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Equinties - monsters Monday
BGP Capital
November 18, 2025
Gm Equinauts
Lot’s of people are calling the ante-post game ‘dead’ and we go into that later but when a piece of work at a gallop morning shifts a market… they might have bloody point.
Enter CONSTITUTION HILL.
With a few books he was squeezed into joint fave alongside THE NEW LION in the Fighting Fifth this morning simply for galloping round Newbury. Unbelievable.
Okay, he did look good to be fair (we were there) and the work only compliments what big Dan Skelton had to say about his earlier this week. This vid is well worth a watch:
We spoke to Hendo, Nico and Michael (Buckers) Buckley, who at this point must be sick of talking about them, but not to ask the same old boring questions, more simply to wish them the very best season with their star. For racing alone, we really want CONSTITUTION HILL back.
Let’s dive in!
HEADLINE ROUNDUP
NOT YOUR AVERAGE MONDAY
No one likes Mondays, unless your Monday is Monday, November 18th, 2025, and you happen to be a horse racing fan.
Yes, we saw LULAMBA and KOPEK DES BORDES make their chasing debuts yesterday, and the bottom line is that they were very impressive.
Action kicked off with LULAMBA at Exeter, and for a four-year-old who doesn’t have a massive amount of experience, you would be a harsh critic to have an issue with the way he jumped yesterday.As Nico de Boinville said in his post-race interview, you could go out in trip with him because he jumps that way. He doesn’t take his fences in his stride like a rapid two miler; he is more of the type to make a really nice shape over them whilst also maintaining momentum.
If there is anything to be sad about from yesterday, it’s that they didn’t jump any down the back straight, unfortunately. This means we’ve only seen him jump eight fences in public. He could probably learn to not be so airy at some of his obstacles, but apart from that, he was good, and the depth of the race was solid.
Post-race, Nicky Henderson said: “He didn’t have enough fences to jump. But he enjoyed what he had to jump. It’s slightly frustrating because not only does he absolutely love it, he’s not had the opportunity to learn as much as we would’ve liked him to.
“The ones that were left he jumped nicely and he did everything really well. There were nice horses in the race too, he wasn’t beating mugs.
“He could’ve gone round again if he'd wanted too but the plan is to keep him at two miles for now. We’ll see how he is in the morning and then we might ask him to come back quite quickly and have a look at the Henry VIII."
So, he is set to take on BE AWARE at Sandown next. That shouldn’t be too much of a challenge, and regarding Dan Skelton’s potential handicap plan for BE AWARE, he’s probably thankful to see this news, as it means BE AWARE can be beaten by 10 lengths and still be well-handicapped for later this season.
Right, after LULAMBA was KOPEK DES BORDES, and he was probably a bit slicker over his fences than LULAMBA. Just look at this fence – beautiful.
If you were to ask us about who was more impressive, and we had to give an answer, we would say KOPEK DES BORDES, especially in the knowledge of them both being Arkle contenders.
He just romped home, and he jumped so beautifully. Sometimes these horses who get hurdles wrong do the same for fences, and there was a part of us that thought something similar could happen here, but it really didn’t.
Super impressive. It all just looked so easy.
With all the chat that Willie Mullins has provided about the horse, as well as his performances over hurdles and now this demolition job over fences, it’s fair to say that KOPEK could seriously be anything. And we don’t just mean ‘could be anything’ in regards to being a Grade 1 winner – he could well be one of the best two-mile chasers we have seen in recent years. Mullins, post-race, said: "We brought him away to the Curragh last week to pop five or six fences and afterwards myself and Paul just said to ourselves 'Wow, we'll never do that again with him!' He was electric.
"When he sees a fence, he just wants to go and jump it. He's very keen in that respect. As he goes up in grade, the pace will get faster and hotter. I think it will be all to his benefit.
"Leopardstown over Christmas would look like plan A for him at the moment.”
Would it be cool if LULAMBA and KOPEK met at Kempton at Christmas? Yes. Will it happen? Probably not.
However, Paul Townend will be at Kempton for GAELIC WARRIOR, so if they want to, they really could send KOPEK to Kempton for the 27th and maybe take on LULAMBA.
Anyway, both horses were good, but KOPEK DES BORDES does look special.
USUAL PATH
Speaking of very impressive chasing debuts, we will cover FINAL DEMAND properly in today’s newsletter having left him out of Monday’s edition. To be fair, including him today makes sense, as he will win the Grade 1 Faugheen Novice Chase at Christmas, and KOPEK DES BORDES will win the Grade 1 Racing Post Novice Chase over the same period.
Job done.
