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Anyone got any long term fancies for this race? Plenty of impressive young horses have been out over the past few weeks.
The usual suspects in England look to have some promising sorts. Mad Max did all that was asked of him the other day at Ascot for Henderson and Geraghty. Fine big stamp of a horse who looks open to plenty of improvement. Massasoit looks the best of the Ditcheat novice hurdlers so far, claiming the scalp of the much hyped On Raglan Road at Liverpool. Diamond Harry was very impressive at the Open Meeting and course form means an awful lot, especially in the novice hurdle division.
The two big Irish yards look to have two genuine contenders as well. Willie Mullins’ Hurricane Fly was very decent on the flat, beating Literato in a race in France. They’re planning on running him in the Royal Bond next week but it’d be no surprise to see him stepping up in trip after Fairyhouse especially if Cousin Vinny can build on the promise of his bumper wins.
Noel’s Pandorama came with a massive reputation from the point-to-point fields and he has done nothing wrong so far under rules. Many punters will question what he’s beaten but he couldn’t have been more impressive so far. He takes on the useful Alpha Ridge tomorrow at Navan so we should get some idea if his reputation is justified or not.
Mad Max looks impressive to me, a very big horse, ran well yesterday, jumped well and goes over his hurdles with fluency, he lands at pace too.
Plenty of room for improvement there too.
Pandorama was extremely impressive today. This horse has been given alot of hype, but horse fully deserves it in my opinion. I would be ashame to see Mad Max take it on, and at this early stage, i would fancy Pandorama to beat Mad Max.
But Mad Max was one of my main horses for year, and one i rate alot. So which one i will be on for ballymore pro nov hurdle im not quite sure as of yet.
But im certain it will be won by one of the two.
Pandorama was very impressive today. Alpha Ridge is no bad horse and he was made to look ordinary. Real relentless galloper this horse and he’ll be very hard to beat on soft ground. He’s definitely the type of horse you could see lining up in a Gold Cup one day if he stays sound. I know its a cliche but everything he achieves over hurdles is going to be a bonus.
Will be interesting to see if he meets Hurricane Fly before the spring. I have a feeling that Willie’s horse might just have the gears to beat him over two and half miles on decent ground.
Hurricane Fly will out pace Pandorama if a race turns into a sprint. He’s won at Auteuil (takes a very good Irish/British horse with a turn of foot to win a hurdle there) and he’s been a buzzer since last season.
Martin
I like Pandorama very much and find it difficult to believe that there will be anything with more talent in the field. Two things however concerned me, the first is the ground, likely to be good to soft or better on the Wednesday. I don’t think this is a huge problem and I think Pandorama can handle decent ground.
Secondly is Noel Meade’s ability to deliver Cheltenham winners after they have proven themselves the best of their generation or division in Ireland. The list is now a fairly long one, and whilst I think Pandorama may be the best of them…it does worry me.Can I ask a couple of stupid, basic questions.
In the ownership partnership Findlay & Bloom, is Findlay referring to Harry Findlay? Their horses so far these season seem moderate, so I’m not sure. If they bought a winner in the past couple of weeks, would it be of interest?
If a horse was trained by Paul Nicholls, and two of the owners were Sir Alex Ferguson and Ron Wood (Ronnie Wood?) would that also be of interest?
I deleted my previous postings because I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.
Okay, now that Pandorama has been turned over, and the trainer of the winner has expressed doubts about the ability of his horse to come down the Cheltenham hill, I’ll name my two suggestions. I don’t bet in these types of races, but it adds to the interest to follow a horse through the season and see how it goes.
As usual with me, the first one of these suggestions is a bit oddball.
Little Josh is a 6yo, which will mean he is 7 at Cheltenham. Maybe he will go novice chasing in the second part of the season? When it won by 35 lengths last time it was owned by Nigel Twiston-Davies. It is now owned by Findlay & Bloom. I’m not sure how I came across this horse when I was looking for something else. (I can’t remember how I came across the Racing Forum either.) Brennan was very pleased with the horse (well, I suppose you would be if you’d just won a mickey mouse race by that distance) and said the horse had a lot of speed. His bumper career wasn’t too spectacular. What will have you spluttering on your coffee is the breeding: at 125, he is already his sire’s second best progeny. In addition, his Grandsire has a flat stamina index of 8.6 furlongs and his Damsire 6.1f. Here is where the story gets better. His dam has produced two other hurdle winners, over 2 and a half and 3 miles. He comes from his sire’s second season, and his sire’s name is Pasternak! A good season by Little Josh should give the old boy a few more opportunities in the sack next Spring.
