He's approaching his official 13th birthday but if Sizing Europe gets a green light to take on Grade One opposition at Leopardstown next week he is sure to carry overwhelming sentimental support from Christmas holiday fans.
However the remarkable veteran former two-mile champion chaser famously scorned any attempt to categorise him in sentimental terms when bringing the Punchestown festival house down last Spring with a hugely-popular victory.
That success persuaded connections to abandon any retirement plans, a move which immediately paid off with a storming defeat of the subsequent Grade One winner Road To Riches at Gowran in October although Sizing Europe was subsequently well beaten at Clonmel behind Champagne Fever.
Testing ground
Henry De Bromhead
is inclined to put that performance down to unsuitably testing ground and is postponing any decision on whether or not one of the most popular horses in the sport will line up in Saturday week’s
Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase
, a race he won two years ago, until the Christmas weather outlook is more clear.
“I will have to talk to Ann and Alan (Potts) and we will weigh things up and see what the ground will be like. He wouldn’t want it testing. But if it is suitable, I would imagine he would run,” said De Bromhead.
“He’s in good form at the moment. He was very quiet for him after Clonmel but we’ve freshened him up since. I think he’s just got more sense at this stage than to be running on heavy ground and Jonny (Burke) was good in that he wasn’t hard on him. Before that at Gowran he was brilliant so we’ll just weigh things up closer to the time.”
Sizing Europe, who officially turns 13 on January 1st, boasts a 50 per cent career strike-rate with 22 wins from 44 starts, the first of which was all of eight years ago at Leopardstown.
He has run half a dozen more times at the Dublin track during a stellar career, including a superb Irish Champion Hurdle defeat of Hardy Eustace in 2008 and landing the 2009 St Stephens Day feature novice chase. De Bromhead though has a nagging suspicion Leopardstown may not be Sizing Europe’s favourite track .
“It sounds a crazy thing to say about a horse that has won three Grade Ones there but sometimes I wonder if he might be better at other places. He didn’t run well last year in that race (fourth to Benefficient) and it looked like Captain Cee Bee was coming to beat him that year in the novice when he fell,” he said. “Then again he was awesome in the Champion Hurdle so it’s probably just something in my head!”
Definitely run
The English hope Uxizandre is currently a 5-2 ante-post favourite with the sponsors for the Christmas race in which three of Sizing Europe’s stable companions, Moscow Mannon, Special Tiara and Days Hotel, are also possible contenders.
“Moscow Mannon will definitely run. Special Tiara might go to Kempton instead and the ground might not be suitable for Days Hotel,” added De Bromhead whose unbeaten novice chaser Shanahan’s Turn will take his chance in the Grade One Topaz Novice Chase at the festival.
Shanahan's Turn landed the Grade Two Florida Pearl at Punchestown last month, beating a pair of Willie Mullins -trained runners, and also Lots Of Memories whose Navan win last Sunday boosted the form.
De Bromhead also has Grade One ambitions for Home Farm in the Lexus Chase providing ground conditions don’t get too soft. The horse won on his debut for the trainer at Thurles last month.
As well as Uxizandre, another JP McManus runner crossing the Irish Sea for a Christmas Grade One target will be At Fishers Cross who is set to line up in the three-mile Squared Financial Hurdle.
Welsh trainer Rebecca Curtis confirmed the plan after the double-Grade One winning novice impressed in a racecourse workout. “All being well he’ll run at Leopardstown. I’m not sure what else will be in the race but hopefully he’ll go and run a nice race. He came on a lot for his first run at Wetherby. He always comes on for his first run and the ground was pretty quick at Wetherby,” she said. “Hopefully there’s a bit more cut in the ground at Leopardstown.”
Another Cross-channel stayer, Cole Harden, will miss the race with trainer Warren Greatrex opting instead for a Cheltenham option over the New Year. “He has missed some work so won’t be ready. If he comes to hand quick enough he may go to Cheltenham over two and a half miles,” he said.
