Matt Brocklebank picks through some of the more eyecatching performances from the rearranged ‘West Country Weekend’ at Aintree.
West Country Weekend wasn’t quite as you know it this season, most of the races taking on a different guise hundreds of miles further north on Merseyside, but some things appear constant in the jumping world right now and the Skeltons won both novice hurdles with ex-pointers, Risky Obsession delivering in Friday’s opening race over 2m1f, followed by Old Coast Road over 2m4f on Saturday.
Neither made much of an impact on the markets for the Cheltenham Grade 1s at those respective distances, but the former looks a stayer long-term while Old Coast Road only had the one to beat and was race-fit from finishing second in a Chepstow bumper on his Rules debut just last month.
In pure form terms, Risky Obsession couldn’t quite match the striking effort produced by stablemate St James’s Finest earlier in the week but his was a noteworthy performance all the same, the front two coming 11 lengths clear.
Another winner to emerge from the Grade 2 bumper at the Grand National meeting, he is a half-brother to Ask Paddington who won handicaps for Rebecca Menzies over distances up to 2m7f, and having settled better in the new hood/tongue-tie combination, his future no doubt lies in staying handicaps too.
Al Capony bolted up in the concluding bumper on Saturday and looks likely to scale the heights if kept in this sphere for the foreseeable, while Royal Infantry was Dan Skelton's other winner in Friday’s ‘Future Stars’ Silver Bowl ‘Chasing Excellence’ Novices’ Chase.
For a rather convoluted race title, Royal Infantry kept it simple out in front and was just far more measured than his slightly clumsy market rival Klimt Madrik, who certainly didn’t shape badly.
It wasn’t picked up on much at Hexham but Royal Infantry definitely adjusts to his right and it was even more marked here. Kempton might suit better on that basis but I suspect he’ll meet a better calibre of opposition there and find life tougher. He’s been well placed so far but I could see even the likes of Klimt Madrik progressing past him as the season goes on.
The same fears could ring true for Paul Nicholls’ Friday hero Rubaud in the Haldon Gold Cup. Rubaud is tough and hardy and absolutely made for Sam Twiston-Davies but he took advantage of a favourable mark back over fences and had conditions very much to suit, in receipt of lumps of weight from eventual second and third, JPR One and Mirabad.
The one to take from the race is fourth home Brookie, who attracted support despite being 6lb out of the handicap. He’d have finished closer but for a mistake three-out (lost a shoe at some point, possibly there) and the Desert Orchid at Kempton over Christmas is reportedly his big winter target.
Saturday’s Grade 2 highlight – the William Hill Molyneux Hurdle – wasn’t a competitive heat by any means and Alexei’s odds being cut quite considerably for the Unibet Champion Hurdle, the race in which he was fourth at the Festival last March, on the back of a straightforward enough success is quite frustrating.
We learnt that he hasn’t regressed over the summer, but little else in truth, and it’s hoped Skelton’s top novice from last year, Mydaddypaddy (absent here on account of the ground), lines up against Joe Tizzard’s horse in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle later this month. We'll know a great deal more after that, one suspects.
Taurus Bay beating Talk To The Man, Favour And Fortune and odds-on favourite No Drama This End in the Boodles Rising Stars could have greater short and medium-term significance.
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No Drama This End deserves a pass purely on account of this not being enough of a test. He’s a big, strapping stayer in the making and he’ll find jumping fences easier going a shade slower on deeper ground.
The favourite aside, there was a good battle up front and the returning winner did really well to see off a race-fit Talk To The Man to make a winning chase debut.
Trained by the ambitious Ben Pauling, he could be pitched in deep from this point and will have to be a quick learner but his Festival experience from the Turners in March should stand him in good stead and if he were mine I’d be working back from the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase.
Pauling won that race last year with Meetmebythesea, who was shrewdly plotted up after making a winning start over fences, and Taurus Bay won’t be over-raced by all accounts.
Mickey Bowen’s Off The Jury is a progressive young stayer we’ll hear plenty more about over the next couple of seasons and the Warren Greatrex-trained All In You, ticking over on the Flat recently including a York fifth behind November Handicap winner Alfred Wincham, proved last season’s William Hill Hurdle flop all wrong when defying the same mark (127) quite convincingly on Friday.
He’ll probably be given an entry in the Premier Handicap Hurdle at Ascot’s pre-Christmas meeting, the strong pace and stiff finish expected to play to his strengths there.
I was briefly cursing not backing the well-treated King Turgeon at a big price as he made his bid for home in Friday’s BetMGM Handicap Chase (ex-Badger Beers), but the eye was still being drawn to Harry Cobden on the well-fancied Montregard on the outside and, after taking it up on the run to the last, it was a question of whether Tom Lacey’s horse would really see it through.
Montregard did idle slightly but you can’t really knock his chase strike-rate which now reads five wins from a dozen starts and they’ll surely be looking to try him at Cheltenham at some stage – although not on bad ground as he’s best in decent conditions.
Konfusion might get a pound or two back from the assessor for his seasonal debut fifth and he’s more ground-versatile than the winner so is likely to be placed to advantage again despite winning three handicaps last season.
On Saturday, the big handicap chases at 2m and 2m4f went to Javert Allen (best fresh) and Josh The Boss (fairly well exposed off higher marks in the past) respectively.
Idem stayed on well to win the Pertemps Qualifier but that one got a clearer run up the home straight than runner-up Walden, who was bumped twice running to the second-last which he unsurprisingly bumbled his way over.
Walden, another for the in-form Lacey, was fighting back at the line and probably just needed a target to take him deeper into the contest. He’s still on the upgrade based on this comeback and softer ground won’t pose much of a problem to him as the year goes on.
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