Timeform's Phil Turner on July Flower and Panic Attack as the mares lit up a gloomy Cheltenham on Paddy Power Gold Cup day.
Storm Claudia would have held no fears for the redoubtable mare Anaglogs Daughter, a fearless front runner who made light of rain-drenched conditions when running away with the 1980 Arkle Chase, winning hard held by 20 lengths and 25 lengths – a performance which would have been good enough to win that year’s Queen Mother Champion Chase.
She developed into an outstanding chaser over a wide variety of trips, particularly when the mud was flying, and her peak rating of 171 remains the highest for a chaser of her sex in Timeform history.
Fittingly it was a pair of mares who were the star performers on the Saturday of Cheltenham’s Open Meeting, which had to survive a morning inspection due to Claudia’s handiwork over the previous 24 hours. Panic Attack(c143+) will understandably grab the bulk of the headlines for landing the big race, but July Flower (c146p) is arguably the more interesting of the pair with regards to next March.
Her length-and-a-half defeat of Be Aware (c151) in this afternoon’s Paddy Power Arkle Trial reads extremely well on the clock, the pair putting their previous chasing experience to good use as they pulled 10 lengths clear of Champion Hurdle runner-up Burdett Road (c136p), who was making his debut over the larger obstacles.
A classy import from France, July Flower was having only her fifth start for Henry de Bromhead, a trainer whose runners regularly improve for the switch to chasing.
Indeed, her new Timeform rating of 146p puts her at the top of this season’s two-mile novice chasers so far when her 7 lb mares allowance is taken into account. Anaglogs Daughter, of course, had no such help when taking on the boys during her day and there are grounds for thinking that modern connections of above-average mares aren’t making full use of that weight pull. Only 25 mares have contested the Arkle Chase since Anaglogs Daughter’s rout back in 1980, whilst the introduction of the Mrs Paddy Power Mares Chase to the Cheltenham Festival roster in 2021 means even fewer are likely to head for the two-mile option from now on.
Another de Bromhead-trained mare Put The Kettle On landed the same Trial back in 2019 en route to winning at Cheltenham the following Spring, in the process becoming the only mare to win the Arkle since Anaglogs Daughter – Put The Kettle On, of course, also exploited the generous sex allowance when becoming the only female winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase 12 months later.
July Flower has already posted a higher level of than both Put The Kettle On and fellow mare Only By Night (narrow second in last season’s Arkle) at the same stage of their novice chase campaigns, with today’s fluent display suggesting there could be even better to come.
Timeform’s leading novice chasers of 2025/26
Gold Dancer - 157p
Western Fold - 154
July Flower - 153p*
Blizzard of Oz - 152
Be Aware - 151
Diva Luna - 149p*
Spanish Harlem - 149
Romeo Coolio - 148p
Rocky’s Diamond - 148p
Taponthego - 147p
(* including mares allowance)
Dan Skelton might have had to settle for minor honours with the much-improved Be Aware - one of only two British-trained novice chasers in Timeform’s current top ten (the other is Ben Pauling’s mare Diva Luna) – but he was receiving all the plaudits some 40 minutes later when Panic Attack provided the yard with its first win in the Paddy Power Gold Cup.
As recent Haldon Gold Cup winner Thistle Ask has ably demonstrated, Skelton has few peers when it comes to improving horses from other yards and, although now rising 10, it’s not out of the question that Panic Attack will improve further on the back of today’s four-length defeat of favourite Vincenzo (c140).
After all, she’s unbeaten in just two starts over fences for Skelton and, although made to work a fair bit harder today than when hacking up in a valuable mares event at Windsor last winter, the fact she was going away at the death suggests there could be even more to come.
In fact, her new rating of 143+ would already make her a live outsider for the aforementioned Paddy Power Mares Chase – although it wouldn’t be a surprise if connections opted to utilise her mares allowance elsewhere in search of another valuable pot next March.
More from Sporting Life
- Free bets
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
