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Equinties - Bordes on the bench
BGP Capital
December 11, 2025
Gm Equinauts
It was good to see Hendo land a double yesterday on his 75th birthday, one of the winners being the highlight touted SOOMAROY who opened proceedings at Hereford.
The 190k expensive gelding has a good French flat oriented dam side so shouldn’t lack pace and he can rise nicely in the 2m hurdling sphere from now.
Well done, Hendo!
Let’s dive in!
HEADLINE ROUNDUP
BORDES ON THE BENCH (FOR NOW)
Just when the Arkle Novices’ Chase picture was heating up, the racing Gods above decided to throw a spanner into the works, and that spanner is sizeable.
That’s because KOPEK DES BORDES, the ante-post favourite for the Arkle, has been ruled out of his Christmas assignment due to a “minor setback”. Surely we’re not the only ones that get shivers down the spine when we hear the words “minor setback”, as that could mean a week or 52.
Owner, Charlie McCarthy, said: "Willie said he just had to get a loose chip in his knee removed, so he’s short a week in his preparation for Christmas as a result.
"It’s only minor but it wouldn’t be right to run him at Christmas, so he [Mullins] decided it’s better to wait for the Dublin Racing Festival. It’s just a minor setback. If it was another week or ten days he’d be ready to run as he’s in great form."
Those quotes, on face value, don’t sound too bad. If this is the case, and he returns to the Dublin Racing Festival as his usual self, then there is no reason to have any concerns with the horse.
However, knowing horses and horse racing, it is sometimes never as simple as ‘horse has setback, horse returns from setback at the correct time, horse is back to his best’. That would be in the back of our minds, but it wouldn’t be overly prominent given the transparency of the owners (a breath of fresh air for punters).
Furthermore, this setback seems different to the usual ‘issue at home on the gallops’. Willie Mullins has made the conscious decision to have a loose chip removed, and one would imagine that he wouldn’t do that to one of his star horses of the future if it was going to have a major setback on his racing career. Anyway, KOPEK DES BORDES can now be backed at 9/4 (small drift) and LULAMBA is the same price in places, though he is 7/4 in more places. So, with many bookies, LULAMBA is favourite, one day after Nicky Henderson’s birthday!
ROMEO COOLIO is 4/1, and the ante-post markets for the Racing Post Novice Chase at Christmas seem to indicate that ROMEO COOLIO is going down this route. He moved into fav before the KOPEK DES BORDES news, and he is now 4/9 after the story broke, which is short. SALVATOR MUNDI is 3/1 for the same race, IRISH PANTHER is 4/1, and JULY FLOWER is 9/2.
A HOT FEVER
For a few weeks, we (as Brits being the authors behind this publication) have been standing tall, chest pushed out, chin up in the air, asking for the Irish put forward a Supreme contender, in the full knowledge that one Willie Mullins-trained horse could turn up and make all of our contenders look weak.
It’s almost like the winger on the rugby field giving it large from the touchline while the hard blokes have a scrap in the middle of the pitch. In this horse racing scenario, the one to be worried about from the Irish, based on the market, is BAMBINO FEVER, and she now holds an entry to make her hurdling debut.
This is for obvious reasons as she is the Champion Bumper heroine, and the form of the race doesn’t look toooo bad at this stage, even if the renewal wasn’t ‘vintage’.
HEADS UP has done well to frank the form, IDAHO SUN looks smart, SORTUDO has won a maiden hurdle, and NO DRAMA THIS END was in ninth.
She is entered for a mares maiden hurdle at Naas on Monday, and how impressive she is could alter whether she goes against the geldings this season or remains in mares company. On the horse ahead of her seasonal reappearance, her co-owner, Willie Morgan, said: “She probably did too well over summer, hence why we haven't seen her. She came back to my father’s place on grass with the cattle. She just got very strong and put on plenty of weight. All in good areas, it’s not a criticism of her.
“I know Ruby Walsh commented on her before her win at Punchestown, with his exact words being that she 'looked rather round'. She’s just that kind of mare. The more you gallop her, the more she eats and the better she does. She’d eat you out of house and home. But she hasn’t missed any training, or it’s not that she has had any setbacks. She has been back at Willie’s since Galway.
“I haven’t a clue if she will go the mares-only route. I suppose it will depend on how she goes [before then]. I imagine she'll run in a maiden hurdle and then maybe go straight to the Dublin Racing Festival [DRF]. That’s basically what she did last year.
