Matt Brocklebank reflects on Monday's top-class action from Newbury and Leopardstown and he feels backing No Drama This End at 4/1 for Cheltenham would be a bad move.
You’ve had one Lindor Milk Chocolate Truffle, you may as well have five. We all know the feeling, particularly at this time of year when nobody in all honesty knows what day it is and trying to stave off those late-night cheese-and-cracker cravings is not an easy task.
One brings two, etc. But will it be the same with the Coral Challow Novices’ Hurdle, last year’s winner The New Lion having broken a hoodoo that appeared to be hanging over the Newbury victors for decades.
Dan Skelton’s horse wasn’t exactly defying the odds on the day – he went off at 3/1 at Cheltenham – but in winning the Turners Novices’ Hurdle last March, his first run after beating Wendigo in last year’s Challow, The New Lion proved an ultimate trends-buster as he achieved a G1 double that few horses have ever managed to pull off.
As we were constantly reminded on the preview night circuit last year, the previous 20 Challow winners who went for Festival glory the following spring had all been unsuccessful, and that run of course included the likes of Denman and Bravemansgame, two of the best for Paul Nicholls.
There’s no question Nicholls has another very promising long-term prospect on his hands in No Drama This End, although it must be stressed he wasn’t required to improve much, if at all, on the form he’d shown when winning under a penalty in a Grade 2 at Sandown earlier in the month to follow up at Newbury, and on the face of it he probably didn’t.
One thing we did learn about, however, was the grey’s ability to cope with a decent surface, something his trainer was keen to stress before the race. “If you’re going to go for all those good races, you need to be able to show it on good ground,” Nicholls had stated on ITV, and there was never really any question of No Drama This End being outpaced despite a few challengers looming up in behind the long-time leader on the run to the final flight.
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In the end, there was no drama at all and that’s just what connections wanted to see three weeks on from a soft-ground cruise in the Betfair Winter Novices’ Hurdle.
‘Straight to Cheltenham’ is the rallying cry now from within the camp and you can sense the excitement is only going to build, but there are a lot of big races in this division to be run in the meantime.
Perhaps the Challow-Festival floodgates can now open as freely as the Christmas Lindor, but after bookmakers cut No Drama This End’s odds again to a best-priced 4/1 for the Turners on the back Monday’s win, you can’t help but think that to back him now would not represent anything in the way of value.
'The other race'
On the subject of hanging fire with antepost bets, Lossiemouth and Brighterdaysahead are into 100/30 and 14/1 respectively for the Unibet Champion Hurdle after just a length divided the pair in Leopardstown’s December Hurdle.
With Casheldale Lad third and the ridiculously hard-pulling Anzadam weakening into fourth, there’s obviously an argument to suggest that this wasn’t a vintage edition of the Grade 1 contest either, but they are clearly two top-class mares and their records speak for themselves.
But mares they are and the “other race” as Paul Townend politely put it on Racing TV in his post-race debrief with Gary O’Brien will no doubt come into consideration too, depending on what unfolds in the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival in February.
“She enjoys the other race there as well and it’s always nice to be in the winners’ enclosure and have her to look forward to,” he said with a wry smile and a dry mouth.
Here we go again, people.
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