John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on the racing front on Tuesday.
Chasing debut for triple Grade One winner Dancing City
Dancing City fared best of Willie Mullins’ five runners when finishing third in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham behind outsiders Stellar Story and The Jukebox Man but that proved to be his only defeat in Grade One staying novice hurdles last season. Prior to Cheltenham, he’d beaten his much better-fancied stablemate Predators Gold in the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival, while later in the spring he went on to win at both Aintree and Punchestown.
At Aintree, he turned the tables on The Jukebox Man in the Sefton Novices’, while at Punchestown he had the Albert Bartlett winner Stellar Story back in fourth as he showed plenty of grit to get the better of stablemate High Class Hero. The Jukebox Man and Stellar Story have already won Grade Two novices over fences in recent weeks and doubtless Dancing City will soon be back in graded company himself assuming the former point winner makes a successful chasing debut in the beginners chase at Punchestown (12:20).
Shannon Royale and Mossy Fen Park made very promising starts to their own chasing careers last month for Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead respectively, but Dancing City is very much the one to beat judged on what he achieved over hurdles in the spring.
Jagwar’s Bangor form looking strong
Uttoxeter’s novice handicap chase (13:42) looks an interesting contest where the weights are headed by Nicky’s Henderson’s chasing debutant Jingko Blue who’d looked a smart prospect until being badly let down by his jumping when last seen in the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival. A couple of his rivals have already taken to fences really well, though, including Rambo T who confirmed the promise of his chasing debut for Olly Murphy when successful at Warwick last time.
But the one they all have to beat is Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero’s exciting prospect Jagwar who won first time up over fences at Wetherby in October and showed plenty of improvement when following up from a 5 lb higher mark at Bangor last month. He has looked well ahead of the handicapper so far and another 9 lb rise in the weights looks unlikely to stop him completing his hat-trick. Jagwar travelled strongly at Bangor but having had plenty to do three out, he made good progress from the next and then quickened clear in very taking fashion after leading early on the run-in.
Runner-up Lowry’s Bar shaped well three lengths behind him there and has duly gone one better since at Exeter last week, while the Bangor fourth Mount Tempest won on the same day at Sandown to give the form a further boost. Only a five-year-old but a tall, lengthy type, Jagwar is very much one to follow over fences.
Absence no concern for Not Long Left
The other handicap chase on Uttoxeter’s card (14:12) sees the chasing debut of Not Long Left who will also be making his first start for Venetia Williams’ in-form stable. The expensive recruit from Irish points only managed four starts for Christian Williams, getting off the mark when making all in a maiden hurdle at Fontwell in May of last year but finishing lame and being sidelined since as a result.
Looking the type to make a better chaser, Not Long Left steps up to three miles for the first time here and is getting weight from all bar one of his rivals. Although he has that lengthy absence to overcome, he certainly wouldn’t be the first chaser from his yard to make a successful return after a long time off the track. Half of the stable’s 24 runners over fences to have returned from an absence of more than a year since the beginning of 2022 finished in the first three on their comeback run, with four of them being successful.
The most notable of those was top-class chaser L’Homme Presse who hadn’t run since unseating in the previous season’s King George when returning with a win in the Fleur de Lys Chase at Lingfield in January. More recently, Coral Gold Cup third Victtorino and Haydock veterans chase winner Cloudy Glen are other chasers from the stable to have run well on their respective returns to action, both having last run at the Cheltenham Festival. Starting life over fences off a potentially handy mark, Not Long Left looks worth siding with to defy his own absence.
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