“If she does well in her maiden hurdle, she'll probably take on the geldings at the DRF, and that will tell a lot. At the moment, I don’t know, and we leave it to Willie. Willie always says, 'Let the mare tell us'.”
Here’s the thing with BAMBINO FEVER. She is only five, so she has improvement to go, and she is a two-time Grade 1 winner. That being said, can you be confident about her as a genuine Supreme contender? A girl versus the boys? At this stage (and this is very early to make this statement as she hasn’t jumped a hurdle in public yet), we think no.
The Champion Bumper may be “okay”, but that’s the extent of our positivity. NO DRAMA THIS END didn’t really run his race that day, and the likes of SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY (3rd), CABALLERO CLIFF (4th), and HE CAN’T DANCE (8th) have been munched since over hurdles. CABALLERO CLIFF ran at Leicester yesterday, and he was beaten 28 lengths ffs. And then her Punchestown run. Watch that back and you’ll see that SWITCH FROM DIESEL almost looked like the winner turning from home, and at the time, she was a second-season bumper horse who still hadn’t gone over hurdles. She actually runs today at Punchestown, and while she is a nice horse, she isn’t the type of form that standard Supreme hopefuls would be beating. She was beaten on hurdling debut, after all.
The fact that connections haven’t come out and almost categorically labelled her as a Supreme horse may also give a bit away, as they’re fully prepared to see her become a Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle horse. That’s no slight on the race, but Willie Mullins has seen a few horses in his time, and he’d know what a Supreme horse is. Anyway, we hope she is very good over hurdles, and she is well within her rights to be. Can you be confident? That’s a different topic.
HURTY HAITI
Do we have any HAITI COULEURS fans in the house? If we do, you were probably quite disappointed by his run in the Betfair Chase. After all, he went off 3/1 for the race, and he pulled up. That’s not good, especially for a horse who was uttered in the same breath as the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the start of the season. We may not think he is this good, but that didn’t stop a few notable names mentioning Cheltenham in March for the National Hunt Chase winner.
Well, Rebecca Curtis has an explanation for the run, as she said: “After Haydock we found he had a very sore sacroiliac joint over the top of his back and he was in a lot of pain. That explains the poor run and why he didn't jump very well. Whether he did it at Newbury, I don't know, but it was definitely there and affecting him.
"We've had it medicated, which seems to have sorted him out, and at least it answers the poor show. I think anyone with half a brain cell could see he didn't go from the start and it was no reflection on ability or anything like that.”
That makes sense, and it seems like a logical reason for his very poor effort. Curtis also elaborated more on his next target, as she added: "Even if he did end up being a Gold Cup horse, I don't want to be missing races with him that I think he can actually win like the Welsh National. You could keep dipping your toe in and trying him in Graded races up until the spring, but I think you might be throwing away some big pots with him.
"I wouldn't run him if it was an absolute bog and ideally you don't want to carry a big weight in the Welsh National, but he carried 12st at Newbury and he does seem very well at home, so I'm not going to rule it out.
"If he didn't run at Chepstow I'd probably have him really fresh for something like the Cotswold Chase in January, but even in the space of a couple of weeks since Haydock he's put weight on again and is like a caged bull."
Again, this makes sense. He’s not a Gold Cup horse, especially in a climate full of GDC, INOTHEWAYURTHINKIN, FASTORSLOW, GREY DAWNING, GAELIC WARRIOR, and JANGO BAIE. He’s not. He’d actually be the worst on that list.
So, like Curtis said, rather than tiptoeing in Graded races that he could win if he was to find a soft one (the Cotswold Chase, for example), pitch him into a handicap against inferior horses over conditions that place an emphasis on stamina. The Welsh National is exactly that, even if he is rated 154, though that isn’t the worst mark in the world.
This is solid thinking from Curtis, and something we like.
RISK ON
A huge gamble was landed yesterday on JP’s JAMAICAIN and the sly old dog seems seems be at it again in the Newcastle first - eyes on! Haslam has a great record in those sort of races at track to boot.
We have never hit so many 2nd’s as we have done this month, the tide will turn and it will turn in a big way. Just in time for Christmas.
There aren’t many horses we like today it’s tough but will play the following:
14.55 HOUSE OF HABSBURG
Bred to be a proper chaser and he’s chucked in on point form. If he runs to that level today, he could carry this lot. Skelton’s fancied but he needs to actually prove it where as the selection has probably never had a going day. 7/1 a half bet ew.
15.05 CHIEF OHARA
Looked good (and well handicapped) last time out and could follow up at 6/4.
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