Equinties - Tingle Creek Friday

Gm Equinauts

The rain is coming… this weekend will be fun.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

NO MORE SLOW

Ah well, the FASTORSLOW propaganda was fun while it lasted, right?

The sheer want to have this quality horse come over and make the Grade 1 a real Grade 1 assignment at Christmas was real.

Seeing as Martin Brassil named his target in the heat of the Flat season before not entering the horse, and then dangling the ‘will he, won’t he’ carrot in front of our pleading punters was, above all else, was funny and added a lot of fuel to the fire that was ante-post market carnage.

Well, that storyline is now over as the two-time Punchestown Gold Cup winner has sadly been ruled out of the season by connections.

Brassil said: “Following the John Durkan Chase, Fastorslow suffered a soft tissue injury.

“Before he resumed back into full work, we had him checked over by our veterinary team. They have advised us that he requires time off so he will miss the remainder of this season.

“It is not career-threatening and we expect that he will be back for the resumption of the 2025/26 season.”

This is a shame. Despite landing a John Durkan and two Punchestown Gold Cups, he has ultimately been unlucky.

We suppose any of us would say the same if our Gold Cup horse had unseated, but connections were adamant he would win the blue riband event at the Cheltenham Festival in March, and he was also chinned in two previous Festival runs in the Coral Cup and Ultima.

Will we ever see him back to his best? He’s eight now, he’ll be at least nine before he’s back and that’s if he gets a clear time off the track so yes, we can as we think NH horses are at their best then so let’s hope we see him sooner rather than later.

Best of luck with the recovery, champ!

13.58 GRADE 2 WINTER NOVICES’ HURDLE

Six are declared for the Winter Novices’ Hurdle and the top three in the market are hard to separate.

Starting with QUEBECOIS, there’s a lot more riding on how he runs than purely just this race because if he wins, and wins well, he could be Paul Nicholls’ sole representative in the Challow Novices’ Hurdle, forcing the expensive REGENT’S STROLL elsewhere.

QUEBECOIS, bar his poor effort in the Champion Bumper, has been quite impressive. He bolted up on bumper debut at Exeter and then did something similar on hurdles debut at Chepstow in a bad time for the Nicholls stable. He’s got an obvious chance.

KINGSTON PRIDE has some nice recent form in the book which was recently franked, but more, was second to TRIPOLI FLYER in a Lingfield bumper last season which is hot. TRIPOLI FLYER won a Grade 2 Aintree bumper on his final start of last season before bolting up on his second hurdles start. The five-year-old by KINGSTON HILL also has race fitness after his Uttoxeter win last month, but both of his rules wins have come on good and the Sandown ground is riding on the softer side. Will that matter on pedigree? It shouldn’t do, his sire was best on soft.

BILL JOYCE has been a bit of a hype horse for the O’Neills as he bolted up twice in bumpers before winning on hurdle debut at Carlisle last month.

In his Exeter bumper win, he comfortably beat Paul Nicholls’ ENVOI ALLEN full brother JOYAU ALLEN, so the form looks nice and he’s a solid contender here.

What to make of the rest?

PONY SOPRANO (we LOVE his name) won on hurdles debut in October when beating the odds-on SORCELEUR, but the runner-up (yes, you guessed it) was running in a bad time for Team Ditcheat.

His page is pretty decent as he comes from the family of PIRES and ROYAL PLAYER who achieved ratings of at least 135.

ADMIRAL STEWART was a three-mile ptp winner and has won a bumper and maiden hurdle over two miles so far, so he should enjoy the step-up in trip. His effort last time also showed that he’d appreciate 2m4f or above as he was determined in soft Ffos Las ground. Nice horse.

BALLYTECHNO completes the field. He’s up against it at the ratings having been beaten in all of his bumpers and his hurdles debut. He’s won his last two, however, but they both came on good ground.

Verdict: The market is shouting for Hendo’s KINGSTON PRIDE and we like him to come on for his debut run and improve and win well.

14.33 GRADE 2 ESHER NOVICES’ CHASE

Much like the Winter Novices’ Hurdle, we have six runners and three well-found market pretenders.

RESPLENDENT GREY is in good form. He won on chase debut and then finished second to HYLAND at the Cheltenham November meeting.

He jumps his fences quite low and does get into them a bit, which was probably what cost him against the slick fencer HYLAND lto. But, he has form on softer ground and is fit.

HANDSTANDS should be fit as he has had a race, but he fell on seasonal reappearance in the Grade 2 Rising Stars Novices’ Chase. Look, Ben Pauling and Harry Cobden were very complimentary of the horse last season and there’s probably a reason he started his chasing career in a Grade 2 contest. He will like the ground as well.

WELCOM TO CARTRIES was spoken with high regard by connections last season but he probably disappointed slightly.

Like all of Nicholls’, he’s been bought to be a chaser, but it’s hard to get away from the fact this is his seasonal reappearance.

SAINT DAVY was meant to go over fences last season but connections kept him to hurdles and it was a great decision. He won twice, notably in the valuable Heroes handicap at Sandown in February.

They’ve always thought plenty of him and he’s probably still quite unexposed. He’ll also enjoy this ground, but it’s his first start since March.

CADELL and RISKINTHEGROUND complete the field, but they probably have the same problem if this is proper soft Sandown ground. Their best form comes on good and they are against it at the ratings.

Verdict: If you like RESPLENDENT GREY then you’ll love HOE JOLY SMOKE in the next race. There difference between the pair, other than the former beating the latter, is the preference for the going, we’re not sure RG will like the ground today so we’ll take him on with SAINT DAVY who needs the mud and will stay all day.

RISK ON

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