Talking Points: Matt Brocklebank looks ahead to Tuesday's action
Matt Brocklebank looks ahead to the racing action with a couple of jockeys under the spotlight at Sedgefield.
1. Hughes in his element
With 81 winners and counting so far this season, Brian Hughes sits third in the Stobart Jump Jockeys' Championship standings behind reigning champ Richard Johnson (134) and Harry Skelton (114), and Tuesday sees the 'king in the north' head back to Sedgefield.
Hughes has a full book of seven rides at the time of writing and it's a course which has served him well over the years.
The County Armagh man is almost a part of the furniture at Segefield, taking 758 rides at the track over the past five season - more than he's ridden anywhere else in the same period.
And his win tally stands at an impressive 131, with the current season yielding a 20% strike-rate (13-66) and a fractional level stakes profit.
Following Hughes blind today may not be the most sensible approach but he's on some experienced, hardy horses including nine-year-old the Herds Garden, 10-year-old Kilfinchen Bay and 11-year-old Yourholidayisover, who gets the ball rolling in the opening Sedgefield Christmas Jumper Raceday Seventh December Handicap Chase.
Perhaps the two most exciting from a neutral point of view are the more youthful four-year-old duo of Promise Of Peace (12.50) and Court Jurado (3.20).
Promise Of Peace goes handicapping for the first time from a lowly mark of 107 - the rating may look about right given what he's shown over hurdles so far, but the gelding was tried at Group One level by his former trainer Andrea Wohler in Germany and it wouldn't take much improvement to see him competitive.
2. McMenamin sets out on Sedgefield journey
If Hughes is rapidly becoming the don of Sedgefield then Danny McMenamin is clearly the new kid on the block as he prepares for his first ride at the venue aboard Millie The Minx in division two of the Sedgefield Racecourse Supports Cash For Kids Handicap Hurdle.
Hughes had to wait until this March to record his first Cheltenham Festival winner courtesy of Mister Whitaker but a victory at Prestbury Park is something McMenamin has on the CV now following his heroics on Nietzsche in the Unibet Greatwood Hurdle at the November meeting.
He came close to another big weekend score when just edged out by Vintage Clouds on the Nicky Richards-trained Takingrisks at Haydock on Saturday so it's clear he's high on confidence currently.
Millie The Minx has been going well in defeat under another claiming rider in Colm McCormack and she clearly likes the place.
No doubt McMenamin has more big days ahead of him, but it's the likes of Millie The Minx who will ultimately help him scale the sort of heights that Hughes is more used to these days.
3. Well done Rare?
It’s strange the journeys we take in life. Take Rare for example.
When connections parted with $420,000 for her at the Keeneland September Sales of 2016 they were making a long-term investment. It wasn’t only her potential racing ability that attracted Sheikh Fahad and the Qatar Racing team – but the breeding potential too.
Just look at the pedigree. She’s a daughter of Galileo out of the Linamix mare Mirarixa making her a full-sister to Beresford Stakes third Exemplar, and a half-sister to Blue Bunting, winner of the 1000 Guineas plus an Irish and Yorkshire Oaks.
It’s a good read for breeders – and a source of comfort I’d imagine for connections as they load her into the box on Tuesday for the trek up the A1 to Southwell for the Betway Maiden Stakes.
It’s not that she’s devoid of ability – the handicapper says 70 after initially guessing 76. But that’s 40lb and more below that of her illustrious sibling, and probably not enough to guarantee she’ll get the job done here in against Princess Harley who is proven on this unforgiving surface.
Whatever happens here, it’s as a broodmare she’ll be measured.
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