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Equinties - one more sleep
BGP Capital
November 28, 2025
Gm Equinauts
Today is Friday. The lead up to the weekend. The first day of the Old Hennessy meeting. One more sleep until the Fighting Fifth.
This weekend IS RACING.
Let’s dive in!
HEADLINE ROUNDUP
UNCERTAIN TIMES
CONSTITUTION HILL’s silks were back in the winners enclosure yesterday and, as a punter, you can’t help but look at it and think it’s an omen for the weekend, right?
And to be fair, NOBLE PARK won as easily as prime CONSTITUTION HILL would have anyway.
Maybe seeing his silks over the big obstacles will convince Michael Buckley to chuck The Hill over a fence. (We thought he’d be going chasing after last season).
Anyway, this win, if Henderson and Buckley are inclined to feel this way, might have provided connections with a bit of confidence ahead of Saturday’s big date with destiny for CONSTITUTION HILL.
And speaking of confidence, Jonjo O’Neill Jnr found himself in the winners’ enclosure for the first time in over two weeks yesterday when he rode MELTON MOSSY to success at Taunton. It’s fair to wonder why Jonjo Jnr hasn’t been riding winners, but there is a fairly simple explanation. His main yard, AJ & Jonjo O’Neill, haven’t had a runner since November 11th, and they have only just made their first entries in about two weeks.
It’s been a very weird time for the O’Neill’s with no runners and entries, and for a while, there was no information on the situation. Yesterday, we got a bit of clarity:
As half expected, there has been something going around Jackdaws Castle, and fair play to Jonjo & AJ, they have pulled the plug on having any runners for the time being. In that interview, Jonjo Jnr alluded to the idea that they may not have an entries until Christmas, but entries for SUGAR ROAD at Southwell on Tuesday and BEACHCOMBER at Ludlow on Wednesday offer some hope that they might be on the road to recovery.
However, and this will probably be fairly obvious, you’d have to be cautious backing these horses for the next few months. Having this unintentional break will stop horses in their early season preparation, and they may well need to build themselves up to full race fitness again, which is something they would have been doing in the month of November. With 71, 82, 71, 72, and 72 winners per season for the last five years, the yard have been consistent, but those numbers are levels below where the yard was from the turn of the millennium.
Backing O’Neill horses is hard at the best of times, and now they have something wrong in the yard” That’s definitely not a positive, but we do hope things turn around nicely for them.
BIG TARGETS
Before we move into today’s super-hot previews, we’ll give AFFORDALE FURY a shout for his solid success in a Listed contest at Thurles yesterday.
APPRECIATE IT loomed up large for a while, and with his form in the book with GAELIC WARRIOR, he could well have swooped on by with ease. However, race fitness and a bit of class saw AFFORDALE FURY through, and if you backed the odds-on shot, there would have been little worry
It’s going to be hard to place him this season, as he’s probably not a Grade 1 animal, yet connections are willing to take their chance with him in a huge Christmas race.
Noel Meade said: "He's been a little unlucky and at Fairyhouse last February he made a bad mistake at the last. Today is only his sixth run over fences and I'll play it by ear now, but his next run could be in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas."
He is probably in-between a rock and a hard place now with his handicap mark of 157. Maybe he could target races like the Grade 2 Horse & Jockey Hotel Chase at Thurles in January, or potentially races like the Grade 2 Red Mills Chase in February and Grade 2 Webster Cup Chase in March. But the Grade 1 Savills Chase? No.
WE HAVE PREVIEWED THE BEST RACES FROM OUR HOME TRACK NEWBURY.
SUBSCRIBE TO PREMIUM TO BE A PART OF IT:
