Equinties - handicap the Jap

Gm Equinauts

We honestly can’t remember the last time we returned from Newbury with our tails between our legs.

We bet four races yesterday and couldn’t find one winner.

We probably should have had one in NORN LION but he had the opportunity to go past the winner and didn’t. Will he prove well-handicapped or a pig? Only time will tell!

We’ve dusted ourselves down, licked our wounds and treated ourselves to a good feed last night (always have a good dinner on a losing day, it makes you feel better) - if you can’t handle the bad days, you sure as hell don’t deserve the good days.

Let’s dive in.

HEADINE ROUND UP

ALL OUT AT SEA

Willie Mullins, among many fellow trainers, is probably ruing the lack of a Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Chase this season. Nicky Henderson has JANGO BAIE, Ben Pauling has THE JUKEBOX MAN, and Willie Mullins has a lot. IMPAIRE ET PASSE, BALLYBURN and, the horse we’re going to talk about now, ILE ATLANTIQUE. All of those mentioned horses could have run in the old Turners.

In previous years, the boss of Closutton would have MAJBOROUGH as his first choice for the Arkle and DANCING CITY flying the Brown Advisory flag. The horses mentioned above, as well as the likes of LECKY WATSON and CHAMP KIELY, would then be split across the three races.

This is part of the reason why Mullins has dominated the Cheltenham Festival over the last few years, and it’ll be interesting to see how he deals with just two Grade 1 novice chases this season.

So, ILE ATLANTIQUE…What to do with him?

Well, it’s fair to say that he was a bit of a baby over hurdles last season, and he does really look on top of his game now based on that success over FIREFOX and INTHEPOCKET at Naas earlier this month. As we said at the time, he doesn’t look like the quickest two-miler, and that’s why softer ground does tend to suit him. This is something Sean Graham, racing manager to Tony Bloom, relates to, as he said: "I spoke to Willie before he ran at Navan and he said he had got bigger and stronger, he was very complimentary. He did it well at Navan and when Willie dropped him back to two miles at Naas, I wondered whether Inthepocket would have too much speed for us, but Paul said he attacked his fences and showed a great turn of foot. The key to him is softish ground.”

Is he better than MAJBOROUGH? Probably not. Would he beat his stablemate in the Arkle, especially if SIR GINO is there? Same answer. So, as an owner and trainer, would you miss Cheltenham with him? Potentially, and here’s why.

He’s going to go to the DRF, either for the Irish Arkle or Ladbrokes Novice Chase. Either way, he’ll take on MAJBOROUGH or BALLYBURN and we know Mullins isn’t afraid to run his horses against each other.

So, instead of going to Cheltenham after this, why not swoop up a nice race which could suit better before heading to something like Aintree? The Grade 3 Flyingbolt Novice Chase at the start of March is a race Mullins won last year with BLOOD DESTINY. It’s over two miles at Navan and it tends to ride on slightly slower ground. He could run there under a penalty after the DRF (roughly 30-day break) and then have a few more weeks rest before Aintree when he could run in the Grade 1 Manifesto Novices’ Chase over 2m4f.

We are purely speculating at this stage, but with the new changes to the Cheltenham Festival, it might not be the worst idea.

IRISH INTEREST

GERRI COLOMBE is not coming to Windsor. This is something we’ve already spoken about.

However, there is still some Irish interest, and why not?

The prize to first place is £85,850 and second picks up a handy £39,468, so if there’s any chance of cashing in, you might as well go. But, who’s the horse? Well, it’s Henry de Bromhead’s JOURNEY WITH ME who was last seen in the John Durkan in November when beaten by 36 lengths.

JOURNEY WITH ME is a decent horse who has probably failed to reach up to the hype placed upon him. He beat the useful BRIDES HILL on his second chase start before beating LIMERICK LACE in 2023, form that looks decent based on what she did in the Mares’ Chase one year later. He bolted up when beating APPRECIATE IT in April 2024, but of the four times he’s entered Grade 1 company, he has failed to land a blow. He is nine, but he’s had just 14 runs and that run in the John Durkan was his first run of the season, so he’s entitled to come on for it.

On his running plans, de Bromhead said: "The plan is to go to Windsor with Journey With Me. He's in at Thurles as well but the plan is Windsor at the moment. "He came back a bit sore from the John Durkan. I was a bit disappointed with him at Punchestown on the day but he got jumped into early on in the race out the back so he was sore for a few days after as he got struck into. He's been in great form since though and we're looking forward to getting him going again."

Look, we can’t say too much about him. All we can say is, at this stage, the race looks wide-open, and that’s honestly a great compliment to him. Not one horse stands out as a ‘hard to beat’ contender, so coming here instantly makes sense as he can viably win. Should be a great race to watch.

AROUND THE WORLD

As mentioned earlier this week, ALL THE WORLD, for Japanese trainer Kazuya Nakatake, was entered for the Champion Hurdle. He’s not going to win the race, but it’s beautiful to see the Cheltenham Festival attracting international interest from Japan of all places!

Well, we have a bit more information on why the entry was made and what the plan truly is, and it could involve a Cheltenham race away from the Champion Hurdle. Jon Pullin, clerk of the course at Prestbury Park, said: “We’re liaising with connections and the BHA on the eligibility of All The World to run in handicaps and novice hurdles. In the meantime, we wanted to ensure he received an entry in the Champion Hurdle.”

On this point, just to our untrained eye, he won his first race over hurdles in January 2024, so that would normally mean he is excluded from the novice races. But, with six hurdles races under his belt, he should be allowed in the handicaps. If handicaps are the route they go down, we do feel for the handicapper because boy will it be hard to assess him. The clues would be the two horses who finished ahead of him the last day, JUNE VELOCITY and ECORO DUEL, who finished second and fourth in Grade 1 company on their next starts. He’s also bred in the purple as he is a half-brother to the Grade 1 winner DANON THE KID.

It’ll be interesting to see where they go with him come March. Watching him on decent ground in a County Hurdle could be quite fun!

RISK ON

We imagine the Boughey filly might have come out of the race lame last night, she didn’t show her true running. Newbury was a disaster but we were only playing fun stakes. Time to win back some money.

Max bet Monday but for today we are going to pick carefully and will post later this afternoon to X @equinties.

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