Leopardstown Hennessy Card

[Guest]

Great Card - last big day of big Cheltenham clues really

LORD WINDERMERE and On His Own, who were separated by a short head when first and second respectively in the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup last year, are among nine acceptors for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown on Sunday.

Willie Mullins, trainer of On His Own, could also be represented by Boston Bob in the Grade 1 event which Ireland's champion trainer will be attempting to win for the tenth time.

There were no surprise defections at the final forfeit stage on Tuesday and the acceptors also include First Lieutenant and Texas Jack, who finished third and fourth respectively in the race a year ago, Carlingford Lough and Foxrock, winner of the Boylesports Leopardstown Chase last month.

Don Poli, favourite for the National Hunt Chase and disputing favouritism for the RSA Chase, and fellow Grade 1 winner Valseur Lido are among four Mullins-trained acceptors for the Grade 1 Flogas Novice Chase on Sunday's card.

The 12 acceptors for the 2m5f event also include the Noel Meade-trained pair Apache Stronghold and Very Wood and The Tullow Tank, trained by Sandra Hughes.

[Morning Glory]

Deloitte hurdle

Mullins has won the race for the past two years with Champagne Fever and Vautour, who both went on to claim the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham.

This time, the champion trainer has the exciting Alvisio Ville, who is owned by JP McManus and is second favourite for the Supreme with some bookmakers despite having had only one run over timber to date

Black Hercules, McKinley, Royal Bond winner Nichols Canyon and Sempre Medici complete the Mullins entry.

Mouse Morris' Alpha Des Obeaux was second to Mullins' Douvan, the clear favourite for the Supreme, on his last start and he remains a possible.

"He ran an absolute cracker the last day," said Morris.

"We've left him in just to see what is what, the owners will have a few others in the mix so we'll see.

"He's in at Clonmel (which is currently unraceable) on Thursday."

Tony Martin's Blair Perrone, the Dermot Weld duo of Silver Concorde and Windsor Park, the Sandra Hughes-trained Sub Lieutenant, Henry De Bromhead's Identity Thief and Gordon Elliott's Fort Smith complete the list.

[Morning Glory]

Spring juvenile

Gordon Elliott's Vercingetorix is one of 10 remaining entries in Sunday's Gala Retail Spring Juvenile Hurdle at
Useful on the level in France for Andre Fabre, he won well on his hurdling debut at Limerick and forms one part of an immensely strong team of juveniles for his owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.

He should not be confused with the Mike de Kock-trained Flat horse of the same name.

Elliott may also run Punchestown winner Chatham House Rule.

Willie Mullins will be hoping Kalkir gets his career back on track having been put in his place by Fiscal Focus at Christmas.

The Mullins-trained Petite Parisienne, second to Chatham House Rule on debut, is also still possible.

Noel Meade has a couple of interesting entries with Officieux and the newcomer Lettre De Cachet.

Dai Bando, I'll Be Your Clown, Prussian Eagle and Thunder Zone complete the list.

[Morning Glory]

hennessy

Gold Cup hero Lord Windermere is on course to have his final outing before the defence of his Cheltenham crown in Sunday's Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown, where he will face eight possible rivals.
This season has been all about another trip to the Cotswolds for Jim Culloty's stable star, who will be gunning for a third successive win at the Festival having also been successful in the 2013 RSA Chase.

He made a pleasing return to action in the two-and-a-half-mile John Durkan which meant connections approached the Lexus over Christmas with confidence, but he was only seventh and his jockey Davy Russell hopes that was just a blip.

"I went back to the old tactics and dropped him right in and he still ran a reasonably good race the last day, he was beaten the same distance as he was last year," said Russell on Leopardstown's twitter feed.

"We weren't that happy to be honest, though, especially after his good first run at Punchestown when we were over the moon with him.

"We thought he'd improved for that so hopefully he can take a step forward again at Leopardstown."

Willie Mullins has two strong possibles in Gold Cup runner-up On His Own, who bounced back to form in the Lexus, and Boston Bob.

Carlingford Lough, who made a respectable comeback in the Lexus when fifth, is on course to have his second start of the season.

Ted Walsh's Foxrock makes the leap out of handicap company having won the BoyleSports Chase.

First Lieutenant is likely to take up his entry, meaning he will not be running in Haydock's Grand National Trial a week later.

"He'll probably run this weekend I'd have thought," said trainer Mouse Morris.

"I'd certainly be more hopeful of goodish ground there than at Haydock."

Gordon Elliott's Roi Du Mee, Noel Meade's Texas Jack and Henry de Bromhead's Home Farm complete the list.

[Morning Glory]

Flogas

RSA Chase favourite Don Poli is among a total of 12 horses in the mix for Sunday's Flogas Novice Chase at Leopardstown.
A Cheltenham Festival winner over hurdles last season, he has excelled over fences and was a good winner of the Topaz Novice Chase over Christmas.

However, that was over three miles and he would be dropping three furlongs in trip were he to take up his option this weekend.

Advertising the strength in depth of trainer Willie Mullins and owners Gigginstown House Stud, Valseur Lido is another possible. He has not been seen since a very impressive display in the Drinmore Novice Chase in November.

