JLT Novices 2018

[taylorch1990]

Thanks for the update and I could see it being a potential problem but personally I see Finians Oscar going for the arkle.

[Scooby91]

Thanks for the update and I could see it being a potential problem but personally I see Finians Oscar going for the arkle.

I do thinks theres a good possibilty of finians going arkle myself but it's a complete guess.. just looks race there for the taking atm. Would make sense in regards to why pingshou is starting the season over hurdles

[Kevloaf]

Thanks for the update and I could see it being a potential problem but personally I see Finians Oscar going for the arkle.

I would love that... I can see the logic, think he'd hack up and ....

I do thinks theres a good possibilty of finians going arkle myself but it's a complete guess.. just looks race there for the taking atm. Would make sense in regards to why pingshou is starting the season over hurdles

the Pingshou bit DOES make sense...

however, I do feel like that is one link I see because I want to see it, rather than it be water-tight

[KingSprinterSacre]

Looks like Cooper is going to be Potts rider in England. Would have preferred Power on Finians Oscar

Johnny Ward @Ui_Maine · 2h
Best of luck to BJ Cooper with two rides in Ludlow tomorrow for Alan Potts, the start of new axis there with the English owner, with RM Power to ride the Irish runners. Cooper expected to ride Finian's Oscar if he runs Saturday.

[jono]

Looks like Cooper is going to be Potts rider in England. Would have preferred Power on Finians Oscar

Johnny Ward @Ui_Maine · 2h
Best of luck to BJ Cooper with two rides in Ludlow tomorrow for Alan Potts, the start of new axis there with the English owner, with RM Power to ride the Irish runners. Cooper expected to ride Finian's Oscar if he runs Saturday.

If all things go well for both horses then Cooper will be giving Robbie a big nudge to ride Our Duke in the Gold Cup I imagine!

[jono]

Both set to go chasing as it stands now.
Bare in mind that finians and supasundae may be split up being the same owners. Same as yanworth/ Sutton place.

I had completely forgot about Supasundae as a potential chaser this year! Very good point regarding this having a knock on for FO's target. You imagine being the star novice he will take priority but I think his final race may very well be dictated by Supasundae.

A few quotes over the summer from Jessica Harrington:

It was an unbelievable run. He kicked the third last out – Robbie didn’t lose much momentum but it must have taken something out of him.

“To come back after running his heart out at the Cheltenham Festival – it was a quick enough gap between the two races. It’s ok when you’re only going down the road, but he has had two strange journey’s to different stables.

“He has proved that he is probably a Grade 1 horse. He gets three miles, which gives you plenty of options of where to go and what we can do with him.

We’re going to see if he jumps fences. He has the stamp of a chaser. I’m not sure if a Galileo will win over fences but I’ve got to break the mould. He jumps hurdles very well. He jumps them rather than hurdles them but we’ll just have to wait and see.

I'm not quite sure 3 miles is really what Supasundae wants (despite coming a fine 2nd at Aintree behind Yanworth) but he stayed on really well up the hill in the Coral Cup over the intermediate trip and it's clear they will likely try the horse out at 3 miles over fences at some point. I do think the JLT would be the best trip for him though so I could very much see if he takes to fences well, Supasundae going for the JLT and Finians Oscar going Arkle.

[Kevloaf]

If all things go well for both horses then Cooper will be giving Robbie a big nudge to ride Our Duke in the Gold Cup I imagine!

I'm sure I read that the agreement with Robbie Power is that FIRSY he gets pick of Jessie's stable, then Potts.... meaning he has the choice to pick Our Duke anyway.... all academic, as obviously he'll want to be on the mighty Duke!

[jono]

I'm sure I read that the agreement with Robbie Power is that FIRSY he gets pick of Jessie's stable, then Potts.... meaning he has the choice to pick Our Duke anyway.... all academic, as obviously he'll want to be on the mighty Duke!

