Daryl Jacob on El Fabiolo, Jonbon, Zambella, Jetoile plans and more

Derham form no flash in the pan

I took a fall at Ayr on Monday and it was just one of those that caught me out a little bit as Brucio got over the last hurdle but then stumbled a stride and a half after jumping it, which took me by surprise. Thankfully there was no harm done but it wasn’t a very pleasant one!

Brucio was held at the time but in the process of running another decent race and it’s been a bit like that for Stuart (Crawford) recently, with a lot of his running well in defeat. I’m sure the winners will be flowing again before long and it’s looking like I could be in Ireland this weekend as he’s entered recent Haydock third Carnfunnock in the Listed handicap hurdle at Navan on Sunday.

Carnfunnock can jump better than he did at Haydock, in fairness, and I’d expect him to be competitive if lining up here.

I’ve been riding out at Harry Derham’s place this morning (Wednesday) and I must just say how impressed I’ve been with him during his short time with a trainers’ licence.

It was never going to be easy after making the decision to leave Ditcheat and go it alone but Harry has gone about his business in the right way and I think he’s already proving to be a very clever trainer and a good placer of his horses.

He’s been going along at close to a 25% strike-rate this season which speaks volumes and there’s no fluke about it. He looks a young trainer already on the way to the top of the profession if you ask me.

Zambella as tried and tested as they come

It was probably as heavy as I can remember it ever being at Aintree last Saturday but that didn’t bother Zambella who has been a fantastic mare for Nigel Twiston-Davies, Simon (Munir) and Isaac (Souede).

The conditions of the race were ideal for her and she obviously copes well with the ground, and this time of year she’s always pretty good too – having won this Listed mares’ chase three times now (once at its traditional home Carlisle, and now twice when switched to Aintree).

It’ll be onto Doncaster again for her now as she’s won that race on December 29 for the past two years as well.

Full credit to Isaac and the team for bringing her back as she picked up an injury when fourth to Impervious at the Cheltenham Festival last March and I thought she might have needed a bit longer off. She looks as good as ever but I suppose she’ll be heading to the paddocks at some stage, I’m not sure how soon that might be. Her next target is Doncaster.

Hurdles option for Jetoile

It was frustrating that Huntingdon fell to the weather on Sunday as I was due to ride Jetoile in the Grade 2 Peterborough Chase there.

His form from the Old Roan at Aintree looks pretty good given Datsalrightgino was back in the pack that day and it’ll be interesting to see if Jetoile can now take the next step up.

There aren’t a lot of obvious targets for him over Christmas unless we want to be taking on some seriously good horses so there’s a small chance he could have an entry over hurdles.

His chase mark is up to 151 and he was on 131 the last time he ran over hurdles so I’d image that will have gone up a bit, but I think it’s an idea worth exploring so watch this space with him.

Arkle victor still number one

Putting ownership to one side for a moment, but if I had the option of riding Jonbon or El Fabiolo I’d definitely still be siding with the latter following their respective weekend wins at Sandown and Cork.

Let’s deal with Jonbon first. Thinking back to when he was a bit disappointing behind El Fabiolo in the Arkle, connections did initially wonder if the soft/dead ground might have been against him but he’s clearly pretty effective when the mud is flying having now won a Shloer Chase and a Tinkle Creek on soft.

Maybe some people could argue that’s a positive that he’s acted well on it and perhaps he’s improved and strengthen up a bit this time around too. He certainly jumped and travelled well enough for Nico (De Boinville) but, for a two-mile champion chaser, I’m just not convinced he’s flying towards his fences as much as you’d like to see.

Nico was just occasionally squeezing Jonbon into the odd jump and, in my view, I wonder if he’ll be found out when facing a horse like El Fabiolo again.

El Fabiolo was a bit ring-rusty at Cork but he was giving a lot of weight away to Fil Dor, and even more to the Grand Annual winner Maskada back in third, and he was quite rusty early on last season too.

After that run at the weekend I expect he’ll be much sharper and I just love how he really wants it and attacks his fences. He can make the odd mistake but he didn’t look like falling and I’d have him ahead of Jonbon still at this stage of the season.

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