That special time in the racing calendar is almost upon us. The anticipation is building towards the revving up of the jumps season.
In the coming weeks we will start to see a sprinkling of the national hunt’s best appearing around the country as the inevitable Cheltenham Countdown begins in earnest.
Soon Channel 4 will switch coverage from flat to jumps races and our morning reports will be resplendent with news of frost covers and overnight temperatures.
If you see the flat season as something to fill the gap between spring and autumn then you will appreciate that we are approaching a truly wonderful time of year.
It is from now on that dreams of Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown in the spring are born and begin to take shape.
The Showcase Meeting at Prestbury Park from 23rd October will whet the appetite for the winter programme ahead.
As always at this stage of the year the betfair.com ante-post markets for the big jumps races are a constantly changing landscape as the big names slowly begin to play their hands.
With things about to jump up a gear, what better time to mark down ten of the jumps horses that could thrill us over the coming season.
Faugheen
One of the most exciting jumpers in training, ‘Faugheen the Machine’ is set to dominate again this season.
He built spectacularly on his novice campaign last time around to cement his place as the best two-mile hurdler in the business. A season of dress rehearsals and shadow boxing with The New One proved facile as he stormed to Champion Hurdle success at Cheltenham. In the end Faugheen’s nearest challengers were stablemates Arctic Fire and Hurricane Fly.
By the time he had finished at Punchestown, Faugheen’s record stood at a perfect ten wins from ten career starts. Can any horse get this machine-like performer in trouble?
With Sprinter Sacre‘s demise, Faugheen has taken over the mantle as the horse everyone wants to watch. While he remains unbeaten there will continue to be an aura around the Willie Mullins superstar.
The Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown in November is a likely starting point and, with Hurricane Fly now retired, Faugheen is the undoubted star turn form Mullins’ all-conquering Closutton operation.
Un Temps Pour Tout
Worth recalling at this point that Un Temps Pour Tout cost the princely sum of £450,000 in November 2013, making the French-bred the second most expensive jumps horse ever purchased at public auction.
He was clearly held in the highest regard by the David Pipe team but things have not gone to plan since. After a relatively decent start he was forced to spend an extended spell on the sidelines before returning last January to finish third in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham.
That was his prep race for a tilt at the World Hurdle, a race in which his connections would have been forgiven had they assumed a look of confidence given the pace-setting Cole Harden had previously taken a 16-length beating from Un Temps Pour Tout.
It wasn’t to be and there was an empty feeling for trainer Pipe as he filled a minor role next time out at Aintree. He finally came good, however, with victory in the French Champion Hurdle at Auteuil in June.
Questions will be asked as to whether Un Temps Pour Tout is most at home on heavy going but, granted an injury-free season, he could justify his hefty price tag and may even tackle a fence this winter.
Coneygree
Coneygree’s Gold Cup win was a real Cheltenham fairytale story. Bred by the late Lord Oaksey and trained by his son-in-law Mark Bradstock, it was a David versus Goliath scenario when he fought off the powerhouse operations of Mullins and Paul Nicholls to win the Cheltenham showpiece.
In becoming the first novice to land the Gold Cup in more than 40 years, Coneygree produced the sort of breathtakingly bold, front running display that had quickly become his trademark.
Comparisons with 2008 Gold Cup hero Denman unsurprisingly followed given he had emulated the Ditcheat legend in galloping relentlessly from the front to win the Blue Riband.
Denman’s Cheltenham heroics left an indelible mark on the big horse and he would win just once more in his career despite gallantly finishing second best in three more Gold Cups.
What will be the impact on Coneygree after his courageous effort last March, can he continue to thrive on his favoured tactics of dominating from the front?
Having won the Gold Cup on just his fourth start over fences, there could be so much more to come from the brilliant eight-year-old but scaling the heights of Cheltenham again will not be an easy task.
by Carine06
Un De Sceaux
The challenge of stepping into the vacuum left behind by Sprinter Sacre in the two-mile chasing division is going to fall on last season’s Arkle winner.
Much like Coneygree in the stayers’ event, Un De Sceaux likes to give his rivals a good look at what he is all about by bounding along from the front.
Questions have been raised about his style of racing and whether it would cost him at the business end but to date he has given all the answers in impressive fashion.
The Champion Chase will be his target and while he is breathtaking at his best, his one defeat came when crashing out at Thurles last November with a mistake that was surely down to his exuberant style of racing.
That is the conundrum for punters when considering Un De Sceaux as a betting proposition, one mistake at the breakneck pace he runs a two-mile chase is surely going to prove fatal.
When he stands up, the pace and power he possesses ensure his rivals are guaranteed only a long look at his disappearing rear end.
Moon Racer
Another from the Pond House team, David Pipe’s faith in Moon Racer was rewarded with victory in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham last March after a light campaign.
