Banbridge is on track to settle some unfinished business in Cork’s Bar 1 Hilly Way Chase on Sunday.
Joseph O’Brien’s star looked set to put it up to Energumene in last year’s renewal of the €100,000 Grade Two highlight until a mistake at the final fence resulted in jockey Richie Deegan being unseated.
Just how costly a blunder it was got underlined only 18 days later when Banbridge recorded a career highlight by landing Kempton’s King George VI Chase on St Stephen’s Day.
It set up the versatile nine-year-old for a tilt at the Cheltenham Gold Cup but he failed to fire there and finished only seventh. He subsequently was last behind Galopin Des Champs at the Punchestown Festival.
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Now he’s set to return to action at the Mallow track, and back at the minimum trip, ahead of a likely attempt to retain the King George crown over Christmas. Banbridge is as low as 8-1 in some ante-post lists for the Kempton feature.
“If he ran a big race in Cork, Kempton would be the logical place for him to go next,” O’Brien has reported. “It was great to win the race last year and he has always been good at Kempton. If he had a good start to the season at Cork, it would be nice to go back there.”
Banbridge is one of just a handful of entries left in the Hilly Way after the latest acceptance stage, along with Energumene, but also the exciting new talent in the two-mile division, Majborough.
Banbridge is top-rated officially on a mark of 166, 2lbs ahead of Majborough and the Fortria winner Found A Fifty. The only other entry left in is the outclassed Ad Caelum. Energumene will try to become the first horse to win the Hilly Way four times.
Ground conditions in Cork are currently soft ahead of Sunday’s action, which will be shown live on RTÉ.
Sunday’s main support event is the Grade Two Coolmore Mares’ Novice Chase where Kala Conti could try to add to her recent impressive debut performance over fences at the Mallow track.
TV viewers of Irish racing will be well served this weekend as Navan’s Saturday programme will be shown on TG4.
The Grade Two Navan Hurdle is the feature there and entries include the Gordon Elliott pair, Kalypso’chance and Classical Creek. Both horses also are in the mix for the following day’s three-mile novice in Cork.
Elsewhere, Il Etait Temps is a hot-favourite to land Saturday’s Grade One Betfair Tingle Creek Chase as potential testing ground conditions have raised the possibility of defending champion Jonbon skipping the race for the following day’s Peterborough Chase in Huntingdon.
Willie Mullins’s star is as low as 4-7 for the Sandown highlight, where he is due to clash with L’Eau du Sud from the Dan Skelton yard.
In other news, the reigning Stayers’ Hurdle champion Bob Olinger is on course to return to action over the upcoming holiday period. He tops a hugely strong pack in the Stayers division for his owner Brian Acheson, who also has Teahupoo, Irish Point and Hiddenvalley Lake.
“He [Bob Olinger] will be out either at Leopardstown at Christmas or Cheltenham,” said Acheson. “We’ve got a bit of a debate going on because we have Irish Point to come out as well and one will go to Leopardstown and the other to the Relkeel, which is a race we sponsor and always try to have something for.”
Wednesday’s Irish action is on the all-weather in Dundalk where newly crowned champion jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle returns to action with four rides. They include the newcomer Greek Mythology in a two-year-old conditions event, although Alissam can use the experience of his own surprise debut victory over course and distance last month.
