the Triumph. Again, that’s an easy one: four-year-old filly, winner of the Spring Juvenile Hurdle that has produced the last three winners of the Triumph in Countrywide Flame, Our Conor and Gigginstown Triumph hero Tiger Roll last year.
Tell Us More may be dropped in trip for the Sky Bet Supreme, No More Heroes may be up in trip for the Albert Bartlett. You can forgive him his disappointing run at Leopardstown in January as he scoped poorly after the race. Outlander over the same trip in the Neptune.
Lieutenant Colonel for the World Hurdle for sure. He is a stronger horse this year than the horse who faded to finish sixth in the Neptune Hurdle last year. The late Dessie Hughes always said that the Kayf Tara gelding would benefit from another season jumping hurdles, and those words are proving to be quite prescient, as evidenced by a brace of Grade 1 wins, a Hatton’s Grace Hurdle and a Christmas Hurdle. Dessie’s daughter Sandra has been training him for the World Hurdle since the turn of the year.
Champion Bumper? This isn’t a question that has been asked before too often, but maybe Stone Hard, maybe General Principle, maybe both. The former, trained by Willie Mullins, won his point-to-point and two bumpers by an aggregate of 22 lengths, the latter, with Gordon Elliott, won his point-to-point and one bumper by an aggregate of 30 lengths. Both are undefeated, so why not?
Lieutenant Colonel for the World Hurdle for sure. The words of the late Dessie Hughes are proving to be quite prescient, as evidenced by a brace of Grade 1 wins and Dessie’s daughter Sandra has been training him for the World Hurdle since the turn of the year.
And the handicappers? Ah the handicappers. You might run Edeymi in the Pertemps Final. The Barathea gelding saw out the three-mile trip well in Musselburgh’s qualifier, so the Pertemps could be the race for him rather than the Coral Cup or the Martin Pipe Hurdle.
The Tony Martin-trained gelding finished second in the Fred Winter Hurdle as a juvenile in 2012 off a mark of 135, and he was brought down at the third-last flight when he was travelling well in the Martin Pipe Hurdle in 2013, when he raced off a mark of 139. So a mark of 135 is fair. That is a mark off which he could be competitive.
Roi Des Francs or McKinley in the Martin Pipe Hurdle, perhaps. Roi Des Francs has won his last two, both impressively, and he has been given a handicap rating of 139, which is also a mark off which he should be competitive. McKinley, trained, like Roi Des Francs, by Willie Mullins, is a Grade 1 winner and a Grade 3 winner, and he has been allotted a mark of 136 by the handicapper, 4lb lower than his Irish mark. That is super-fair.
Savello could return to attempt back-to-back wins in the Grand Annual, but he is rated 155 now over fences, 8lb higher than the mark off which he won the race last year, and that makes things difficult. He would carry top weight in the Festival finale. By contrast, the Tony Martin-trained gelding is rated just 139 over hurdles, 16lb lower, and that could make a County Hurdle attempt quite attractive.
Dedigout could join Lieutenant Colonel in the World Hurdle if the ground happened to come up on the easy side, The Game Changer could go in the County Hurdle, Bishops Road could go in the novices’ handicap chase, Roi Du Mee could go in the Cross-Country, or Rivage D’Or or Ipsos Du Berlais, Tiger Roll could go in the Coral Cup.
And the others. You could legitimately argue that you have as strong a Cheltenham Festival team this year as Gigginstown has ever assembled. And you could make sure that you were on a decent bonus if you bettered last year’s best-ever haul of four.
Imagine indeed.
