Tony Keenan continues his new Sunday column with a look at today's action from Navan.
Kennedy proving relentless
The race to be Champion Jockey has been an interesting aspect of recent weeks, Jack Kennedy having gone 23 winners clear of Paul Townend at the time of writing, and the betting suggesting that the leader has every chance of winning, just the wrong side of even money now.
There has never been any doubt that Kennedy has the ability and connections to win this title, the stumbling block instead his health, and with 81 winners already it seems likely that Townend will have to ride more winners in a season than ever before to beat him; he has won the prize six times in all but never with more than 109 winners.
Not that Townend seems to be showing any urgency to catch Kennedy at the moment, however. Since the start of November, Kennedy has taken 114 rides against 60 for Townend, whose last outside ride was back in September at Laytown.
Take on City with Elliott improver
They will compete at different meetings today, and my hope is that Townend is likely choosing Thurles because he has better chances there as I want to oppose Dancing City in the BetVictor Proud To Support Irish Racing Maiden Hurdle, the 12:35 at Navan.
Dancing City should improve for his initial run of the season at this track last month but his stamina for two-and-a-half miles remains a concern as he weakened late last time and is a notably strong traveller having gone through a Punchestown two-mile bumper last April better than either Ballyburn or Slade Steel.
SLANAGAIBHGOLEIR is yet to race beyond two miles, but both the visuals and his breeding suggest a step up in trip this afternoon will suit.
He caught the eye in a strong maiden hurdle at Leopardstown on December 27, coming from a long way back turning in to take seventh, and first four from that race are now rated 150, 130, 136 and 123 respectively.
It looks as if he didn’t progress much for that run next time at Punchestown at the following month but he found the inner track there much too sharp when finishing a distant third while it again looks solid form; the time was excellent and the winner went on to finish third in the Sky Bet Supreme on his next start while the runner-up turned out to be a 90-rated flat horse.
Both Slanagaibhgoleir’s siblings proved best around two-and-a-half miles and Gordon Elliott tends to target these pre-Christmas Navan meetings with his better novice hurdlers; since 2018, he has had 13 winners from 28 runners in maiden hurdles at the track in November and December with runners sent off 5/1 or shorter for a level-stakes profit of 5.97 points and an actual over expected of 1.16.
Published at 0824 GMT on 17/12/23
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