Frodon’s Win Shows He’s Heading In The Right Direction

It was a really good weekend of racing at Cheltenham which saw Frodon take the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup and Brain Power, who was hugely impressive, winning the International Hurdle.

As good as Brain Power was, I don’t imagine connections of Buveur D’Air or Samcro losing any sleep over what they saw at the weekend. I don’t see any of the contenders from the International Hurdle troubling either of them in a Champion Hurdle.

I thought Frodon put up a fantastic weight carrying performance in the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup. He was on the pace the whole way, he jumped well and ran his own race and I thought he was a very impressive winner. He still has to improve to be a contender in races like the Ryanair Hurdle but he’s definitely heading in the right direction.

I was at Cheltenham most of Friday and Saturday and I’m not sure we saw many Cheltenham Festival winners over the weekend, maybe only The Worlds End who was very impressive winning on Friday. There’s still a question mark over him when he’s put in a more competitive race. He got things his own way on Friday and it would be interesting to see how he would get on when he steps into better company.

The New One
The New One ran his last race at the weekend and he’s been a fantastic horse. He won some big races at Aintree and Cheltenham but he just fell short a couple of times in Champion Hurdles. He was a fantastic servant and a horse that anyone would love to have owned.

There was some good racing on Sunday at Navan and I was very impressed with Battleoverdoyen. He made a very impressive debut over hurdles, he rode a decent race, made a good gallop all the way and jumped very well.

He was in a different league really. He’s very very exciting and it will be interesting to see where Gordon Elliot pitches him next.

Easy Game
Easy Game in the Grade 2 Novice Hurdle at Navan was another impressive winner. He had beaten Magnium in a Grade 2 hurdle at Navan a few weeks ago and Magnium was very disappointing yesterday.

The race was run at a slow pace and I probably should have made the running on Magnium and made the most out of his stamina. I thought Easy Game ran a good race and the pace probably suited him and take nothing away from him, he was a good winner.

Envoi Allen put in another great performance at Navan on Sunday. He was very impressive when he won his first Bumper in Fairyhouse even though he was very green then. He looked more professional in Navan, he knew what the job was about and if Gordon goes down the Cheltenham Bumper route with him he’ll take all the beating.

As we head into the Christmas period I’m very excited about Sizing John’s return and he looks to be in great form.

He’ll do a strong bit of work at some point this week and we’ll make up our mind on where we go with him over the Christmas period during the week.

Supasundae will probably go for the 3 mile hurdle over Christmas but it’ll be tough because he’ll take on Apples Jade again. I’m looking forward to Chris’s Dream as well, I was very, very impressed with him when he won his beginners chase in Navan. Obviously he’s going to take a big step up in class when he takes on the 3 mile Grade 1 Novice chase at Christmas.