There are plenty of southern raiders, plus a couple of Irish ones, converging on the Borders for a quality Morebattle Hurdle card.
Scottish Sun columnist Ed Watson takes a deep dive into the action, and fancies a horse that’s already had one big payday in the Scottish sun to come up smelling of roses again in the £120,000 feature - one of five races from the track live on ITV.
THE BIG RACE BET
FAVOUR AND FORTUNE (3.30)
I’ve spent the week studying formlines but repeatedly found myself coming back to last season’s Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ as the key one to cracking the 18-runner Morebattle Hurdle conundrum. FAVOUR AND FORTUNE, who was best of the Brits in sixth, and Tellherthename (last of 10 finishers) have gone their separate ways since that 2024 Festival curtain-raiser, but they’re reunited in the Borders with leading claims to take out Scotland’s richest hurdle race.
Preference is for top-weight Favour And Fortune, who made a smooth transition to handicaps by bagging the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr on his next start after Cheltenham. He’s been sparingly campaigned this season, presumably with a tilt at two or three big spring targets being Alan King’s game plan, but shaped with particular encouragement on his second, and most recent, run when fourth to handicap blot Joyeuse in Newbury’s William Hill Hurdle three weeks ago (replay below).
With just three starts in handicaps, and only eight over hurdles overall, I suspect the seven-year-old has a bigger performance in him yet. The combination of drying ground in Scotland and a strong gallop from the get-go - Timeform's pace map predicts an ‘extreme’ pace scenario, with as many as five potential front-runners wanting a piece of the lead - looks bang on for Favour And Fortune to produce a career-best. He’s a strong fancy as far as competitive, 18-runner handicap hurdles go... and he's Timeform top-rated to boot.
Drying terrain is also a positive for Tellherthename, who has switched stables from Ben Pauling to Jonjo and AJ O’Neill and had only one run since the Supreme. That came in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle in November, when he clocked a career-best Timeform figure in finishing a 14-length fourth to Sir Gino. Absent since, he’s presumably been kept away from slogging his way through soft winter surfaces with end-of-season targets in mind.
Both Favour And Fortune and Tellherthename have County Hurdle entries should either put themselves in line for a tilt at a £100,000 bonus that the Morebattle winner qualifies for by going on to win any race at the Festival, as The Shunter did in 2021.
The Inside Track: “Favour And Fortune needed his first run of the season at Ascot. That got him tuned up and ready for Newbury, where he ran a really good race and was just run out of third close home. He’s been simmering away ready for getting back on some nice ground again. Hopefully it’ll be just on the soft side at Kelso and we can get a clean run through the race as it’s a big field.” (Tom Cannon, jockey)
THE BEST BET
LEADER IN THE PARK (4.39)
Win, lose or draw with Vanderpoel in the Grade 2 Premier Hurdle, Ben Pauling shouldn’t leave the Borders empty-handed thanks to LEADER IN THE PARK, who can complete a hat-trick over fences in the finale.
A combined rise of 9lb for wins at Kempton and Warwick may well underestimate the rate at which this £250,000 Irish point-to-point recruit is now progressing at. At Kempton on Boxing Day, he walked through the final fence but still saw his race out well to beat Asta La Pasta and El Rio, who was a clear-cut winner over the same course and distance next time out.
The handicapper’s nudged him up 5lb for a half-length win at Warwick six weeks ago, but the formbook doesn’t tell the full story. Leader In The Park got duelling some way out with Southoftheborder, who ended up weakening into fourth. He was all out to hold on from the charging runner-up, but I’m still inclined to take a positive view of the form. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t prove capable of winning off a mark of 129.
Walk On Quest is improving rapidly for Lucinda Russell. He won here at Kelso and at Carlisle over 2m despite the trip, rather than because of it, and duly extended his unbeaten record over fences to three with an authoritative defeat of Ayr specialist Artic Row 18 days ago. While visually impressive, he got an easy time in front and made the most of his positional advantage in a race featuring an unusually quick finishing split.
He’s open to further progress, but will need it if he’s to defy a 10lb hike against another upwardly mobile rival. Russell’s runner is effectively 15lb higher if you factor in the fit-again Derek Fox returning in place of experienced 5lb claimer Alan Doyle, who was aboard at Ayr.
The Inside Track: “We’ve always rated Leader In The Park but for some reason he just wasn’t finishing his races last season. He’s a big horse, though, and I think it’s just taken another summer for him to strengthen up properly. His win at Kempton didn’t surprise us, but the way he did it did - he was going away again at the line after making a mistake at the last. At Warwick, myself and Nico (de Boinville) got racing a long way out, which was why my lad got tired after the last, but I loved the way he jumped there. If I can get him into a nice rhythm again, I think we’ll be hard to beat.” (Ben Jones, jockey)
THE NEXT BEST
REAL STONE (1.10)
Six runners for the opener, but the top two in the weights hold by far the strongest form claims. Helnwein beat a big field to win the big novices’ hurdle final at Sandown’s season finale last April; and the pick of his three efforts over fences, despite not yet winning, suggests he can be at least as effective in this discipline, which arguably suits his strong-travelling style even better.
He’s never been the strongest of finishers to my eyes, however. And although getting back on better ground following a wind op since his latest run at Sandown (the worst of his three chasing efforts so far) might help, on balance he’s one I’d want to oppose at short odds.
That leaves REAL STONE as by far the most likely winner of the remaining quintet. Dan Skelton’s ten-year-old bounced back to form seemingly out of nowhere last time under a positive ride from Tristan Durrell, given he went off a 33/1 rag for that Wetherby handicap. There was no fluke about that performance, though, with some spectacular leaps down the back straight enabling him to build up a clear lead he never looked like relinquishing.
There’s no reason to think Harry Skelton will deviate from the front-running tactics that served Real Stone so well in West Yorkshire, especially at this track where getting into a nice rhythm over fences counts for plenty. If he jumps anything like as well again, Team Skelton look to have found an ideal opportunity for Real Stone to defy a 6lb rise and secure back-to-back victories for the first time in his career.
Published at 1435 GMT on 28/02/25
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