Get your own Free Home PageWe're back - and this winter promises to be better than ever for racing fans. Next weekend sees a mini festival of racing at Fairyhouse with a plethora of both established and potential stars out on Sunday. Main attraction will be Istabraq who aims to display his well being and hopefully give a further glimpse of the improvement he hinted at at Cork. It remains to be seen who will line up against him but they are only playing for second place.
The novice hurdle promises to be even better than last year (Feathered Leader, Cloone Bridge, Promalee, Swiss Tune etc.) with Cardinal Hill, Alexander Banquet and To Your Honour being aimed at the race. To Your Honour beat a useful looking field in good style at Navan last week and in March finished fifth in the Cheltenham Bumper for Francis Flood. In front of him that day were Joe Mac and Alexander Banquet. Joe Mac opened his account in good style at Naas and the form has been franked by the runner up winning next time out. Alexander Banquet has already notched up two wins over hurdles this season but hasn't really impressed although Willie Mullins is a master at preparing one for the big day. But most interesting of all is Cardinal Hill. The word at Fairyhouse at Easter was he was the best horse Noel Meade has ever trained and subsequent to his impressive display there, JP McManus added the Thowra gelding to his impressive artillery. On his reappearance at Navan under Paul Carberry he trounced a big field including several useful bumper horses without coming off the bridle. Runner up Shean Town has won his maiden in good style to give the form an extra boost. I believe that Cardinal Hill will become an Irish Banker at Cheltenham in March and should be followed very closely.
The novice chase could see Tony McCoy exploit a loophole of sorts in his controversial whip suspension to partner Foxchapel King for Mouse Morris. Novice chases are always a very dodgy betting medium and Foxchapel King's jumping has been far from perfect so far so perhaps we should give this race a swerve.
All the main Gold Cup contenders have already been wheeled, earlier than usual this year. Dorans Pride looked impressive at Gowran Park and Imperial Call has looked more like his old self especially when united with Paul Carberry at Naas yesterday. Both are heading for a clash with Florida Pearl at Leopardstown at Chistmas along with Danoli. In England Suny Bay showed he is a force to be reckoned with on soft ground when winning at Haydock. Escartefigue has been a tad disappointing so far and See More Business' jumping left a lot to be desired behind Suny Bay.
A dark horse to look out for is Logan trained by Charlie Swan. After a slightly disappointing first run at Punchestown he should be a force to reckoned with on good ground after Christmas. Charlie also has high hopes for his novice chaser Cloone Bridge.
Finally, Istabraq is still available at 5-2 for the Champion Hurdle with UKbetting.com - Is there any thing to beat him this time round? I think not.
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