Equinties - a legend gone

Gm Equinauts

John Hales, a huge name in the world of British racing, sadly passed away last night.

Only two weeks ago, John was celebrating with Dan Skelton in Windsor’s winner's enclosure, a very familiar place for him, after PROTEKTORAT won the Fleur De Lys Chase and its £86,000 prize.

From fluffy toys to furry four-legged jumping machines, John made his money in the toy world, with the Teletubbies, Thomas the Tank Engine and Basil Brush toys all being made by his company Golden Bear. His success at putting smiles on children’s faces allowed him to put smiles on punters faces by investing heavily into racehorse ownership and boy did he have some good horses. John enjoyed huge success with the likes of Champion Chase winners AZERTYUIOP and POLITOLOGUE and King George hero ONE MAN.

One Man sadly died racing at Aintree, an event which made the Hales family question the decision to send their beloved Grade 1 winner NEPTUNE COLLONGES to race his last ever race in the Grand National. 

They were brave and let him run and the rest in history, NEPTUNE COLLOGNES was subsequently retired a Grand National winner.

Hales didn’t just keep good horses, he kept good friends too and often partnered up with the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, their most recent purchases together including previous world-record purchase of REGENTS STROLL for £660,000 before beating their own record by buying CALDWELL POTTER for £634,000.

An absolute legend of an owner, racing will miss him dearly.

RIP John

Let’s dive in.

HEADINE ROUND UP

MADE OF GLASS

Remember the client funds John Dance apparently used to buy racehorses? BRAVEMANSGAME was one of them and MR GLASS, a SHOLOKHOV gelding from the same family as YANWORTH, was another.

We’ll forgive you if you don’t know too much about MR GLASS, but a few of you jumps nerds might remember him when he was venturing out over hurdles for the first time.

Why?

Well, he won two bumpers (we backed) – both under Megan Nicholls – and he won two hurdle races. He was even sent off 9/1 to beat CONSTITUTION HILL in the 2022 Grade 1 Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle (if they took each other on in 2025, he wouldn’t be 9/1, he’d be 9,000,000/1!).

Anyway, why are we bringing this up? Well, he won at odds of 4/9 at Wincanton yesterday, and he could have Cheltenham Festival targets.

A few years ago, he was clearly a horse Paul Nicholls thought plenty of. He went off 5/2 to win a handicap hurdle off 127 and he was then sent off 8/13 to win his final hurdles start in March 2022. Even when he came back off a 235-day break in November 2022, he went off 6/4 to win an Exeter novices’ handicap chase, but he was well beaten.
He took a 433-day break after that and then won two point-to-points for Will Biddick prior to yesterday’s facile win, a race that saw him sport the silks of Paul Nicholls.

He’s technically trained by Biddick and owned by Nicholls, and PFN could have a plan in mind for this nine-year-old later this season.

On Racing TV, he said: “I actually bought him off John Dance for Olive [Nicholls, his daughter] to ride, but she couldn’t ride today because she was banned.

“He’s a proper horse – he’s just had problems. He’s always had a lot of ability. He’d want another run because he would improve from today, so I just said to Will if he’s good enough to run in the Foxhunters and he said we should definitely enter him.”

So, it looks like Cheltenham could be on the horizon for MR GLASS. He’s a horse with “a lot of ability” that might give Olive Nicholls a live chance at the Festival, and he’s now a 20/1 shot.

NICE BY NIGHT

We’ve made some noise about ONLY BY NIGHT so far this season. We mentioned her earlier this week in regards to the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase, and we’ve kept a good eye on her.

Well, she’s not going to Sandown tomorrow, but Gavin Cromwell has confirmed the plan for her. On his William Hill blog, he said: “Only By Night held an entry in the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown on Saturday but she won’t run there. We want to get another run into her before Cheltenham and that will probably be in the Opera Hat at Naas (Saturday 8th February, 3.40pm). She does hold an entry in the Arkle but we’ll most likely go to the Mares’ Chase with her.”

Ultimately, she was very good at Cork in early December. She won hard held having beaten MIRAZUR WEST at Tipperary in November, and although she was beaten by ASTON MARTINI at Lingfield in January 2024, that form got a boost when ASTON MARTINI finished second behind ALTOBELLI at Ascot.

Cromwell could have a very strong team for the Mares’ Chase this year having won the contest in 2024. LIMERICK LACE was successful last season but she hasn’t shown her best form since and BIOLUMINESENCE put her hat into the ring having finished second to DANCING CITY in a Grade 3 on the weekend.

Although trainers don’t like to run their horses against each other too often, LIMERICK LACE may not be at her best and BIOLUMINENSENCE is on the slower side (and probably needs softer ground), so it makes sense to also target ONLY BY NIGHT at the race.

She’s unexposed, she looked classy last time out, and she’s still only seven. The Opera Hat can be a fairly easy race to speculate about the potential runners, so she could take on the likes of ALLEGORIE DE VASSY, FUN FUN FUN, or even LIMERICK LACE.
Roll on.

ANZA-DAMN!

We were just starting to get quite excited about ANZADAM, however, that feeling will have to be muted as the unexposed five-year-old has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

Tough one this, and this news will have lasting effects on how we perceive this horse going forward.

Look, horses pick up issues more regularly than you’d realise, but when these top horses have setbacks, they can be hard to keep on side going forward.
ANZADAM wasn’t ready to run through most of 2024, but he looked very good on his two starts for Willie Mullins this season. Hopefully, the setback won’t be too big, and we can hopefully see him next season.

On the news, Willie Mullins said: "Unfortunately Anzadam picked up a little injury at Naas and won’t be ready for Aintree. I don’t feel it’s prudent to try and rush him back for Punchestown so he’ll miss the remainder of the season.”

Speaking of setbacks, there could be another potential one to come through regarding KAID D’AUTHIE’s participation at the Dublin Racing Festival. No official news has come out, but KAID D’AUTHIE was set to run in the Grade 1 two-mile novice hurdle on Sunday against KOPEK DES BORDES and BLEU DE VASSY.

However, a rumoured stone bruise could rule him out of the weekend. Let’s see if this Racing X speculation carries any weight.

RISK ON

Good yield yesterday topped off by a winner and a 14/1 third in the two bumpers. Well done to weekender subscriber CBlake1994@ - you’ve won the £100 bumper profit, we’ll email you later to take delivery.

Today we like:

15.48 RIVER RUN FREE

Simply following the gamble here. Big money for it and it stinks. Small play at 2/1 to find out.

15.58 POWER FIZZ

Well bred and fancied today, probably the right race to break his maiden. Good bet at 7/4 and then small 7/1 double with RIVER RUN FREE.

15.28 MOMAER & 17.30 SNOW CREEK

A little Jack Morland 45/1 ew double and place double here. Jack’s had a great start to his training career and both can run into the places.

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