Ben Linfoot Saturday analysis | Reformed Sky Pirate an Arkle possible?

Saturday Reports

• Classic win for Notachance
• Destination delivers for Cobden
• Adrimel wins Leamington thriller
• Sky Pirate revival continues
• Market Rasen review: Eileen dream

The Pirate? For the Arrrrrrrrrkle? Say it could be so…

One of horse racing’s ‘very 2020’ moments came at Cheltenham in December when SKY PIRATE actually went and won a race.

After trading at odds-on in-running on five successive occasions without winning, Sky Pirate earned himself a bad reputation amongst punters but he’s doing his level best to smooth over that relationship now – take note, Fiddlerontheroof (see below).

His Cheltenham win came over two miles, the first time in his career he’d tried the trip, and the form looked good. Both the second, Ibleo, and the sixth, Capeland, have come out and won subsequently, so it was no wonder he was sent off as the 6/4 favourite for the six-runner Edward Courage Cup Handicap Chase at Warwick on Saturday.

There was to be no in-running drama this time. At only one point during the race was there a moment of concern for backers – when the in-form Amoola Gold made his challenge after the last – and it was so brief the Pirate was 1.01 in a flash.

Yes, Sky Pirate showed mettle and saw out his race really well after jumping superbly throughout.

Going away at the end again, he beat a 143-rated rival, who had won two of his last three, by two-and-a-quarter lengths at the line, with the pair 11 lengths clear of Generous Day in third. This was another career-best performance from the winner on the back of his previous best.

I think you have to take a positive view of the form and the handicapper will likely nudge him up to in and around the 150 mark on Tuesday, perhaps low 150s, making his life tougher the next time he tackles a handicap chase.

The obvious goal for him is the Grand Annual, but no horse has ever won that race off a mark higher than 150 – Le Prezien won it off that very rating in 2018 – and the way he’s going he’ll be a contender to be top-weight in that race.

It will be interesting, then, to see if he gets an entry for the Sporting Life Arkle, with the one good thing about his frustrating winless run over fences in both 2018-19 and 2019-20 being that he started this season as a novice chaser.

Good for Jonjo O’Neill at least – if he wants to pursue that route now he has a late-blooming two-mile chaser on his hands. Look out Shishkin?! I would particularly like to see this twist in the Sky Pirate story.

Another option for him is the Betfair Hurdle and he would face no penalty in that race after winning this chase. Rated 140 over hurdles – at least, he will be in the Betfair Hurdle as the weights are already out – he could be 10lb or more well-in on his chasing mark, so it has to remain an option.

His slick jumping of a fence at two miles looks a key weapon, though, so perhaps connections would be wise to stick to two-mile chases now they have found the key with this reformed character.

The Pirate, in the Arkle. It’s just great that we’re talking about the possibility. There is hope for us all.

Tizzard still to find the key to the Fiddler

While Sky Pirate has turned over a new leaf now he’s found his trip, FIDDLERONTHEROOF and his backers, of which I was one on Saturday, are suffering from his old affliction due to a bout of seconditus.

The Tizzard yard can’t buy a winner at present, but they must’ve thought Fiddlerontheroof would finally land them a 2021 victory when he loomed up outside Next Destination late on in the Hampton Novices’ Chase at Warwick.

He traded at 1.3 in-running on Betfair, a fair indication of his chance after a fine jump at the last with a short run-in to come, but Next Destination was too good, too strong, and he pulled out more in the style of a good horse.

There is no doubt the winner is a classy stayer. We know that from his days with Willie Mullins, where he was a Grade One-winning novice hurdler over three miles at Punchestown, and he’s taken to fences like a natural for Paul Nicholls.

Now two from two in chases, following one run over hurdles to blow the cobwebs away after a 920-day lay-off, Next Destination looks to be taking his races well after such a long absence and that augurs well for what will be tougher tests in the spring.

But what of Fiddlerontheroof? Is he soft? Is he keeping a bit back for himself? Does he just keep bumping into better horses; If The Cap Fits, Caribean Boy, Allart and now Next Destination?

The jury is out on all of those things and taken as a group his run of seconds is clearly a concern. He does have to go and prove he can go through with his effort and win a race now, showing some fortitude to go with his obvious talent.

But, taken in isolation, a theme most of us are familiar with at present, this was a good run. In fact, I think it was his best run over fences yet and there is hope that a three-mile trip can be the making of him.

He jumped superbly at a track that demands accurate fencing, he was a bit short of room rounding the home turn when somehow finding trouble in-running in a three-runner field, and it was reported afterwards that he burst a blood vessel.

Perhaps he just needs to find his level. Handicaps could be the way to go and he’d certainly be on my shortlist in an Ultima off a mark in the 140s.

There were positives at Warwick and I wouldn’t be too quick to write him off just yet. Just look at Sky Pirate. There is a racehorse in there. Colin Tizzard just needs to find the key.

Previously in 'Festival Fever' analysis

• Buck's the one on Festival radar (Jan 9)

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