Thank goodness that we are on the home run and we can all obsess about the Cheltenham Festival in just under two months’ time.
It’s still cold and wet.
The January blues are still just about biting.
Donald Trump is ripping up the diplomatic playbook at a breakneck pace in an increasingly dangerous and volatile world. Brand Beckham is broken. The Traitors is over for another season.
We all need a sporting distraction from all the doom scrolling an in fighting on social media. The Cheltenham Festival provides one. And a mercifully prolonged one at that.
Scrolling down and digging deep into novice hurdling markets is the perfect cure for Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). Who’d have thunk it.
Action from Leopardstown where the Dublin racing Festival will be next weekend
Willie Mullins usually has a clear No 1 for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle but maybe not this year
Perhaps the high-class recruit from The Reverend can emerge as a Supreme contender
Hot off the heels of yesterday’s Trials Day, we have the excellent Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown next weekend. Part of its enduring appeal is its ably supporting cast. The Scilly Isles at Sandown is a very good Grade One novice chase and a nice card.
There is also Scottish Cheltenham Trials weekend at Musselburgh that wonderfully dovetails with all the Irish action. It’s a nice meeting that knows exactly what it is. It’s a lovely weekend when the racing calendar just works. It all fits like a glove.
Realistically, it’s just about the last port of call for the major big hitters. One early 2026 social media trend, apart from seeing Trump pop up on your timeline every two seconds, is looking back at what you were up to ten years ago.
That was simply the best Cheltenham Festival I’ve witnessed. 2016 was a punting dream but delivered superstar performances with regularity in deep races. I’d happily take a tenth of that enjoyment this time around.
It all started with the mighty Altior bounding up the hill to win the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. He was an outstanding racehorse. All power.
Fast forward a decade and Henderson has Old Park Star as 9–4 favourite for this year’s renewal. He’s been the only novice to carry a serious wow factor. There’s a whiff of Altior about this lad.
He was brilliant at Cheltenham in his second start of the season. A kind of visual performance that instantly suggested we had seen a top notcher. The thing about this racing game is the need to back these impressions up.
Old Park Star did that at Haydock. And then some. He thumped a good yardstick Hurricane Pat despite room for improvement in the jumping department. His best part of the race is always the finish and he hits the line hard. He’s very much in the mould of a Shishkin and Altior, previous Supreme winners for Henderson.
Nicky Henderson won the Supreme with Altior a decade ago and has current favourite Old Park Star
He’s the novice hurdler to beat with a healthy clubhouse lead but eyes are quickly turn to Ireland next week.
There’s been a lengthy wait to see what Willie Mullins will unearth in opposition. There are a few fringe candidates but none are shorter than 14–1 at this stage. Mighty Park routed his opponents last week, suggesting his novices might be coming to the boil.
But the Turners over two–and–a–half might be his preferred trip. Sober won a three–runner Moscow Flyer Novices’ Hurdle and his jumping will need to sharpen up.
The two that could really emerge from the pack are the pair near the front of the Grade One Tattersalls Ireland Novices’ Hurdle next Sunday. The Reverend and King Rasko Grey won their fairly weak maiden hurdlers in contrasting fashions.
The latter was more impressive in putting his rivals away in Limerick but the former was a 102–rated Flat horse and had a very good jumping technique in Cork which is usually the big question mark for high–class Flat horses in their immediate transition to jumps.
Whoever Paul Townend picks will be a significant decision and they look the two to focus on in the ante–post markets. Both are 5–1 for the DRF contest and 25–1 for the Supreme. They look the only two that can shorten significantly in the Supreme market.
Talk The Talk was poised to win the Grade One at Christmas but fell at the last. He had made jumping mistakes before that, too. Those will need seriously ironed out but he’s the best Ireland has to offer so far and Joseph O’Brien’s contender is a fair enough 8–1 shot.
Talk The Talk (far left) will have to brush up on his jumping but is still a classy novice
Minella Study is a nice juvenile and could be the star attraction of the weekend at Musselburgh
El Cairos is a fascinating contender for Gordon Elliott. He was about to win a maiden hurdle very impressively but took an awkward, belated tumble at the last as well at Christmas. He had strong bumper form but there’s definitely a quirk in him when asked to sew up the race.
He’s a horse of burgeoning potential and ought to shed his maiden hurdle tag but he’ll be heading into the Supreme without sampling a graded race this season and that’s not an ideal preparation. He’s short enough at the moment in the 9–2 bracket and simply not an ante–post preposition.
Idaho Sun and Mossy Fen Park are two players from Britain, too. Ballyfad is an Elliott runner that has plenty of admirers.
Next weekend will be hugely revealing. A thrilling race in isolation with major ramifications for the first race of the Cheltenham Festival. And there will be 27 more races to constantly analyse in the coming weeks.
We all need a distraction.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
SIR GINO IS RECEIVING THE BEST CARE AND ATTENTION POSSIBLE… AND THAT’S HUGELY REASSURING
What a harrowing few moments when Sir Gino appeared to go wrong after jumping the third last in the International Hurdle at Cheltenham yesterday.
We all must simply wait and hope for the best in the updates of Sir Gino’s health. When something like that happens so fast, it’s easy to automatically assume the worst.
There was one occasion when a Lucinda Russell trained horse went down at Perth last season right in front of me and the same horrible thoughts circulated.
Sir Gino in yesterday’s Unibet International Hurdle races in behind The New Lion
Like the Sir Gino incident, the horse was sensibly pulled up as sharply as possible. The screens were up for privacy. We all waited with bated breath. He walked onto the horse ambulance and connections dashed back to the parade ring from the stands.
Russell was kind enough to say to racegoers on the way back that the horse was okay when many assumed he wasn’t. It wasn’t very well communicated.
Full credit must go to Nicky Henderson in his constant updates to the racing public on the wellbeing of Sir Gino at a time where he must be reeling. Of course he’s been through this all before with Sir Gino when he was fighting for his life last year after an infection.
This is a brilliant horse. One of the best we’ve seen in recent years and was unbeaten until yesterday’s horrible moment. He’s a six-year-old rapidly going places over fences and hurdles. He was arguably already at the top of the tree.
The update last night felt like a positive one.
The Seven Barrows handler posted on X: ‘Sir Gino was transferred from Cheltenham to the Three Counties Veterinary Clinic and following scans and x-rays he does have a fractured pelvis but having spoken to the great team that are caring for him they are hopeful that although this is obviously significant they have reported that he is comfortable and stable. This is great news to us all.
‘The prognosis is guarded and further examinations over the next few days while he is there will be able to determine the extent of the injury and any prognosis for the future. Thank you to everyone for their messages and concerns which are much appreciated and we will keep everyone up-to-date with any further news but the fact that he’s comfortable tonight is the most important thing. Thank you.’
The severity of this injury is yet to be uncovered but it’s incredibly reassuring that these thoroughbreds get essential treatment and top-class care so swiftly.
Put it this way, if I was on a night out, fell and broken something there’s a good chance I’ll still be waiting to see someone in Accident & Emergency.
So spare us the fallout from the farcical finale of Trials Day. That can wait for another day. It can wait until we see that Sir Gino is out of the woods. As Henderson said earlier in the day, fingers crossed.
