John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Sunday.
Three points of interest
Ideal conditions for Chally Chute at the Curragh
The ground is forecast to be heavy for the final meeting of the year at the Curragh and it’s under such conditions that offspring of the sire Fast Company tend to come into their own. Chally Chute is a good example, with all four of his wins on turf coming on ground softer than good. He has contested the listed race on this card for the last couple of years, finishing well beaten twelve months ago, but at the age of seven he has looked better than ever this year in two starts for new trainer Ross O’Sullivan.
Chally Chute is sure to be a shorter price for the Loughbrown Stakes (14:30) than for either of his previous starts this term. He caused a huge upset when winning a listed race at Roscommon on his return in July at 125/1 and went close to causing another shock in the Irish Cesarewich at the Curragh last time when a half-length second to Puturhandstogether at odds of 66/1.
That was a big improvement on Chally Chute’s two previous tries in the race and he was unlucky not to win, too, after meeting trouble weaving through the field as he made ground. That earned him the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag, while that smart effort also makes him clear top on Timeform weight-adjusted ratings. In addition, Chally Chute has the ‘Horses For Courses’ flag as a past course winner, and with trip and ground right up his street too, he has strong claims.
Improving Starford looks pick of Joseph O’Brien’s six
The Curragh’s Finale Stakes (15:40), a listed contest over a mile and a half, will no doubt be a last chance to earn some black type for plenty in the field, which no doubt accounts for fillies accounting for all bar one of the sixteen who have been declared. However, it’s the odd one out, Starford, who looks the most interesting as Joseph O’Brien’s gelding has one of the more progressive profiles in a competitive race where his stable has six of the runners.
One of only a handful of runners to date for his sire Beckford who was a smart sprinter in the same colours, those of Newtown Anner Stud, Starford started off earlier this year over shorter trips himself but has really begun to thrive since stepping up to middle distances in handicaps in keeping with the stamina on the dam’s side of his pedigree.
He won at Gowran (an apprentice race under Wayne Hassett who is back on board here) and Roscommon in the summer before a narrow defeat at the Galway Festival and resumed winning ways in a premier handicap at Listowel last time when accounting for older rivals in clear-cut fashion, earning the ‘Horse In Focus’ flag. With his latest win coming on soft ground and out of a mare who went well in the mud, the testing conditions aren’t a concern and he’s fancied to take the step up in grade in his stride.
Jet Legs to make fitness count at Carlisle
The Cumberland Handicap Chase over three and a quarter miles (15:12) is the longest race on a good card at Carlisle and it can go to Jet Legs, trained locally by Martin Todhunter who had plenty of runners go close in October without actually winning.
In fact, the stable had a rare attack of ‘thirditis’ last month when eight of the yards’s sixteen runners filled that position. One of those was Jet Legs himself, who shaped as if back in top form on his first start for six months over a slightly shorter trip at this track. Normally an assured jumper, Jet Legs made the running and was still going well in front when making a bad mistake two out. Collared on the run-in, he then lost second close home in going down by a neck and a head to Dare To Shout and Inis Oirr.
The latter takes him on again and looks Jet Legs’ main danger in a race where all the others, including last year’s winner Val Dancer, are making their seasonal debuts. As well as having race-fitness on his side, course winner Jet Legs has the ‘Horses For Courses’ flag and he heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings racing off the same mark as last time.
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