Novice Chasers 2016/2017

Sizing Europe made his debut over fences in May and was declared overnight for a novice chase at Roscommon in September.
 
Grasshopper said:
Not really, Paul, considering Altior's first outing over hurdles was in October.
Click to expand...

The point I'm making Nick is that a campaign for a novice chaser split in two halves to take him fresh and at his best to the Festival can't be bad surely?

A soft education without being pressed, a step up for one or two in Oct/Nov, and then a proper test in Jan/Feb at Chelenham or Newbury wouldn't be a problem for me if I owned him, particularly knowing he prefers good or better. Seems sensible if you ask me.

Too many trainers send novices to the Festival after a tough campaign, or have had a rushed prep and had two or three runs in a short space of time. Others can't get a prep when they need one because of the weather, and in the case of Henderson they don't get a prep at all because he says all they need is a racecourse gallop after the weather gods have shafted him yet again.
 
Last edited:
Perpetual said:
of course. I'm surprised Barters Hill's not been cut on the back of Pauling making a positive comment on RUK...
Click to expand...

From RUK

Ben Pauling is looking to set Barters Hill on his novice chase career in October with the Kauto Star Novices' Chase at Kempton a possible main objective for the first half of the season.

The Grade One on Boxing Day, originally known as the Feltham, could be Barters Hill's first try at three miles over fences as the Gloucestershire trainer wants to give the six-year-old his first runs over two and a half miles.
Pauling reports Barters Hill, who was a leading staying novice hurdler last season, to have done tremendously well over the summer and is excited by the prospect ofrunning him over fences.
"He's in great form. He's never summered so well. He looks magnificent, very strong and powerful, and I'm thrilled with the way he's come back," he said.
"He's doing two canters and looking great. He's on track for an end-of-October start at either Bangor on the 25th or Huntingdon on the 30th, both over two and a half miles.
"He's going novice chasing - that's what we bought him for.He schooled brilliantly over fences at the back end of last year and he should not be far off the top in the novice chasing order this season.
"I'm keen to come back to two and a half miles. I'm certain he stays three miles, but I don't think he needs to go there.
"I think we'll go back to two and half, certainly for the first half of the season.
"There's a two-and-a-half-mile novice chase at the Paddy Power meeting (at Cheltenham) or there's the Fuller's London Pride, a Grade Two, at Newbury at the end of November.
"Then we'll probably look to the Feltham at Christmas time."
He went on:"Depending on what happens early doors depends where we go afterwards. You might not see him after Christmas until Cheltenham because he had a hard-enough race at Doncaster in January (last season). A nice long break between would probably suit him well.
"He's a different kettle of fish this year. He has matured and looks fantastic."
 
Maruco said:
The point I'm making Nick is that a campaign for a novice chaser split in two halves to take him fresh and at his best to the Festival can't be bad surely?

A soft education without being pressed, a step up for one or two in Oct/Nov, and then a proper test in Jan/Feb at Chelenham or Newbury wouldn't be a problem for me if I owned him, particularly knowing he prefers good or better. Seems sensible if you ask me.

Too many trainers send novices to the Festival after a tough campaign, or have had a rushed prep and had two or three runs in a short space of time. Others can't get a prep when they need one because of the weather, and in the case of Henderson they don't get a prep at all because he says all they need is a racecourse gallop after the weather gods have shafted him yet again.
Click to expand...

Paul, a run in a two-bit novice chase in August, isn't really worth a carrot in terms of a spring campaign, imo. The only upside in running a novice-chaser that early in the season, is to give a horse a soft introduction.....generally one so soft as to be generally pointless. Said horse will also have to run with a penalty in future novice-chases, and will basically have to give weight to better animals, from October onwards. And for what? To give him a jumping lesson that isn't hugely education, to win three-grand?

It wouldn't be me.

The point is noted about Sizing Europe, Luke, but that run equates to end and-of-last-season outing, rather than an early start to the new season, imho. Maybe they felt they had to run him to take the edge off him, as it was only two weeks after Punchestown, and he hadn't run since the previous December before that. No matter. He wasn't seen out again until October, which is the right time to introduce them (again, imo).
 
LUKE said:
Sizing Europe made his debut over fences in May and was declared overnight for a novice chase at Roscommon in September.
Click to expand...

