Equinties - targets

Gm Equinauts

WHAT. A BEAUTIFUL. DAY.

The sun is shining and if it wasn’t Wednesday, we’d say today is for sitting in a pub garden and watching the jumps!

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

BRITISH TARGETS

It’s that time of the year when the dust has settled post-Cheltenham and any trainer who has a winner at a ‘smaller’ track gets collared by the press in pursuit of knowing where next for their flagship horses.

THE CHANGING MAN and ROCK MY WAY ran big races in handicaps for Joe Tizzard. Tizzard thought that would be THE CHANGING MAN’s season over after the Ultima, but he has come out of it very well and he now has a plethora of targets. The Novices’ Handicap Chase over three miles at Aintree is one, though the Bet365 at Sandown could be another.

He only got 2lbs from the handicapper, and if he’s come out of it well, he could still be dangerous at Aintree.

The same races may be on the agenda for ROCK MY WAY, second in the National Hunt Chase, but the 3m Novices’ Handicap chase on Scottish National Day was also mentioned.

We gave a nod to Henderson’s plans in yesterday’s newsletter, but in an article with the Racing Post, he revealed later on in the day that LULAMBA could still have another run this season.

He said: "My initial reaction was no, he won’t run again, but Charlie [Morlock, assistant] said on Monday that you wouldn’t have known he’d been anywhere, so maybe we’ll have a rethink about another run.

"I don’t see why he couldn’t go again. My gut reaction was why does he need to go again, but on the other hand he seemed great yesterday morning.

"Part of me says to mind the horse because he’s got such a bright future, but all he is showing is that he wants to go and do it again, so we've got to juggle the balls in the air a little bit there."

He’s only had two runs this season, so a third wouldn’t be totally out of the question. We assume the Grade 1 at Aintree that SIR GINO won last year is the preferred target, though if he wanted a few extra days, why not think about the Grade 1 at Punchestown if CONSTITUTION HILL is already going over on the ferry?

Jeremy Scott could also add to the Champion Hurdle rematch at Punchestown as a trip over to Ireland with GOLDEN ACE is “our only option left”.

He said: "Unfortunately, Aintree will come too soon for her, given that she raced at Wincanton three weeks earlier, so that's pretty much our only option left, if the ground behaves and the horse is okay.

"She seems very well, absolutely fine, although she's taken a while to process it. She was probably as stunned as we were. It's a big thing for them, all that crowd noise."

She probably won’t beat the boys if they all stand up, but it would be fun to see her there. It’s interesting that they’re not thinking about the Grade 1 Mares’ Champion Hurdle as that occurs over 2m3f and would be perfect for her but after what happened last week and the motto ‘you’ve got to be in it to win it’ printed firmly in their minds, we imagine racing the boys will appeal.

As for Skelton’s squad, UNEXPECTED PARTY is going to the Celebration Chase after finishing second in the Grand Annual. It’ll be interesting to see how he fairs in Graded company when he is “off”. 

The Maghull Novices’ Chase is for L’EAU DU SUD, LANGER DAN will go to the Aintree Hurdle, GREY DAWNING is still on target for the Bowl, LIVE CONTI will go to the Grade 1 juvenile, and GWENNIE MAY BOY will go to the Liverpool Hurdle.

And finally, Fergal O’Brien will have a few for Aintree, but his main hope will be TRIPOLI FLYER in the Top Novices’ Hurdle over two miles. He was meant to go to the Supreme before being a late non-runner, but he is all on course for Liverpool.

O’Brien said: “Tripoli Flyer is fine, he had a temperature leading up to Cheltenham and we were hoping we’d get him there but it just wasn’t meant to be.

“We’ll take dead aim at Aintree now for the two-mile novice there.

“It would have been lovely to get to Cheltenham with him as his owner, Ismail (El Magdoub), is local but I suppose it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Got all of that? Lovely.

TESTING PEDIGREE

We want to see CALDWELL POTTER in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at the Aintree Grand National Festival, and Paul Nicholls might just answer our prayers.

Now, we’re not yearning for this or anything, but whether he stays or doesn’t stay three miles will hopefully have an impact on his whole pedigree line. That’s because he is out of the super dam MATNIE, the mother of BRIGHTERDAYSAHEAD, MIGHTY POTTER, and FRENCH DYNAMITE.

For a couple of seasons when MIGHTY POTTER was with us, connections said on the off occasion that he was a potential Gold Cup horse in time. Unfortunately, we never got to find out.

We’ve also seen Gordon Elliott say BRIGHTERDAYSAHEAD would stay further than two miles and we honestly thought we’d get to see this in her 2024/25 campaign, but with her sticking to hurdles, we didn’t.

She’ll go over fences next year which will almost force her to go up in trip, but what will it be? Mares’ Chase or Brown Advisory? Only time will tell.

So, that leaves CALDWELL POTTER who flew through the line in the Jack Richards Novices’ Chase. That occurred over 2m4f on the New Course, so his stamina would have been tested, especially from the front of the pack.

And now, Nicholls might be willing to test him out over three miles at Aintree!

He said: “Rome wasn’t built in a day. As I’ve always said, it just takes a little while to deal with the problems we’ve got with him, but we got his feet sorted out and in the last month he really took a step forward and was showing us what we wanted to see.

“It was a good, positive, fantastic ride from Harry (Cobden) and he just galloped them in the ground. He jumped awesome, we were thrilled with him.

“He’s come out of the race fine and the idea is we’ll go to Aintree, where he’ll have the option of going over two and a half miles and three. I’m quite keen to step him up to three actually to see where we go next year.

“I don’t think you could say he wasn’t staying the other day, that trip suits him a lot better as he can travel in his comfort zone. He hasn’t had a lot of racing so he’ll definitely join the team for Aintree and I’m quite keen to step him up to three miles.”

We really want to find out if this bloodline will stay three miles, and CALDWELL POTTER could be a good place to try this out.

After all, there is a new member of the MATNIE progeny who will be on track soon, so now more than ever is a great time to find out.

RISK ON

Good winners on the scoreboard with STAR ARTIST 5/1 and Norm hitting the bullseye too:

Today we like a shortie double:

19.00 NORTH STAR & 19.30 SPIRIT OF SUMMER

Two shorties who should take all the beating. 2/1.

SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO ENTER TODAYS BUMPER COMPETITION!

Become a paying subscriber of Premium to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.

A subscription gets you:

• • The weekender edition (Mon-Fri still free)
• • Every big race preview and best bets
• • That warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing the intern gets fed
• • Less than £1 a week!