Equinties - a stark reminder

Gm Equinauts

Before we start with the newsletter, we would like to say all our thoughts are with Irish Grade 1 winning jockey Michael O’Sullivan and his family and friends.

Yesterday, Michael ‘Mikey’ O’Sullivan suffered a bad fell at the last fence during the second race at Thurles when riding WEE CHARLIE.

O’Sullivan was immediately attended to and racing was delayed for over an hour until it was finally abandoned. Around the same time, the air ambulance arrived and he was taken to Cork University Hospital.

O’Sullivan was stabilised prior to his transfer, and the word on Racing X last night was that he was in the ICU.

By watching racing day in and day out, racing fans and punters can get desensitised to the sport and sadly, yesterday’s events are a stark reminder of the huge risk jockeys face every time they get out of bed and jump in the saddle.

The fall was so bad, the Racing Post have even wiped it from their database.

The IHRB just released this statement but it is no clearer if Mikey is okay or not.

The racing world continues to have hope for him and we wish him and his family the very best through this horrible time.

Let’s dive in.

HEADINE ROUND UP

SPEAKING VOLUMES

The Listed Sidney Banks Memorial Novices’ Hurdle turned into a nice race last year. HANDSTANDS beat JANGO BAIE and BUGISE SEAGULL, third to BRIGHTERDAYSAHEAD at Aintree, was one place behind.

This year, could we see something similar? Well, finding a Grade 1 winner, Grade 1 runner-up, and Grade 1 third-place from one novice hurdle outside of the spring festivals is a tough ask, but yesterday’s renewal was full of unexposed horses.

Let’s start with the winner, CALIFET EN VOL.

He was a bit sticky at one hurdle and it didn’t look likely after they turned for home, but his turn of foot after the last was impressive and he was well on top at the line.

He obviously has form with THE NEW LION, who we will speak more on in a bit, and the horses behind are no mugs. NO QUESTIONS ASKED, the second, was a horse Ben Pauling hyped up at the start of the season and the third, JAX JUNIOR, bolted up at Ascot when beating COUNTRY PARK last month.

The front three pulled well clear of JUNKER D’ALLIER, so we’re going to make the claim that we think this race could turn into a proper piece of form to follow going forward.

CALIFET EL VOL also beat AS LEGENDS HAVE IT at Kempton in November who has since finished third in a nice Doncaster maiden hurdle behind GEORGE’S LAD (MIAMI MAGIC form).

The McNeill Family and Nicky Henderson think plenty of him, and Henderson has a few ideas about his future.

He said: “He stays well. I was saying to the boys before the race that this was two miles three furlongs and a bit, I would have preferred two miles five furlongs and a bit.

“He’d need further than that. I thought that was a good performance from a big baby.

“If he went anywhere, you might look at the three-miler at Aintree, but I don’t even know if we’d need to do that. It’s only his third hurdles race.”

Henderson is a master at not overcooking these horses too early. He’ll be a lovely chaser next season, and Henderson will make sure of that.

POSITIVE SKELTON

We said we would circle back to THE NEW LION, and we have the perfect reason to as Dan Skelton took him for a racecourse gallop yesterday.

He galloped alongside GREY DAWNING and BOOMBAWN with BE AWARE, a County Hurdle/Coral Cup chance, running away from the pack.

Look, we don’t learn much from these racecourse gallops unless your name in Nicky Henderson, and trainers tend to be massively upbeat about these gallop and yesterday was no different with Dan Skelton.

Let’s start with THE NEW LION. Fitzwilliam Sports provided a good bit of banter announcing that he was a big drifter in their Turners Novices’ Hurdle market having been pumped by his stablemate BE AWARE:

But the truth is Dan Skelton couldn’t be happier with him, he said: “I was delighted with The New Lion beforehand as much as anything, just how sharp he was and how switched on he was. He's laid-back at home and Harry was delighted with him and how he finished out.

"I would say he's the best chance we've ever had heading to a novice at the festival, and I wouldn't swap him.

“We could have run him in the Listed race here, but I backed off him after Newbury and he doesn't need that now, even though we like to compete.

"Horses like him have maybe three, four or five days in them a year, and we're happy where we are right now. We thank Huntingdon for letting us come and they are part of the Jockey Club, who we support."

Where, and how, BE AWARE finished in the gallop is a bit interesting. To all known knowledge, he is a bit of a keen worker, and he seemed fresh during the gallop yesterday.

He ran away with Ciaran Gethings, and yet he still finished nicely on top at the finish.

Because he was beaten by 17 lengths at Ascot in December, he still has his mark of 137, and his form with BURDETT ROAD and NAVAJO INDY is starting to look rather nice. Is he the Skelton Cheltenham handicap winner in waiting?

On him, Skelton said: "It wasn't ideal that he was so keen in the gallop that Ciaran Gethings had to let him go to the front.

"To be fair he then took a good blow, and you saw how well he finished.  At home he can get very fresh, which was the reason for bringing him here. I didn't expect him to be that fresh, but he'll be doing this all over again."

RISK ON

Two bets, two winners yesterday:

Today we like:

15.25 STRAW FAN JACK

We love this horse and tipped him at Cheltenham for the Plate where he placed at 30/1. He’s had multiple entries this week which is telling, perhaps connections buying some insurance had Kempton been called off and we imagine he needs to go close or win to feature in the Festival this year. The yard have been quiet recently but are coming back into form with the few horses they have and if this lad is back firing, 16/1 will prove waaay too big. 16/1 is small ew hoping that he’s taking time to come back to form and he’s not lost it.

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