That Roscommon chase is a graded affair worth 30k; not to be sneezed at by anyone.
Kalderon won it i remember along with other notables and Roscommon always gets a decent crowd to boot along with Ballinrobe and Kilbeggan.
I would recommend anyone to visit those tracks for good old fashioned atmosphere.
(Off the point I know )
 
Relevant statement by Neil Mulholland in RP

Explaining the early start, Mulholland said: "He's not a winter horse and he won't be running in December or January. We ran him once in January last season to see if he handled the soft ground and he didn't. His last two wins were on good ground and that's what it will be here."
Shantou Village recorded wide-margin victories at Carlisle and Cheltenham last autumn and, following that defeat to Yanworth in January, Mulholland stepped the six-year-old up to three miles in the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle at the festival.
Sent off the 7-2 favourite, Shantou Village was pulled up by Richard Johnson after having been struck into.
"He was alright after pretty quickly and we were just very lucky it wasn't something more serious," said Mulholland. "He won his only point-to-point so we're very happy with his jumping."
 
Statement from Mulholland this evening

The plan is September 30 over course and distance (Stratford) and then the 3m novice chase at Cheltenham on October 21.
 
Where does it say he's running at Stratford on 30/9?

There isn't a meeting at Stratford that day I don't think.

I took it to mean he was back over the same trip at Fontwell.
 
That Cheltenham race doesn't normally take a lot of winning and he'd only have to be above average to succeed under a double penalty, Art Mauresque managed it last year.

It's extremely early days, he beat nothing yesterday and it'll likely be the same at Fontwell and only slightly harder at Cheltenham so I doubt he'll still be 25/1 for the RSA next spring - which is top heavy due to the presence of unlikely runner Thistlecrack (NR IMO at least) - when he'll potentially be 3/3 over fences.

I find it hard to imagine they'll be heading down the NH chase route.
 
Last edited:
I agree with nearly everything you say wilsonl (god help me as am considering a festival AP bet in August!), though the race they’re targeting is the 3 miler on the Friday.

This also doesn't take much winning though, having been won by Shantou Flyer, The Romford Pele and Twirling Magnet over the last few years, all with dbl penalties I think.
 
Perpetual said:
I agree with nearly everything you say wilsonl (god help me as am considering a festival AP bet in August!), though the race they’re targeting is the 3 miler on the Friday.

This also doesn't take much winning though, having been won by Shantou Flyer, The Romford Pele and Twirling Magnet over the last few years, all with dbl penalties I think.
Click to expand...


Aye, and all of the above went onto rip-roaring success thereafter, Perp! :lol:

Shantou Flyer has won once in seven subsequent chase starts, and Twirling Magnet has won two Hunter Chases in 17 subsequent starts.

TRP won the race on his 8th start over fences as a second-season novice, and went up to 150 for the win. He hasn't been sighted at the business end of a race since, including when beaten off 139 last time out.
 
We're talking different circumstances here though Grass. Mulholland has made it clear - as if it wasn't beforehand - that the horse needs good ground, which incidentally makes his heavy ground defeat by Yanworth all the more meritorious.

So he's deliberately giving the horse an outing over CD for the experience, when he's likely to get his ground before putting him away. Those mentioned never had the same scope as Shantou Village and in all probability were simply making hay until the big boys came out.
 
As above and the point is a dbl penalty shouldn’t be a problem (those were 120 hurdlers, whereas Shantou was 146 & went off fav for the Albert Bartlett)

I’m smiling as I type though, as am talking myself into a wager, even though I have WRITTEN rule of no Ap fez bets before October. Can’t do too much harm though at 25-1…
 
Granted that's true, Lee........but how many novice chasers can you recall that have had three outings before November, been put away until the spring, and then actually gone on to do anything useful at the Festivals? I can't think of any.

It's a nonsense way to campaign a horse with pretensions to the top anyway (imho). And the ground argument is bogus. His run behind Yarnworth was very smart, and is probably still the best run of his career to-date, notwithstanding the fact that Yarnworth got turned over at Cheltenham.

Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon, but SV should be battling it out with them throughout the winter, as far as I'm concerned. Poncing about against boats in the late summer, and then hiding away when the real players re-appear, is a load of old co*ck as far as I'm concerned. :)
 
Nothing wrong with a bit of old skool but Mulholland is a canny young trainer and the way I see it is we're likely to have a fresh horse turn up in March, probably having his ground and is 3/3 over fences with a CD to his name - albeit having beaten up inferior opposition.

At the very least backing him now at 25s is going to give you a great hedging opportunity when he's a single figure price on the day because there's no way he'll be any bigger than that.

While I'm with Perp in struggling to bring myself to having an AP Cheltenham bet before the St Leger, this is good early one for the e/w multi AP bets.
 
Last edited:
Gigginstown usually have a decent crop for both the JLT and the RSA. I'm looking forward to Alpha Des Obeaux and, in particular, Prince Of Scars. They may prefer the ground on the soft side but both are some way ahead of Shantou Village and Barters Hill on hurdles form.
 
Back
Top