Equinties - jumps season offer

Gm Equinauts

As the nights draw in and the following mornings take an age to get brighter, it mean’s one thing.

The jumps are coming.

Now, for the flat oriented amongst you, this is sad times. And let’s be honest, nothing beats the flat circus in high summer - Royal Ascot is king of the calendar.

But there is something about wrapping up in layers, standing trackside in the freezing cold, fingers wrapped round an iced up pint glass and watching massive horses in full flight, winging it over obstacles. Punters are masochists!

That Chepstow meeting, the start of the NH season proper, is in plain sight now, and so begins the build up to the the C word…Christmas! Sorry, but it is.

We’ll be working hard than ever to produce high quality newsletters throughout the jumps season as usual, and our premium subscribers will have constant access to learnings such as deep pedigree analysis, our ante-post angles, standout stats and of course our best bets.

From today, for the next few weeks until the start of Chepstow, we’re going to offer readers a chance to buy our premium newsletter at a special annual discount.

It’s a sexual price and will cover you for the whole year.

If our newsletter has become a staple to your morning racing digest, please support it and help us keep it going!

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUND UP

MAD MAX

Yesterday would have been a great time to do our David Maxwell tribute, after it was announced on Monday that he is retiring from the saddle with immediate effect.
But, there were too many tears in our cornflakes to put something together, and we are hoping to line up something amazing for later down the line, so stay tuned!
For now, we will do a few career highlights (and lowlights) to celebrate the great career of Sir David Maxwell, because, honestly, the game of national hunt racing will truly miss his red and maroon silks in the racecard.

So, let’s start with some truly brilliant rides from the great man, and look no further than his win on BOB AND CO at the 2021 Punchestown Festival. This was the year with no spectators on racecourses, so his biggest career victory in the Champion Hunter Chase - when outriding Patrick Mullins, nonetheless – was witnessed by just his colleagues on track.

It was a great ride. He sat handy, he didn’t let BILLAWAY get too far out of reach, he let his horse jump with free air ahead of him, and he produced him at the perfect time. Superb, Mr. Maxwell.

What about the time he miscounted the number of fences at Chepstow and still won?

That’s right, when he was riding QUEENSBURY BOY in a pretty nifty bumper in December 2023, trainer Harry Derham told Maxwell to use the fences as a guide to ride the race with the instruction of being upsides the main threat at the third-last and only go past after the last. Derham said that if he did this, he would win. Unfortunately for Derham, Maxwell put his horse’s nose in front at the second-last, so he awkwardly waited put on the breaks until the final fence before kicking for home. Mad Max must have been too focused on staying on his mount to count the fences!

Alas, QUEENSBURY BOY got him out of trouble and won like the good horse he is. He is without a doubt a horse to follow with new connections this season, Derham admitted to us it’s his best!

Let’s not forget that Maxwell is a Graded-winning jockey as well. It may not have been on these shores, but he won the Grade 3 Prix Morgex on CAT TIGER in November 2018.
He also placed at the Cheltenham Festival on SHANTOU FLYER in 2019 and 2020, and he nearly won the Aintree Foxhunters on CAT TIGER in 2022. CAT TIGER also gave him a ride in the 2020 Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle (pulled up), and he allowed him to win by 31 lengths at Plumpton in January of the same year.

He has a fair few good moments, but even we can admit, there are more blunders in the copybook than trophies in the cabinet for The Max. We’ll list off a few that come to mind!

Delivering EL CARIOS to the front at last season’s Punchestown Festival, only to be slightly embarrassed by Rob James on BARON NOIR.

Getting SAINT CALVADOS beaten in the 2022 Grade 2 1965 Chase at odds of 2/7, and the horse who beat him was COOLE CODY, a horse who had been beaten by 25 lengths, 34 lengths, and infinite lengths (pulled up) on his three previous starts.

And, finally, doing a pretty brutal front flip at Doncaster in February 2020 after CAPTAIN CATTISTOCK chucked him off at odds of 2/5. Amazingly, he was sold to Fergal O’Brien immediately after this!

We’re going to stop here, because we love David Maxwell too much. The truth about the man is this: he was someone who used his own money to participate in a sport that he truly adores at the very top level. Can you, yes you, honestly say that you wouldn’t do the same if you wanted to? If you had the same mindset, the same wallet, and a fit body, you would do exactly the same.

Disgruntled punters behind accounts on social media will say he was a curse on our game, and they’ll say that people in football never get to buy themselves into the Premier League, no matter what their ability. While this may be true (to an extent), who has ever tried to compare our sport to football? The two sports are incomparable on so many levels, and this is one of them.

David Maxwell was a joy to follow, watch and cheer on and he added drama and intrigue to any race meeting he attended. We wish you a wonderful retirement, The Max.

P.S this isn’t the last you’ll hear about Maxwell, we have something special coming up.

TARGETS GALORE

With the jumps chat ramping up, and John Gosden maybe not finding so many winners of late, it’s easy to forget that we haven’t seen FIELD OF GOLD since the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood.

That’s 48 days now, and by the time he runs again (which will be in the Group 1 QEII Stakes on Champions Day), he will have been off the track for a whopping 80 days. Woof.

He’s 9/4 now for the feature one-mile Group 1 contest at Ascot next month, but he has things to prove. The lay-off would have to be a worry, the fact he ran to an RPR of 103 in the Sussex would be another, and if the ground turns up on the soft side, how will he handle that? After all, the last time he raced on soft was in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, and he finished fourth that day.

