Timeform's Phil Turner feels Majborough is "likely to remain something of a white-knuckle ride for punters" despite Sunday's top-class performance at Leopardstown.
“When we put a tongue strap on Persian War, a few people said it was a pity we didn’t put it on the owner,” was the verdict of Welsh trainer Colin Davies, who saddled Persian War to all three of his Champion Hurdle wins for strong-willed owner Henry Alper.
The outspoken Alper was rarely away from the headlines during his association with Persian War, which saw the gelding change yards no less than five times and result in much public scorn directed his way. Owners of high-profile jumpers can often be very vocal about their pride and joy, such effusiveness usually in stark contrast to the more reserved (and diplomatic!) public utterances of the trainers they employ.
This lack of conformity can seem jarring at times, but does it warrant the brick bats regularly meted out in such cases by the racing public? For example, the late John Hales was lambasted by broadcaster/writer Alastair Down in a 2004 column for having the temerity to pass judgement on a ride given to one of his own horses – Hales, in a refreshingly honest post-race answer to a journalist, had merely suggested Azertyuiop might have fared better against Moscow Flyer in a vintage edition of the Tingle Creek Chase if Ruby Walsh had pressurised that rival earlier, which were “snivelling comments” made by a “spoilt man” according to Down.
Some two decades later and the owner of another leading two-mile chaser has also found himself falling foul of racing’s etiquette enforcers, with Barry Connell branded as “classless” for his dismissive remarks about the latest winners of both the Tingle Creek Chase (Il Etait Temps c172) and Clarence House Chase (Jonbon c168) in relation to his stable star Marine Nationale (c167).
Connell, of course, no longer has any trainers to answer to since taking out a licence of his own in 2019 and has a long history of being bullish about his best horses, dubbing Marine Nationale as being “in a different league” to other potential Queen Mother Champion Chase contenders as recently as last week.
Over-confidence hardly harms the sport, though, particularly as those who disagree with the accuracy of such bold statements can always back against the horses in question.
Marine Nationale is clearly a top-class performer, but the bare form of his two signature wins over fences actually isn’t the most robust - the fully-exposed Quilixios (c164) was still upsides (albeit coming off second best) when falling at the last in the 2025 Queen Mother Champion Chase, whilst Punchestown Champion Chase runner-up Captain Guinness hasn’t run to within a stone of what he appeared to show there in six other starts over the past 21 months.
In fact, any dispassionate study of the two-mile chase division since the last Dublin Racing Festival prior to today wouldn’t have revealed any horse being “in a different league”, with most of the leading performers having beaten each other at least once.
All of that changed in Sunday's Dublin Chase at Leopardstown, however, with Majborough (c179) producing the sort of top-drawer performance he’s long since promised, pulling an imperious 19 lengths clear of Marine Nationale and Found A Fifty (163) – horses he’d finished behind earlier in the campaign.
Naturally, a wide-margin win on ground which had to pass an early-morning inspection will prompt plenty to question the reliability of the form, particularly as none of Majborough’s five rivals ran anywhere near their recent best. The latter point, however, probably owed more to the unrelenting gallop set by Majborough than anything else and the stopwatch suggests his performance is every bit as good as it looked, one which has rocketed him to the top of the Timeform ratings for jumpers currently in training.
The combination of first-time cheekpieces and more positive tactics than of late resulted in Majborough’s most fluent display to date, though that is unlikely to quash debate about his jumping during the build-up to Cheltenham – particularly as mistakes proved costly in last season’s Arkle Chase over the same course and distance, whilst stable-companion El Fabiolo blundered away his chance when 9/2-on favourite for the Champion Chase on the back of winning the 2024 Dublin Chase.
In truth, Majborough is likely to remain something of a white-knuckle ride on that score for punters until he’s produced a string of sure-footed displays similar to today, but it bears repeating that he’s now shown form a notch above his likely rivals at Cheltenham.
Those rivals will again include Marine Nationale, who finished runner-up in last year’s renewal en route to Cheltenham glory. True to form, Connell was putting on a brave face after a chastening defeat and predicted that we’ll see a “different horse on spring ground”.
The Leopardstown ground was once a bone of contention with another outspoken set of owners, namely the O’Leary brothers responsible for the powerful Gigginstown team.
“The Dublin Racing Festival is meant to be our showpiece event and a prep for Cheltenham, but only two Cheltenham Festival winners came out of the meeting last year and it banjaxed a lot of horses,” was the damning verdict by Eddie O’Leary of the 2019 meeting, which was run on official going of “good, good to firm in places” after one of the driest winters on record, coupled with Leopardstown’s reluctance to water (predicted freezing overnight temperatures complicated matters) – the Sunday card had 26 non-runners on account of the ground.
There were plenty of examples from the 2019 DRF which could be used to illustrate that championship-level jumps racing on firm-ish ground can sometimes have a lasting detrimental effect, arguably none more so than the meeting’s most impressive winner Apple’s Jade, who romped to a sixteen-length win in the Irish Champion Hurdle from a field of proven Grade 1 performers.
A model of consistency, it was her 14th win (plus four second places and two thirds) from 20 starts until then but she was never the same mare again, registering just one win from a further eight career starts (including four unplaced efforts).
Gigginstown’s latest star mare Brighterdaysahead (h157) encountered very different underfoot conditions thanks to Storm Chandra as she became her connections’ first winner of that race since Apple’s Jade, in the process enhancing the fine recent record of her sex in top two-mile hurdles – mares have now won five of the last eight Irish Champion Hurdles, plus four of the last six Champion Hurdles at Cheltenham.
The latter statistic might have have been five from six had Lossiemouth (h158) been allowed to take her chance in the 2024 Champion, swerving that race for victory in the David Nicholson Mares Hurdle instead. She’ll presumably bid now for a third straight win in the Mares' Hurdle following her three-and-a-quarter-length defeat to Brighterdaysahead, which seems a waste given she’d again hold a leading chance in the Champion Hurdle in what is proving another open year.
Indeed, we’ve taken the decision to leave her just ahead of Brighterdaysahead on Timeform ratings despite Sunday's reverse. Lossiemouth looked ill at ease on the testing ground from some way out, so the percentage call is that their meeting when first and second in the December Hurdle appeals as more reliable form.
Whatever the merits of that argument, there is clearly very little between the pair and only the beleaguered Constitution Hill (h166x) currently sits ahead of them in Timeform’s ratings for the Champion Hurdle once their 7lb mares’ allowance is taken into account.
Of course, the future of Constitution Hill as a hurdler remains unclear, the nine-year-old having undergone a stalls test last week in preparation for his intended run on the all-weather Flat at Southwell later this month – which, to coin Barry Connell, all seems a bit “Mickey Mouse” as a Champion Hurdle trial!
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