Sam Spinner Could Find It Difficult At Cheltenham

It was a good performance from Chantry House in his hurdling debut on Friday at Cheltenham.

It rode more like a schooling race than a competitive race, we went very, very steady early on. He did show a nice turn of foot off the bend, it was a good performance and he will only improve from it. I wouldn’t be reading too much into the form of the race it was a messy race with no pace at all. He showed his class at the end of it.

It seems that Gary Moore has a strong hand in Juveniles in England. He had a good winner at Sandown and then another good winner with at Cheltenham last week.

Warthog
It was a good performance by Warthog in the Caspian Caviar. He toughed it out well because he looked well beaten jumping the last. Both Bridget Andrews and James Bowen had given their mounts very good rides but to be fair to Warthog he got back up on the line to get the win.

International Hurdle
I thought the International Hurdle was a messy race with a good performance from Call Me Lord.

Would I be rushing out to back anything out of it for the Champion Hurdle? No I wouldn’t.

I thought Pentland Hills was disappointing and I think he’s probably the horse to take out of the race. He travelled like the best horse in the race. He looked like he was going to go on and win but it didn’t happen.

Sam Spinner
Sam Spinner put up a good performance at Doncaster but I’d have concerns with him. Doncaster is a big galloping track and jumping right doesn’t matter that much but when it comes to the Cheltenham Festival you can’t be giving away a length or two jumping out to the right.

An Fraoch Mor was very good in the Novice Chase at Navan on Sunday, how good the race was I’m not so sure but it was good placing by Ross O’Sullivan. The step up to 2 & 1/2m was always going to be good for him and Ross had this race mapped out for him.

It was disappointing to only have four runners in the grade two Novice Hurdle but it was a good performance from Latest Exhibition. He made a couple of mistakes on the back straight but when Brian Cooper asked him he was much better. Andy Dufresne was a shade disappointing but take nothing away from Latest Exhibition.