home » Ballymore Novices Hurdle
 |
   |
Connections CommentsBensalem"I was very pleased with Bensalem (behind Diamond Harry at Cheltenham) and he is a very progressive horse. I don't think he'll run until the Festival now and he will either go for the two and a half race (Ballymore) or the three-miler (Albert Bartlett). I think he'll keep improving and he is a lovely horse for the future. I really can't wait to get him over fences next season." Alan King 27th January 2009 Cousin Vinny"The Supreme Novices' will certainly be a race I will look at for him now but I've got Hurricane Fly and Kempes who could run in that so thankfully for me, I have a few options. I'm not going to say I'm leaning one way or the other and if you look at last year we changed our minds with Fiveforthree at the 11th hour and went for the Ballymore, so we're not making a decision yet. Cousin Vinny certainly has enough speed to think about the Supreme anyway." Willie Mullins 16th February 2009 Diamond Harry"He has taken a lot of time but is just starting to look like a proper horse. I didn't want him to make it but luckily they have set a decent pace at the front. He was very good there. The Ballymore would be the sensible option. He is a course-and-distance winner there and has won on good ground. He will go chasing next season and he'd be interesting even in the World Hurdle this year, but it's stupid not to run against novices when you can. He might have one more run and that would be at Cheltenham on January 24." Nick Williams 29th December 2008 Karabak"He's entered up this week and the plan is to go to Ascot for the two mile three national hunt novice hurdle on Saturday. He's also in at Wincanton over two miles but I have the feeling two-and-a-half miles on good ground will be ideal for him. I thought that at Cheltenham the further he went the more impressive he was. A lot of the bumper horses tend to be better at beyond two miles." Alan King 12th January 2009 Knockara Beau"He's absolutely fantastic. Everything's all right, he's eaten up and you wouldn't have thought he'd had a race. The time wasn't that good but he certainly beat the other ones. I'm going to run him at Cheltenham. I think he deserves to take his chance and it won't be the end of the world if he gets beat. It will take a good horse and there'll be a lot of those in it. The trip will suit him a lot better, it was too short for him the other day, he gallops all day at that speed. He's used to going up our steep five-furlong gallop so he'll cope with the hill. If everything goes to plan, I'm going to go there." George Charlton 2nd March 2009 Mad Max"He needs to relax a lot better but Tony says he is very, very good. If it was softish ground again we might want to drop back to two miles but if it is good or faster at Cheltenham he would want to go two and a half. I'm afraid we have to sit on the fence at the moment. Knowing the ground on the first day at Cheltenham, if I had to have a bet I'd say two miles, but we'll sit down and think about it. His palate is pretty suspect. We have had to have it done before and he'll need it doing again - that only takes two weeks so it's not a problem. I'd probably give him another run, or we'll arrange a Henderson-ish preparation at home." Nicky Henderson 14th January 2009 Mikael DHaguenet"He bends his knee a bit. But I'd have to ride him on good ground before I knew if he could handle it or not. Despite the fact they went no gallop, he still won on the bridle. When they go so slow it just gives them more time to think about their jumping, which sometimes is not a good thing. I think he's a machine." Ruby Walsh 5th January 2009 Quwetwo"He did everything that could have been asked of him really.It's too early to make a decision on Cheltenham and we'll have to see how he comes out of this. I'll sit down with Denis and we'll have a chat. He's so big you'd think he'd need a trip but he's not short of speed. He's related on his dam's side to Fundamentalist, who beat Inglis Drever at Cheltenham. If the weather keeps like it is now we'll have a chance with a few of them and we can get them out. He's very agile on his feet for a big horse, he's very clever at his hurdles. We've had to have a special breast plate made for him he's that big. He's a sober horse until he gets upset - then he does take some handling. I don't think he'd be going for the Supreme, if he went it would be for the Ballymore." Howard Johnson 19th February 2009 The Nightingale"He’s a dark horse, one I think an awful lot of. I can definitely see him in the first six in the Ballymore Properties Novices’ Hurdle, but he’ll make a lovely chaser next season. He had a horrific fall at Exeter in the autumn but had an easy win next time and we’ve kept him for a spring campaign since." Paul Nicholls 19th February 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