Jarry D'Honneur and Adriana Des Mottes are other options for Mullins.

Gigginstown also have Mouse Morris' Rule The World and Band Of Blood under consideration, along with Noel Meade's Very Wood, who is another previous Cheltenham winner.

Morris said of Rule The World: "He will either go to Leopardstown this weekend or Navan a week later, we'll just see what the weather does. It's been pretty cold here the last two days.

"He's taken well to fences, I think.

"First time he was only just beaten by a smart mare of Willie's (Adriana Des Mottes) giving her lumps of weight and then the ground was just a little bit testing at Naas.

"That's taking nothing away from the winner (Wounded Warrior), though, because he looks a smart one.

"At that time I just had a few not running up to scratch and I think he could have been one"

The Tullow Tank, disappointing the last twice for Sandra Hughes, Shanahan's Turn, Le Vent D'Antan and Draycott Place are the other possibles.

The race used to be run as the Dr P.J. Moriarty Chase and the likes of Bostons Angel and Cooldine have won it before winning the RSA Chase the following month, while Lord Windermere was beaten in it two years ago before winning at Cheltenham.

[Lester]

Deloitte Winners and subsequent Cheltenham performance ...

[Old Vic]

Ruby

I’ll leave the decision on whether I ride Boston Bob or On His Own in the Hennessy Gold Cup on Sunday until later in the week.

Boston Bob has a bit to find with his stablemate on their running in the Lexus Chase last December where he was fourth while On His Own finished second to Road to Riches. Bob was getting into it but made a mistake three out and faded a bit from the back of the last.

On His Own tends to jump to his right but has some solid form on left-handed tracks despite this slight preference. He’s also been second in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, won two Grade Ones at Aintree and Punchestown and is a dual Thyestes Chase winner so always gives his all.

It’s hard to split the pair as they’re both in good form and there shouldn’t be a lot between them again.


Read more at http://blog.paddypower.com/2015/02/0...GK4rRVrRjTx.99

[Morning Glory]

Willie Mullins expects Boston Bob to strip a bit fitter for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown tomorrow than he did for the Lexus Chase at the same venue over Christmas.

“Boston Bob comes better in the spring and will be a lot straighter than he was in the Lexus, I think, and with the prevailing forecast, drying ground will suit him a lot better,” he said

On not bidding for a third win in the Thyestes with On His Own, Mullins said: “I looked at his run in the Lexus and I thought we have double the prize-money at level weights (in the Hennessy), instead of carrying top-weight in the Thyestes.

“Then we had Djakadam for the Thyestes and if he was as nicely handicapped as we thought, even carrying top-weight, I thought he had to have his chance there.”

John Kiely’s Carlingford Lough has just his second start of the season having run an encouraging race in the Lexus when fifth.

Frank Berry, racing manager to owner JP McManus, said: “He ran very well in the Lexus and he came out of the race in very good order.

“John Kiely is very happy with him so we’ll just see how he gets on.

“He’s got a bit to find with a few of them that ran in the Lexus, though. He’s probably got it all to do.

“He might be able to find a couple of lengths but to be honest he was pretty straight going into the Lexus, he’s not had any hold ups.

“If we keep our fingers crossed then you never know what might happen.

“Hopefully all will go well and he will improve a bit. If he does you’d like to think he’d be fighting it out.”

Foxrock arrives in good form having won a valuable handicap for Ted Walsh.

“He’s gone up to 158, there’s not a lot of options for him other than those sort of races,” he said.

“It was either this or go to the Bobbyjo at Fairyhouse in a couple of weeks, but Barry (Connell, owner) only lives down the road and you might only get one crack at running in a Hennessy.

“He’s entitled to run in it and whether he’s good enough to be in the shake up only time will tell.

“He ran well at Christmas, and as a young horse he was placed in a Grade One. He likes Leopardstown, it’s a great track, one of the finest in the world, very few don’t handle it.”

First Lieutenant, the veteran of many big races, runs for Mouse Morris, and his jockey Bryan Cooper expects Carlingford Lough to prove hard to beat.

“It looks a wide-open race and the drying ground will be a big help to my fella,” Cooper wrote in his blog for Racing FX.

“Whenever he gets decent ground he performs well and I didn’t think he ran that bad in the Lexus, especially seeing as Mouse’s horses weren’t firing at the time.

“The one I think we all have to beat, though, is Carlingford Lough.

“He ran an absolute cracker in the Lexus on his first start of the season. He looks like the dark one in the field for me.”

[mayo]

Pricewise

Saturday #Pricewise pic.twitter.com/CxmIyHDs3q

— Revs (@cardiffrevs) February 6, 2015

[MrMcGoldrick]

Adrianna Des Mottes could be decent value today, Mullins had several options for the race and runs three, 2 for connection jocks to ride plus this one for Ruby, getting 17 lbs from the rest of the field could be interesting ew.

[mayo]

Adrianna Des Mottes could be decent value today, Mullins had several options for the race and runs three, 2 for connection jocks to ride plus this one for Ruby, getting 17 lbs from the rest of the field could be interesting ew.

That was Pricewise !

Like Rule The World at the prices.

[Old Vic]

Identify thief for me now

[mayo]

Watching race for me a bit on Silver Concorde