The other horse hasn’t made his hurdle debut yet: Picture This, trained by PF Nicholls and co-owned by Sir Alex Ferguson and Ron Wood (Ronnie Wood?). Apologies to whoever the third partner is. He won a bumper last year – maybe some of our Irish friends can say how he is regarded?
The two were due to meet at Lingfield yesterday, in a race that also had an Ascot H’cap Hurdle winner in it and a Doumen horse which had won a 1m4f flat race for mongrels last time out. I thought it would be an informative match up, rather than another of those bloodless victories.
Unfortunately, the weather intervened.Okay, now that Pandorama has been turned over, and the trainer of the winner has expressed doubts about the ability of his horse to come down the Cheltenham hill, I’ll name my two suggestions. I don’t bet in these types of races, but it adds to the interest to follow a horse through the season and see how it goes.
As usual with me, the first one of these suggestions is a bit oddball.
Little Josh is a 6yo, which will mean he is 7 at Cheltenham. Maybe he will go novice chasing in the second part of the season? When it won by 35 lengths last time it was owned by Nigel Twiston-Davies. It is now owned by Findlay & Bloom. I’m not sure how I came across this horse when I was looking for something else. (I can’t remember how I came across the Racing Forum either.) Brennan was very pleased with the horse (well, I suppose you would be if you’d just won a mickey mouse race by that distance) and said the horse had a lot of speed. His bumper career wasn’t too spectacular. What will have you spluttering on your coffee is the breeding: at 125, he is already his sire’s second best progeny. In addition, his Grandsire has a flat stamina index of 8.6 furlongs and his Damsire 6.1f. Here is where the story gets better. His dam has produced two other hurdle winners, over 2 and a half and 3 miles. He comes from his sire’s second season, and his sire’s name is Pasternak! A good season by Little Josh should give the old boy a few more opportunities in the sack next Spring.
The other horse hasn’t made his hurdle debut yet: Picture This, trained by PF Nicholls and co-owned by Sir Alex Ferguson and Ron Wood (Ronnie Wood?). Apologies to whoever the third partner is. He won a bumper last year – maybe some of our Irish friends can say how he is regarded?
The two were due to meet at Lingfield yesterday, in a race that also had an Ascot H’cap Hurdle winner in it and a Doumen horse which had won a 1m4f flat race for mongrels last time out. I thought it would be an informative match up, rather than another of those bloodless victories.
Unfortunately, the weather intervened.If Willie Mullins decides not to run todays winner at Cheltenham, then I think it would be rather foolish to ignore either of his other likely contenders (Hurricane Fly and Cousin Vinny). He looks to have a heck of a team, particularly in both novice divisions.
The winner today was impressive but it would surprise me if Hurricane Fly still isn’t Willie’s first choice for the race. The fact that Ruby went to Mallow instead of Navan suggests to me that they did not expect Mikael D’Haguenet to beat Pandorama and they were slightly surprised by the outcome of today’s race. Donnas Palm gave HF’s form a nice boost, albeit in a mickey mouse sort of a race and the 10/1 about him with Paddy Power is far too big.
The winner today was impressive but it would surprise me if Hurricane Fly still isn’t Willie’s first choice for the race. The fact that Ruby went to Mallow instead of Navan suggests to me that they did not expect Mikael D’Haguenet to beat Pandorama and they were slightly surprised by the outcome of today’s race. Donnas Palm gave HF’s form a nice boost, albeit in a mickey mouse sort of a race and the 10/1 about him with Paddy Power is far too big.
Ruby went to Cork because he is still not able to do a full book of rides. At Cork he only had a handful.
As mentioned before, or elsewhere, I don’t bet on hurdlers, so this is just a bit of fun and interest.
I’m regarding success as either of these two making the starting tape in this race.Picture This is the 2/1 favourite on Betfair for the 2m3f Nov Hdle at Newbury tomorrow. Ruby is onboard.
Little Josh has entries in the G2 at Ascot on Friday, and in the 2m4f fixed brush at Haydock on Saturday. Does the latter mean they are thinking of sending him over fences later this season? Da da da da.
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