No, but seriously, if you wanted to see the performance of a potential future Gold Cup horse, Sunday’s introduction to fences for FINAL DEMAND was it.
Like KOPEK DES BORDES, he was so clean over his obstacles. It was like watching an experienced open grade chaser, and yet he was making his debut. To be doing that on his first start is obscene, and he can surely only get better, if that is indeed possible.
The Grade 1 Faugheen Novice Chase looks obvious for him next. It’s 2m5f, it’ll be soft ground, and it’ll be a pretty weak race, we imagine.
Now, the big controversy post-race was about his respective ante-post prices for the 2026 and, if you can believe us, 2027 Cheltenham Festival.
As we all know, ante-post betting for Cheltenham is dead. We can no longer place an ante-post bet on one for Cheltenham if they are already seen as a “good horse”. The only luck you have with getting a price is if you were to keep adding bets as leverage until the day.
You’d probably want both 6/4 and 7/1 about FINAL DEMAND just to make it those meetings, let alone win them. That said, the price for the Brown Advisory probably isn’t the worst ante-post price of all time when you look at the field. Now, we are NOT justifying this price, more simply asking what beats him? THE YELLOW CLAY will stay over hurdles, JIMMY DU SEUIL has to prove he is better than a handicapper, THE BIG WESTERNER could stay against the girls, and the rest are sketchy.
It doesn’t look like a vintage division this year, and that’s a shame, because it will probably turn into another Cheltenham race with an odds-on Willie Mullins horse.
That’s not the horse’s fault; that’s just the division.
Anyway, Bryan draw, his co-owner, is quite giddy about the horse, as he said: "He's categorically the best horse I've owned, without hesitation. Bravemansgame was rated 150 at the end of his novice hurdle season, while Final Demand is 158. There are similarities between them. They both devour the ground with their strides but I just think this fella is potentially a notch higher.
"He's such a professional and takes it all in his stride. Nothing flusters him and he has that confidence and arrogance all the good ones seem to have. Willie can be quite understated but I think even he was keen to acknowledge that Final Demand looks like the real deal, so bring it on."
He should be very good this season, but his respective prices won’t be. Just be prepared for that.
SKELTON’S WORLD
It just seems like a good time to be associated with the Dan Skelton yard currently. He is the best trainer in the UK (sorry Paul and Nicky), he is firing in the winners on the big stage, and he has some huge assignments coming up for his horses. Case and point this Saturday with GREY DAWNING and next Saturday with THE NEW LION.
Away from the track, Skelton has also been striking gold in the sales ring. In yesterday’s Simon Munir & Isaac Souede’s dispersal sale at the Arqana Autumn Sale, Anthony Bromley bought METS TA CEINTURE and MERCI MAN for a combined total of €1.23 million – which is mental – and their new home will now be Warwickshire. Munir & Souede had this dispersal sale as they are in the process of “restructuring our French operation”, and this meant that a whole host of nice French horses were up for sale.
Skelton now has the two most-expensive lots, and it’s Lindy & Mark O’Hare who own them both (think owner of MISS CYNTHIA with Skelton, who finished second in a Listed mares’ novices’ hurdle at Donny last season). Skelton must be thanking his lucky stars at the level of investment coming into the yard, and it should give him two nice juveniles to go to war with this season as apparently, the French racing experts can’t get enough of METS TA CEINTURE, so keep an eye out for her. And if she is Grade 1 quality, this could further fuel the charge behind making PRECIOUS MAN a Fred Winter type.
On the purchase of the horses, Bromley said: "I know the horses very well - my owners had half of them - and I know their history and the potential of the horses.
"Dan came over with the O'Hares on a private plane today and he liked them, they vetted well. I didn't expect them to have to pay those sorts of numbers but they're quality horses.
"They're quality horses; it's a real rarity for these pedigrees to come on the market and we had to dig deep. But they're very enthusiastic new owners to the game, they've had one horse before who won a little bit last year and they're excited about getting some quality youngstock. We thought these two three-year-olds had their whole futures ahead of them."
Mental money for jumps horses, these new owners are taking a fair gamble here but we as fans are appreciative they’ve gone to big Dan and will fly the flag for GB in the Prestbury Cup.
RISK ON
Owed to being at our home track Newbury today to watch the big man work, we are late to study so will get this out now and post any bets to our X account @Equinties.
That said, we spoke to Megan Nicholls who can tip a winner. She put up NO DRAMA THIS END to those who listened (she also think he just wins the Challow Hurdle) but for her next winner, she told us to keep an eye out for the Derham trained VIYANNI who will run at Newbury next.
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