Timeform Weekend Review: Ireland and the all-weather take centre stage as cold snap hits English jumps racing

Weekend Review / Timeform / 05 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

Timeform round up the action from a weekend decimated by the harsh winter weather.

The weekend's racing in Britain was decimated by the wintry conditions, with jumps racing wiped out following the abandonment of Ayr, Sandown and Wincanton on Saturday and Plumpton on Sunday.

The card at Sandown had contained the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle, a race that it was hoped would provide clues to the British-based challenge for the Cheltenham Festivals' novice hurdles.

As it happened, the all-weather cards from Kempton and Lingfield were left as the sole action on British soil on Saturday. The latter-named venue had the pick of the action, with a Class 3 conditions stakes seeing the reappearance of Premio Loco, a progressive handicapper in 2008 who was last seen when sixth in the Cambridgeshire Handicap.

Although not showing the best of his form by any stretch of the imagination, Chris Wall's charge won by half a length from Red Somerset in a race run at a steady pace, just doing enough once in front as he failed to display his full dominance over his rivals. The penultimate race at Lingfield perhaps attracted the most interest however, it being a Class 2 handicap containing some smart sorts in Grande Caiman and Millvile, though those two had to be satisfied with placed efforts behind a resurgent Evident Pride, who was taking advantage of a recent drop in the weights. Grande Caiman had cut out the pace from an early stage and kicked for home two furlongs out, only to tie up inside the last allowing Evident Pride to swoop past him close home and win by half a length. Both of the front two can be expected to continue featuring in high-profile events on the all-weather throughout the remainder of the winter.

Irish racing was not so adversely affected by the weather conditions, with both Cork on Saturday and Naas on Sunday going ahead. The latter provided the centrepiece of Sunday's action, with the Grade 2 Slaney Novice Hurdle the feature. There Mikael D'Haguenet cemented the reputation he had earned in beating Pandorama last time when running out a comfortable three-and-a-half length winner over Western Charmer.

The margin is deceiving as Willie Mullins' gelding was by some way the best horse, a pedestrian pace the main reason for him not going further clear in the closing stages. The preceding novices' chase was also of interest as it saw the clash between Jayo and Made In Taipan, two of Ireland's main hopes for the Arkle in March.

On the day it was the former who came out on top, winning by 16 lengths and showing form greater than anything he had achieved over hurdles. He is now a [20.0] chance for the Arkle, which belies the relatively small difference in the level of form shown between him and current ante-post favourite Tatenen.

In the final race, Willie Mullins revealed yet another potential candidate for the Champion Bumper in Qudrillon who impressively powered 15 lengths clear in the final two furlongs despite the steady pace at which the race was run.