Handicap option at Newbury for Cheltenham Festival heroine Golden Ace

By Matt Brocklebank

Horse Racing

Fri January 03, 2025 · 2d ago

Golden Ace could have her next start in handicap company before being given a “speculative” entry in the Unibet Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham if all goes to plan.

Trainer Jeremy Scott was discussing future targets on Friday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast and offered up the Unibet Hurdle on Trials Day and Wincanton’s Kingwell Hurdle as other potential targets, but already has his eyes on the riches of the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury in early-February with the 2024 Festival heroine.

The seven-year-old Golden Ace memorably beat Brighterdaysahead to win the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle last March and while Scott wouldn’t be taking that piece of form too literally, he does feel there is room to manoeuvre with his representative’s current BHA mark.

That was 144 going into the Relkeel Hurdle on New Year’s Day and is likely to be reassessed following a four and three-quarter-length third behind Lucky Place in the Cheltenham Grade 2 (replay below).

Unlimited Replays

of all UK and Irish races with our Race Replays

Discover Sporting Life Plus Benefits

Scott said: “This season’ we’ve probably not ever had a straight run, we’ve had niggly issues. The Ascot run was OK, but we knew we were nowhere near where we needed to be, I felt she was better at Cheltenham but I still feel we’ve got a bit of improvement to come.

“Ultimately, I suspect that soft ground and the trip did for her and I’d expect we’ll look to take her back to two miles. We’ve been looking for two-mile races and she’s not quite been ready for them so the Cheltenham run, that ideally would have been over two miles but we couldn’t get her right for the Christmas Hurdle and, to be honest, the competition looked fairly spicy there anyway.

“This (Relkeel) seemed like a good opportunity to get a run into her again which will hopefully lead to a two-mile target. If we were brave and she was right then you could go for the International (Unibet) Hurdle at Cheltenham, but I think a more realistic target would be to run her in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury. Or the Kingwell at Wincanton.

“One of our curses is that we did beat Brighterdaysahead because everyone thinks that we should be somewhere near her rating, but I think at the Festival we came off a relatively slow pace and we had the gears to do her. Which, equally, leads you to believe she (Golden Ace) should be running over two miles anyway.

“Is she well handicapped? Not on what she has shown so far this season but I believe we have an awful lot more in the locker if we can get her absolutely right and pulling her back to two miles.”

And weighing up whether Golden Ace will be given an entry in the Champion Hurdle in March, Scott feels his current star would not be out of place competing with the likes of Constitution Hill and Lossiemouth – the one-two from Kempton over Christmas.

He said: “I think I would (enter her) if our next run was looking good but I would speculatively put one in, yes.

“If I related her to other horses that we’ve had, and we had Melodic Rendezvous running in that sort of grade. He was nearly there but not quite – I feel she’s better than him on what she’s shown, both at home and on the racecourse.

“She’s not going to be a million miles off them even if she’s not necessarily troubling the very best of them. But there are still lots of nice opportunities even if you don’t bump into the very best.”

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.

Like what you've read?