Yeah I believe so. Might Bite will have beaten Sizing John in the KG and Our Duke will have won the Lexus so it should be an easy decision for him...

[Scooby91]

Two of those top-level victories were gained courtesy of*Yanworth*and with a switch to fences now on the cards for the seven-year-old, King is optimistic the best is yet to come.

King said: "People said we shouldn't have run him in the Champion Hurdle, but he won a Christmas Hurdle and Kingwell and it would have been a brave decision to step him up three miles at Cheltenham when he had never been that far.

"It was disappointing in the Champion Hurdle, he was beaten a long way out but these things happen. He had to be tough at Aintree (Stayers Liverpool Hurdle). He battled and got the trip well.

"I've always felt this season he would be going chasing. He has had a few schools and has jumped very well. There is possibility he could go to Exeter at the end of the month and then there is one in early November as well.

"I would think around two and a half is where we will campaign this season. I don't think he will be an Arkle horse. We will see how it goes through the season, but he could be a JLT horse or an RSA horse."

[The Beast]

Yeah I believe so. Might Bite will have beaten Sizing John in the KG and Our Duke will have won the Lexus so it should be an easy decision for him...

I so hope Might Bite wins KG , invested the kitchen sink and more. His Kempton run last year will long stand in the memory , would have been hope time.

[Kevloaf]

"I would think around two and a half is where we will campaign this season. I don't think he will be an Arkle horse. We will see how it goes through the season, but he could be a JLT horse or an RSA horse."

With King's hurdling record it is a positive for this horse he's going over fences I backed Yanworth for 1 pt for the JLT as my first ante-post bet I think... still the same price now haha. Rubbish bet.

[ryanh97]

The odd jump a bit novicey, but didnt do much wrong?

[ryanh97]

The odd jump a bit novicey, but didnt do much wrong?

That said, some of the prices are about 5/1, thats poor

[JackieMoon33]

The odd jump a bit novicey, but didnt do much wrong?

Very deliberate at times but nothing of major concern

[Kevloaf]

I thought I'd mentioned Willoughby Court in this thread already, but must have been in the ante post thread.

Willoughby Court

Season by season he’s getting easier and easier to train and he’s being less hard on himself, physically, by being not being as nervous and almost doing too much. He’s never summered better. He’s done brilliantly as he’s not the sort of horse that has summered well before. He looks great and we’re now well into our preparations for his first run of the season. He’s done five or six pieces of work at home, at least, if not a bit more and here we are in the middle of October with November 5 as his first target. That’s a novice chase at Huntingdon over 2m4f. It’s a fair track, we’ve had a lot of success there. The fences are kind but big enough that they respect them, so that’s definitely his first target. He’s never been better in himself. I’m keen to keep him over two and a half miles.. The speed that he has over his fences, at the moment three miles I think he might be doing too much so we’ll keep him at two and a half in the meantime and see where we are mid-season. I honestly think the JLT [would be his preferred Cheltenham Festival target] at the moment. He won a Neptune on good ground and it wasn’t a slow-run race. In team he’ll be a three miler and we can dream about what he might be in a year’s time. But I’m a firm believer in that you don’t go further than you need to before you have to.

Only 1 firm are left 16/1 and I have put another 1 pt each way on to double up.

Purely on the fact he is a previous festival winner over the distance, with the target being named is enough for me to take a bit of a nibble before we see him in action. I am certainly not an expert on jumping techniques but he looks good in the twitter clips that Ben Pauling has tweeted

I do think it looks like being a strong race on paper and likely that we'll have a short priced fav in here as connections with 'sexier' colours/profiles will be nearer the top of the market... AND you can knock a bit of the earlier form behind MDObeaux/Keeper Hill perhaps, but when it mattered the most, he got the job done.

I don't think this will shorten LOADS but I do think 16/1 is too big about a previous season festival winner... his battling quality is a big positive and as a front runner, picking 3 to get past him is not a straight forward task at the moment?