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Detroit City beats Straw Bear at Sandown.
By Richard Johnson
Straw Bear's win in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton on Saturday was obviously a boost for Detroit City's Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle chances. It franked the form from the Agfa Hurdle at Sandown with Hardy Eustace, who we beat in the Boylesports.com International Hurdle at Cheltenham in December, winning the AIG Europe Champion recently too. So the signs for the Festival are good. Detroit City seems in very good form at home, we can't wait for Cheltenham, and as I said in the column last week I would not swap him for anything in the race. There wasn't much pace in the race at Wincanton so Tony McCoy rode Straw Bear more handily and to be honest he picked up well, jumped nicely and could not have done it any easier than he did. It is hard to know what to make of the form, although Afsoun is a decent yardstick if he ran his race, and while Straw Bear has a little to find to win a Champion Hurdle he is worth his place in the line-up. Over in Ireland Newmill beat Macs Joy and Harchibald in the mud at Gowran Park. The winner won last year's Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase and is a very, very good horse. But you wouldn't expect him to win a Champion Hurdle. Harchibald travelled well for a long way and is going to come on a lot for the run, they wouldn't have wanted to overdo him on Saturday with the Festival so close. Macs Joy also seemed to travel well but got tired going to the last in ground that wasn't to his liking. In an ideal world connections would probably not have wanted to run either horse on the heavy ground so close to the Festival but it is a case of needs must. You have to run somewhere and trainers have had few options with such soft going in Britain and Ireland this winter. You wouldn't want to wait much longer for a final prep race for Cheltenham either. It's an open race for the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle - there are six, seven or even eight you couldn't rule out. But as I keep repeating I wouldn't swap Detroit City for anything. Brave Inca and Hardy Eustace, two seasoned campaigners who have been there and done it before, are the ones I'd fear most. Newmill will now head for the Champion Chase where he has a chance of defending his title but I was very taken by Well Chief at Newbury last weekend. If he's 100 per cent at Cheltenham he is the one they all have to beat. If Newmill is in the same form as last year he will be thereabouts but if both he and Well Cheif were on song on the day, I'd take the Pipe horse. I rode at Ascot on Saturday and Monet's Garden was impressive in the Commercial First Ascot Chase. He's a fantastic horse who was second in the Arkle last year, when only just beaten by Voy Por Ustedes. He ran poorly in the King George on his reappearance but that was too bad to be true and it was good to see him back in good health and top form on Saturday. I'm sure Nicky Richards, Tony Dobbin and the owners were delighted with him and for me he's a horse to fear in the Ryanair Chase. It's a competitive race this year but he showed plenty of zest at Ascot on Saturday, he wasn't stopping in the closing stages, and he must be on any shortlist for the Ryanair. I would be surprised if they decided to go for the Champion Chase - a race that is hotting up all the time - and Monet's Garden is a horse who stays two-and-a-half miles very well. Gungadu did what he had to do to win the Reynoldstown Chase, he outstayed his rivals from the turn in. On form he is slightly behind stablemate Denman and will swerve the Royal & SunAlliance Chase if that one, owned by the same team, goes there. The talk is he will head to the National Hunt Chase and if Gungadu goes down that route, he would be very hard to beat. He made all on Saturday in indifferent ground and on a better surface at the Festival I would have no concerns over him getting the four miles. He is a horse I expect to see in the good staying chases for a few seasons to come.