But still, at one stage this season, he was a ‘world beater’, and there was very little to suggest that he would be beaten again this season.

His run on Champions Day almost feels a little bit like AUGUSTE RODIN or CITY OF TROY in their respective Derbys. Yes, we know they are good horses, but can they bounce back to their best? If you feel they can, you’re getting nicely rewarded in the market.

On the horse, Thady Gosden said: “The QEII has been the plan since Field Of Gold last ran at Goodwood, when he pulled up lame behind.

“He seems to have recovered well from his setback and is cantering away as usual. We'll step him up in the next week or so, but all is well with his prep so far.”

FIELD OF GOLD will not be the only Group 1 horse for the Gosdens on Champions Day, as CARL SPACKLER will join FIELD OF GOLD in the QEII, DANIELLE will chance her arm in the Fillies & Mares, TRAWLERMAN will run in the newly upgraded Group 1 Long Distance Cup, and OMBUDSMAN will give the Champion Stakes a crack.

The final two seem like pretty solid contenders for the team. TRAWLERMAN will probably be the harder one of the two to beat, because who can really beat him in that Long Distance Cup? SCANDINAVIA maybe, but he has eyes on the Melbourne Cup, as does AL RIFFA, the 7/1 third-favourite. JAN BRUGHEL is 12/1, but this would be his first start at two miles, ILLINOIS was legless in the Irish St Leger, and SIBAYAN is a bit of an unknown profile who has never raced at two miles before as well.

The likes of ALQAREEM, FRENCH MASTER, and AL NAYYIR could all show up, but a half-cooked TRAWLERMAN has the beating of two of them based on the Lonsdale Cup, and FRENCH MASTER has a bit to prove in this sphere. Just like that, TRAWLERMAN looks like value at 5/4. Have we all just made you rich out of nowhere? Potentially.
Anyway, he looks solid, and he should come on for his Lonsdale Cup run, while OMBUDSMAN will have the likes of ANMAAT, CALANDAGAN, PRIDE OF ARRAS, and maybe even DELACOIX to worry about.

On both of these Godolphin-owned horses, Thady Gosden continued: “This has been his target all season [for TRAWLERMAN] and the idea was to give him one run after Royal Ascot, which was in the Lonsdale Cup at York, which he won nicely. He's been freshened up since and this will be his last start of the year.

“Sweet William will not run as he's finished for the season after his win at Doncaster last week, while French Master and Courage Mon Ami are unlikely runners.

“Ombudsman has had a freshen-up since his win in the Juddmonte International at York as he needed a break going into the autumn. He's cantering away and we're very happy with him and looking forward to Ascot, where he has winning form over course and distance.”
More:

A STAYER TO WATCH?!

In hindsight, it’s hard to believe we let SANTORINI STAR go off 10/3 with a handicap mark of 97 at York two starts ago. She is now Group 2 winner, rated 107, and connections have their eyes on Group 1 races for both this and next season.
What’s their first port of call for this season? Well, unsurprisingly, it’s France.

Sean Graham, racing manager to owners Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy, said: “Her next race will be the Prix de Royallieu, which is a mile and six on the Saturday of Arc weekend. I'd say that is probably her last run this year as well.

“I suppose she will be brought back next year with the view of trying to win a Group 1. The Prix de Royallieu is a Group 1, but even if she wins that, she'll still be back next year. That's because she didn't run until the October of her three-year-old career, so she's pretty lightly raced and she's open to plenty of improvement. The programme for staying fillies is quite good and there's plenty of opportunity to pick up more black type.”

And they already have one eye on next year, as he continued: “Even races like the Irish St Leger might be on the radar as that's a mile and six. I don't think we will pigeonhole her and just run her at a mile and six because there's probably not enough races at that distance, so she will have races at two miles as well.”

That’s pretty bullish, but, in fairness, she is a mare, so they’ve kind of got to be. They already have a Group 2-winning mare on their hands, so anything from here is a bonus. Group 1 targets have to be next, and if she can get herself placed in a Group 1 against the boys next year, that would be epic for her page.
More:

RISK ON

15.35 SALLAAL

Varian thinks this is his best 3yo. Behind Hills’ fave on ratings who is an older horse, but this lad can improve and go well in the mud. 9/4 standard win bet. Small double with Sangster’s NIMINY PIMINY in the race after, who is fancied and bred very well - 7/1 double.

16.18 WEEGEEBEAR

We had a winner yesterday from Menzies' yard (posted on X) and that was over jumps. Today, we’re looking at her flat runner who looks very well handicapped. He has previously had issues breaking from the stalls but Bex Menzies seems to have sorted that now with a blind fold and some serious encouragement from the jockey. He if breaks well he could win this in the ground he loves. 8/1 is a small ew owed to the lowly nature of the race.

17.24 WHATACRACKER

He’s a slow as a boat but deserves a small ew here in the ground he desperately needs, at a track he runs well at. He’s also well in and Walford has a good strike rate in these types of races at Beverley. 9/2 ew and 29/1 ew double with todays stat horse which looks standout!

Become a paying subscriber to get access to all of our pedigree analysis, big race previews inc. bumper previews, standout stats and best bets over the coming NH season!

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.