We are all excited about Christmas but none more so than National Hunt fans with some great racing promised over the holidays at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival.
The Bord na Móna Novice chase has the looks of an Arkle Trial. The horses at the head of the Arkle market are competing, with Sizing Europe (left) taking on Captain Cee Bee and Osana. Sizing Europe will look to add to his three wins over fences and secure his place at the top of the Arkle market. Captain Cee Bee came back to the racecourse after over 600 days on the sidelines to win his race against Zaarito and An Cathaoir Mor, and it looks like he hasn’t lost any of his talent from his time off. Osana has done nothing wrong over fences either but I will be expecting the prize to go to Sizing Europe. It seems that there’s a great race ahead for us in the Bord na Móna Novice Chase on the first day of the Leopardstown Christmas Festival.
The bookmakers can’t even decide on a favourite for the Lexus Chase and there isn’t much to choose between Joncol, Notre Pere and Tranquil Sea at the head of the market. Notre Pere disappointed in the Betfair Chase and also when he fell in the JNWine Chase. He’s a horse that takes a while to get going in a season and if conditions suit he may be able to improve from his previous two runs to play a major part here. It won’t be easy however, as Joncol and Tranquil Sea are talented horses. Joncol won the John Durkan Chase on very heavy ground at Punchestown and he will have no problem with the three mile trip. He’s a giant of a horse and at 6 years of age there will be only improvement to come from the Paul Nolan trained gelding. Tranquil Sea beat Joncol before he won the Paddy Power Gold Cup but I’m not certain that he is yet ready for the step up in trip to 3 miles. It’s not yet obvious who will be favourite in this race but it’s certain that it will be one of the highlights of the Leopardstown Festival.
Solwhit and Hurricane Fly will lock horns for the second time this season, and Hurricane Fly’s connections will want to level the score and win the December Festival Hurdle. This is yet another highly competitive race of the festival and neither Muirhead nor Voler la Vedette will be too far from the action. Hurricane Fly ran a very aggressive race in Punchestown against Solwhit. He blew out at the last and a change in tactics might see Hurricane Fly edge this one. This is a little taster of all the action that will be happening in Leopardstown and we can all look forward to four days of great racing from the 26th to the 29th of December .
I look forward to learning about National Hunt through your posts. Congratulations on your brand new blog!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Ciaran.....if I didn't know you I'd think it was a really well researched and written blog!!
ReplyDeletereally enjoyed reading this, tres informative!
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