Nic Doggett looks ahead to Saturday's Boodles Florida Pearl Novice Chase and fancies an outsider to run a big race.
The Boodles Florida Pearl Novice Chase - which takes place at Punchestown at 1.05 on Saturday afternoon - was run over two miles and six and a half furlongs until 2023, a renewal that was won by the Gordon Elliott-trained and Gigginstown Stud-owned Favori de Champdou, one of four such winners for that trainer/owner combination since 2015.
In total, Elliott has won six of the last nine renewals of a now-three-mile novice chase that has become synonymous with archetypal staying chasers who excel in the mud, something that is slightly at odds with Florida Pearl himself who possessed enough speed to count a King George victory amongst his 16 career wins.
This year’s Cullentra House stables contender is Prends Garde A Toi, a six-year-old son of Kapgarde who has long since looked a good fit for Saturday’s race. He was second to Will The Wise at Galway in October on his chasing debut over an inadequate two and a quarter miles and this former point-to-point runner-up should be capable of significant improvement for his in-form yard now up to this distance.
Favourite Rocky’s Diamond is one of three five-year-olds in the race bidding to emulate 2015 winner Shantou Flyer who is the most recent of that age to lift this prize, and Declan Queally’s charge has taken well to this sphere having been a most progressive hurdler last season in a campaign which included finishing fourth in the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham. He had a good battle but eventually came off second-best with Blizzard of Oz at Wexford last month, the pair 17 lengths clear of the third. That form is the clear best, but he probably won’t get as easy a lead here.
Mersey Novices’ Hurdle fourth Koktail Divin made a bright start to chasing himself when second to the exciting Romeo Coolio at Down Royal, for all he was unable to really lay a glove on that potential superstar. This longer trip is not guaranteed to suit on breeding, however, a comment that also applies to the talented multi-purpose performer Nurburgring. All of this is caveated with remembering that the majority of novice chases - most notably in Ireland - tend to be run at a dawdle, placing much less emphasis on stamina than might be expected.
Recent winners Oscars Brother and Bossofthebrownies complete the field. The last-named relished the emphasis on stamina when pulling clear at Fairyhouse, an assured jumping display suggesting valuable handicaps could be the route to go later in the season, while Oscars Brother was well punted when making short work of a Mullins non-stable-star O’Moore Park last month.
Clearly, Florida Pearl was at the other end of the Closutton scale. Oddly, it’s not a race that Mullins himself has appeared to target; not just with his better novice chasers, but any. His two runners since 2018 finished fifth and pulled up in the 2019 renewal, sent off at 14/1 and 12/1 respectively in a seven-runner field, while his 2018 winner Some Neck only had a peak Timeform rating of 142.
In contrast, Elliott has made this race his own. Don’t be surprised if current outsider Prends Garde A Toi continues that trend with a big step forward this weekend.
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