RACING:WITH CHELTENHAM just over four weeks away, hopes will be high that tomorrow's bumper Grade One card at Leopardstown can buck the trends and throw up some festival winners.
The presence of a number of cross-channel horses on a card that includes four Grade Ones and has almost €400,000 in prizemoney up for grabs bring another intriguing pre-festival element to a meeting that is hugely valuable in its own right.
Cheltenham, though, casts a huge shadow over this fixture every year so it is worth bearing in mind how winning at Leopardstown is certainly no guarantee of success a month later.
Bostons Angel managed to win last year’s Dr PJ Moriarty Chase before going on to land the RSA and that’s a double Last Instalment will be fancied to pull off too if impressive tomorrow.
Michael O’Leary’s star novice is likely to have just three to beat in the Moriarty and after a stylish Fort Leney success over three miles at Christmas it will be disappointing if he can’t follow up here.
His trainer, Philip Fenton, caught the general pre-festival mood yesterday and reported: “I’m not too worried about coming back in trip. With Cheltenham just around the corner it should be fine.”
Before Bostons Angel, however, no Moriarty winner had gone on to win at Cheltenham since Florida Pearl in 1998. No Deloitte winner has completed the double since Brave Inca in 2004 and Commanche Court was the last Spring Juvenile Hurdle victor to also score at Cheltenham in 1997.
Just seven line up for the Deloitte Novice Hurdle and there’s little doubt the most fascinating element is provided by Nicky Henderson’s Tolworth Hurdle winner Captain Conan. The ex-French star faces two other Grade One winners in Sous Les Cieux and Cash And Go with the Irish pair having clashed here at Christmas.
“It will be interesting to test the English and Irish horses before Cheltenham, as that doesn’t get done very often,” Henderson said. “I asked Barry (Geraghty) whether he thought I was mad to supplement, but Barry thought it was a sound enough plan.”
A dozen are being readied to contest the Juvenile Hurdle including the John Ferguson-trained Huntingdon winner Asaid and Countrywide Flame who found only Hollow Tree too good for him in a Chepstow Grade One in December.
“I’ve had a look at the runners and it’s a competitive race, but we feel he’s got a chance,” Countrywide Flame’s trainer John Quinn said. “He should handle the ground alright as it will hardly be as soft as it was at Chepstow.”
Some of the best Irish juveniles like Ut de Sivola and Sportsmaster take their chance against him but the cross-channel form can come out tops.
