Equinties - the review

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Gm Equinauts

Everyone knows Saturday’s racing was a shit show but there were still a few performances to takeaway.

Let’s dive in.

Headline Roundup

A new Gold Cup contender?

PROTEKTORAT produced a career-best effort on Saturday to land the prestigious Grade 1 Betfair Chase for Dan and Harry Skelton at Haydock as last year’s winner A PLUS TARD was pulled up.

Sent off as the 15/2 second favourite as A PLUS TARD was smashed before the off, the Sir Alex Ferguson-owned seven-year-old jumped like a buck and stalked Haydock legend BRISTOL DE MAI for most of the journey, picking him off at the fourth-last fence before galloping through the line.

Immediately after the race, PROTEKTORAT was trimmed from 25/1 to 12/1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, a race he was third in last season.

As for the current Gold Cup champion A PLUS TARD, trainer Henry de Bromhead and jockey Rachael Blackmore were bemused as to why his superstar underperformed so dramatically – the Cheveley Park-owned eight-year-old is now 12/1 from 4/1 to reclaim his Cheltenham title in March.

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Ascot punters are ‘Con’ned

Attendees for Saturday’s fixture at Ascot were left deflated by the end of the day as none of the three ‘big stars’ made their seasonal reappearances due to ground concerns.

EDWARDSTONE, L’HOMME PRESSE, and Supreme winner CONSTITUTION HILL were among the 15 non-runners from the card on Saturday as the official going soon turned from Good-to-soft, Good in places to Good, Good-to-soft in places, though a few were reporting that it was riding quicker than it was advertised.

Of course, the big talking point from the weekend was surrounding the latterly mentioned – CONSTITUTION HILL who was pulled out on the morning of the Grade 2 Coral Hurdle once Nico had walked the track.

Of course, Henderson is entitled to run his horses wherever he wants them to go, however, he used some very dangerous language on yesterday morning’s Racing Debate in relation to the welfare of CONSTITUTION HILL.

Whether you agree or disagree with Henderson’s point of view, what Hendo says goes and now the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth, Grade 2 International Hurdle, and Grade 1 Matheson Hurdle are all being considered by the head of Seven Barrows, though the Fighting Fifth route would interrupt EPATANTE’s seasonal opener.

Both EDWARDSTONE and L’HOMME PRESSE were also pulled from the day and following the rest of the non-runners, the card consisted of two match races and a walkover in the 12.55 – not great viewing.

Willie's mixed bag for the Champion Hurdle 

The racing world learnt a lot more about Willie Mullins' chances for this season's Champion Hurdle on Sunday as STATE MAN returned to the track to win the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown.

The five-year-old County Hurdle successor led home a Mullins' 1-2-3 as SHARJAH and SALDIER filled the places in the four-runner contest - STATE MAN cruised alongside his stablemates around the bend and did enough to pick up the victory.

Running in the AL BOUM PHOTO colours, the French import is as short as 4/1 with some firms for the Champion Hurdle, a price that looks on the skinny side considering both HONEYSUCKLE and CONSTITUTION HILL are yet to hit the track.

Away from STATE MAN and it is seemingly bad news for VAUBAN fans as the master of Closutton revealed in a Racing TV interview that last season's Triumph Hurdle victor may struggle in open company this season.

Currently as short as 7/1 for the big two-mile Grade 1 hurdle at Cheltenham in March, if you are a fan of VAUBAN, you may be looking to sell your ante-post tickets after Mullins' comments as both him and SIR GERHARD haven't shown Mullins what he was wanting to see over the summer.

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Nicholls' King George duo 

Sir Alex Ferguson and co had a weekend to remember at Haydock on Saturday as hours before their Betfair Chase triumph, HITMAN scored comfortably in the 2m5f Graduation Chase.

Under the effortless guidance of Harry Cobden, the 160-rated second-season chaser made all and jumped supremely well for Paul Nicholls to bolt up and beat the useful ERNE RIVER by 11 lengths.

The Grade 1 King George on Boxing Day seems to be next on the agenda for this progressing chaser, a race he is currently 7/1 for, a full six points bigger than his stablemate BRAVEMANSGAME.

Through some expert questioning, Nick Luck managed to get a brilliant answer out of Megan Nicholls about which one of the pair she would be backing for the Kempton contest.

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