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Not only will you get access to our weekend edition but now we’re in the jumps season, we will be previewing every bumper race (from Chepstow’s first opening meeting and onwards). Our bumper previews often provide good betting opportunities and more, notes for you to look back on when they finally go over the jumps.

Oh, and the stats too which hit harder over jumps.

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

ARC DRAW

Here are the final draws for the big race this weekend:

GOING TO WAR

Yesterday, we saw a facile winner for Willie Mullins in the JP McManus silks that got the jumps proportion of Racing X rather excited. The game is well and truly back!

JALILA MORIVIERE bolted up at Sligo at odds of 3/10 yesterday on her chasing debut, and that performance earned her quotes of 20/1 for the Mares’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. We almost feel dirty mentioning a horse for the Mares’ Chase on the second day in October, and her price is another indication that long-range ante-post betting for Cheltenham is nothing but dead.

But still, it’s worth highlighting her price as a point of reference for the future.

So, who is JALILA MORIVIERE, and should we be considering her as a potential Graded horse for the future? She was bought by the green and gold of JP McManus after her second at Auteuil in May, and she had five runs over hurdles for Mullins before this chasing debut.

She didn’t really do too much of note over hurdles, though she was fourth at the Punchestown Festival in a handicap hurdle and sixth in the Galway Hurdle. She wasn’t fully exposed over hurdles, but she never really showed a classy turn of foot. She jumps fences with a pretty exaggerated action, and she’s pretty good over them, but she has a tendency to jump out to her right. She raced left-handed once at Listowel when odds-on, and although she didn’t show too many signs of jumping out to her right, she didn’t win.

Fences might have just enhanced her susceptibility of jumping to her right, and that would put us off thinking about her for any of the spring festivals, like Cheltenham.

She’s clearly a horse with ability (Paul Nicholls originally had her before she went to France), but she isn’t the archetypal Willie Mullins French import who is endlessly unexposed, so let’s hold our horses on her before we get too hyped up.

With Ireland in mind, Olly Murphy has welcomed STICKTOTHEPLAN, formerly trained by Cormac Farrell, to the yard, and he has Graded intentions with the five-year-old by GREAR PRETENDER. The grey gelding landed a small surprise by winning a Listed novice hurdle at Galway in late July at odds of 22/1, and a lot of what he did was impressive. He was neat over his hurdles when traffic was in front of him, he travelled well, and he showed speed to go by rivals.

Now Murphy has privately bought him, he is set to run at Chepstow next week, as Murphy said: "We won't have a massive team at Chepstow, but I'm excited by Sticktotheplan in the Persian War. He was impressive in Ireland and I'd like to think he can run very well. 

"He's got plenty of experience, which should help at this time of year, and I'm looking forward to running him in what should be a competitive race if it's on decent ground. I was chuffed to bits to get him, he was bought by Tom Malone for new owners and I hope he'll be a lucky horse for us."

We imagine he will be close to favourite in the Grade 2 Persian War Novices’ Hurdle next week because he’ll like better ground (if it comes up that way), he should be pretty fit, and he’s quite experienced over hurdles already. He may not be a Grade 1 horse in waiting, but is the Persian War a realistic race to win with him? Most definitely.

JUDDMONTE ARMY

Juddmonte have a big week coming up. It’s D-Day for KALPANA in the Arc, QIRAT has Group 1 entries all over the place, and even JONQUIL has an entry for the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes at Keeneland.

They’ve got a lovely bunch of horses currently. Just look at their entries on the Racing Post, and it’s something to be really impressed by. Looking further ahead, they could have a horse to send towards these Classics next season, and it’s with an animal that won at Bath last time out!

By FRANKEL, ITEM has looked pretty nifty in two starts this season, the latter at the South West track, and the Clive Cox-trained BLUE COURVOISIER that he beat looks like a nice horse for the future. He is by FRANKEL, he is out of a Grade 1 winner, and he has shown a good deal of ability in two starts. That’s the profile of a horse who could well progress into a Group 1 contender, and connections are happy to try him at this level before the season is out.

Barry Mahon of Juddmonte said: “He went to Bath just for the experience really. Andrew, like a lot of trainers in England, hasn’t been able to use the grass for a lot of the summer as it’s been so quick and he’d actually been on the grass maybe only once at the most, so he was keen to get him on the grass and see how he performed.

“I know the second horse was very well regarded and won nicely on debut at Leicester so our horse showed he is a nice colt.

“We’ll sit down and discuss with the owners over the weekend in Paris whether they want to run again or not and maybe have a look at the Doncaster race.

“I don’t think he’s a horse who will want it heavy or really deep ground, so depending on the ground and depending on what the owners would like to do, we’ll make a decision over the weekend or early next week if we go to Doncaster or put him away for next year.

“He’s a big horse full of potential and it will be all about next year with him.”
Firms have him priced up at 33/1 for the Derby and the same price for the Guineas, which seems pretty reasonable. He has to show his use at Group-level, obviously, but there’s no reason why he can’t do this.

To us, he looks like a proper galloper. He earned that win at Bath lto by grinding the field into submission, and if they are thinking of the Futurity with him, he’s obviously not a speedster. It will be very interesting to see if they can get a run into him before the year is out, because he could be quite nice.

THE 11th HOUR

And finally, could we have another horse to add to the British Champion Stakes?

In the last few days, news came out that DELACROIX could well run in the race on Champions Day, which is a small surprise considering Aidan O’Brien was thinking of retirement after the Irish Champion Stakes!

But, he’s not the only potential contender who could be confirmed for the race at the 11th hour, as William Haggas is hoping to get ECONOMICS to Ascot later this month.
Haggas is set to work ECONOMICS before racing at Newmarket on Saturday to help bring him along in his work, but as things stand, the Champion Stakes is very much on the agenda before heading to Bahrain.

Now, obviously, he would be making his first run since the Champion Stakes last season, so race fitness could be a worry, but Haggas isn’t one to send a horse undercooked into a race like the Champion Stakes for the fun of it.

He is also a horse who has bled, and he has clearly had his issues this season. However, there’s no doubting his raw talent based on his victories in France and in the Irish Champion Stakes last season. If he gets to the Champion Stakes, he would be a fascinating contender. How would the bookies price him up on the day? Would he come for money? Can he win on his first start for a year?

Let’s hope he does make it to Berkshire later this month, because his inclusion would add to an already exciting race.

RISK ON

We hit four from four yesterday (including a 35/1 treble (40’s sp)). Let’s see if we can do it again. We’re betting almost a mirror image of yesterday.

(NOTE: be careful, often the best winning days are followed by a losing day so play with measured stakes!)

13.55 LADY ROISIA

Wasn’t beaten far last time out in a race that has worked out well. By a stallion who has had a bright start to his new career but more, she’s out of an Oaks winner. Improvement expected, she can win today. 11/10.

14.10 AL AZD

We often get messages for horses on debut and it sometimes pays to remember them should they not do the business first time up. This lad is one of them and he could be a better proposition with a run under his belt. Pedigree wise it stacks up and he should like the ground. 11/2 ew bet.

15.50 SWORD MAKER

We simply think he’s the best horse in the race on ground he’ll love. 13/8.

34/1 treble on the above.

18.15 FREDDIES STAR

We’re playing the Teal horse who has fitness on his side against the exceptionally well bred Gosden horse who has reportedly been hard to train and been off for a long time. 100/30 a small single (which is effectively the same as laying the fave who might be out for a re-intro to racing after the time off).

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