It is hard to believe given what Moon Racer has achieved in two subsequent runs that he was sent off a 50/1 no-hoper for his debut success in a Fairyhouse bumper. That wide margin win was enough to see him arrive at Pipe’s yard and he got his first look at Prestbury Park when dotting up in a bumper at the Showcase Meeting last October.
He wouldn’t be seen again before the festival and looked to blot his copybook there when giving the field a head start in the Champion Bumper. Tom Scudamore wasn’t panicked however and he weaved through runners to remain unbeaten.
Is he precocious at home or was his shrewd trainer merely keeping the powder dry waiting for March to roll around last time? These are the questions that run through the mind.
We will find out soon as Moon Racer embarks on what should be a fascinating novice hurdling season. It will be no surprise if he is a warm order to end the dominance of Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle come March.
by Carine06
Peace And Co
While Faugheen remains the master of all that he surveys, last season’s juvenile crop will certainly merit respect when they come to challenge.
Peace And Co was very much the apple of Nicky Henderson’s eye last spring on the back of winning his first two starts at Doncaster and then Cheltenham on trials day.
The Seven Barrows team lorded it when it came to Triumph Hurdle time and, while Henderson was determined publicly to suggest nothing separated Peace And Co, Top Notch and Hargam, the confidence with which the eventual winner was ridden by Barry Geraghty belied the fact.
A neck was the official winning margin in the Triumph as he led home a Henderson one-two-three in the Grade One but Peace And Co looked the class act despite racing on ground softer than ideal.
Henderson will no doubt be working hard on plotting his campaign and this second-season hurdler should be winning plenty of races before a potential collision with Faugheen at Cheltenham.
Vautour
Another from the Mullins production line, it is impossible not be drawn towards the Irish champion trainer given his record-breaking achievement at Cheltenham last March.
In Vautour we not only have the breathtaking winner of the JLT Novices’ Chase at the festival but also a horse that reaffirmed Mullins’ own judgement of his string.
Vautour suffered his only setback on British or Irish soil when delivering a laboured display to finish third in Grade One company at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival.
It was some shabby jumping that cost him on that occasion but Mullins was adamant he could put that behind him over the course of the season.
What transpired in the JLT was arguably the single most impressive display over fences of the season as Vautour and Ruby Walsh demolished the field, winning by 15 lengths. The sectional times recorded had experts fumbling for superlatives.
The Gold Cup is missing from Mullins’ CV to this point but in Vautour he surely has a wonderful candidate to rectify that stat.
by Carine06
Saphir Du Rheu
It would be improbable to complete a list like this without having some representation from Team Ditcheat and champion trainer Nicholls.
Owned by Andy Stewart, aborting his novice chase campaign in favour of a go at staying hurdles, Saphir Du Rheu looked to try and emulate the great Big Buck’s last season.
Though he would finish second at Cheltenham in the World Hurdle, there was a lingering suspicion that Nicholls remained unconvinced this horse was not going to develop into a smart chaser.
He won the battle of minds with Stewart and Saphir Du Rheu duly romped to success over fences at Aintree in April.
At his recent open day, Nicholls suggested this fella over all others was the most likely future Gold Cup winner in his care.
As with Mullins and Vautour, when Nicholls speaks, punters are encouraged to listen.
The Hennessey at Newbury in November is his short-term target and it will be no surprise if Saphir Du Rheu has more Grade One chases under his belt when the season ends.
Remember him? The 2013 Arkle winner hasn’t been seen on a racecourse since. He had of course looked a really talented chasing prospect in winning all three starts over fences, culminating in that Cheltenham success.
Where Sprinter Sacre must battle back from an irregular heartbeat, Simonsig’s problems are reported to have been of the much more niggling variety.
As such, hope remains that Henderson can get him back on the racecourse this season to resume his promising career at nine, the same number of races he has under his belt.
It is going to be a big ask, that much we can be sure of, but when Henderson recently paraded his string at the annual owners’ day at his Seven Barrows stable in Lambourn it was reported he had a ‘twinkle in his eye’ talking about Simonsig.
His recent homework ‘really is exciting stuff’ said Henderson and that is enough to justify optimism he might give us something to shout about this winter.
On the Fringe
Hunter Chasing may not be everyone’s cup of tea and there can be no doubting there are drawbacks.
Even a passing interest in the leading cross country races, however, would alert any observer to the name and merits of trainer Enda Bolger.
The Limerick native won the Cross Country race at the Cheltenham Festival four times in five years after its inception in 2005, effectively farming out the prize money.
While others have since raised their game and slowly started to treat what some perceived as a novelty event more seriously, Bolger has had to redouble his efforts elsewhere in the pursuit of festival glory.
With the brilliant Nina Carberry on board, On the Fringe scored Foxhunter prizes at Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown at the tail end of last season.
The Bolger inmate has finished in the money on 15 of 17 career starts and at ten-years-old still has plenty left to offer.
Bolger will be plotting a campaign aimed at the same three spring festival contests, with Cheltenham the jewel in the crown.
In the safe hands of Carberry, he is a rock-solid proposition in his own sphere of excellence.
