Star horses set to return before major spring targets

You’ve got to feel for course officials at Naas. Frost was the overnight issue ahead of Sunday’s top-class card but anyone who tuned in for the initial IHRB Raceday Information (@IHRBRaceday) video update on social media soon after 8am, featuring Brendan Sheridan poking his stick into the “grass frost”, couldn't help but spot the real threat to proceedings.

Lurking behind Sheridan was a dense fog and despite it seemingly lifting enough to run the mares’ beginners chase after a short delay at around 12.30, though some would argue that should never have taken place in the conditions, the announcement was made that the rest of the card had been abandoned.

The best dressed lady and gentleman competitions were not impacted and went ahead as scheduled according to those unfortunate enough to have made the journey to the track, but no Mister Policeman versus Sa Fureur in the two-mile novice chase, no Tullyhill in the maiden hurdle and most importantly, no Grade 1 Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle in which several significant questions looked likely to be answered.

Is Firefox just as good as he looked when beating Ballyburn at Fairyhouse? Could Mystical Power be a Willie Mullins superstar waiting in the wings? And will Croke Park and Lecky Watson turn out to be genuine Albert Bartlett contenders?

It won’t be long before those key issues are addressed, thankfully, with the meeting quickly rescheduled for this coming Friday, but there are plenty of other good races to look forward to in the coming weeks too and some big names expected to return to the fray.

Here are six horses yet to be seen this season that could really catapult themselves back into spring festival thinking…

A Dream To Share (John & Thomas Kiely)

Let’s kick off in the novice hurdle ranks, given that’s at the forefront of the mind, and arguably the most anticipated horse in the whole division.

A Dream To Share, for octogenarian trainer John Kiely under teenage amateur John Gleeson, was arguably the story of last season when winning top-notch bumpers at Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Punchestown, and beating some class acts in the process to boot.

Take the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Festival in March – 17 of the 21 who took part have won 24 races between them since and all the while the winner has stayed at home as the likes of Fact To File, Captain Teague, Lecky Watson and It’s For Me have franked the form over and over again. Those four were immediately behind A Dream To Share in what is surely turning out to be one of the hottest editions of the race in recent years.

An intended hurdling debut for A Dream To Share at Punchestown in October was put on the back-burner following a stone bruise, and there hasn’t been much news since. That’s not always a good thing but those who monitor the Betfair Exchange closely will be aware that this horse remains very solid towards the head of the market for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, so one could reasonably assume they’ve just been biding their time after the autumn setback.

Either way, it’s a long time off the track now and the horse’s biggest fans will obviously be looking to see his name among the entries for the Dublin Racing Festival when they are made later this month.

You Oughta Know (Willie Mullins)

You Oughta Know is one I mentioned a couple of weeks ago and he’s reportedly back in full training having had a nice break since winning a Galway bumper on good going at the start of August.

He was far too pacy for Croke Park on yielding ground at Kilbeggan on his debut back in May and could be anything with a spring campaign in mind.

And by ‘anything’… it’s still unknown whether he’ll stay down the bumper route or switch paths to go novice hurdling, but the latter option was seemingly the plan at the start of the season so, at 25/1 for the Supreme and 33s for the Ballymore at time of writing, his return to action will be noteworthy – wherever that might be.

Salvator Mundi (Willie Mullins)

Another for the Mullins team and not to be confused with the Irish-bred dual Flat winner for John and Thady Gosden who shares his name. French-bred Salvator Mundi was only sighted once for David Cottin in his native land but that sole outing saw him split subsequent winners Sir Gino and Kador De Ciergues in a Listed hurdle at Auteuil last April.

Salvator Mundi and Sir Gino were both snapped up by the Donnellys following the race and Sir Gino’s UK debut for Nicky Henderson could hardly have gone much better, readily landing odds of 4/9 in an ‘Introductory’ Juvenile Hurdle at Kempton.

Salvator Mundi is consequently no bigger than 14/1 for the Triumph Hurdle and, although not entered up at the time of writing, is expected to have his first start for Mullins in the coming weeks.

L’Homme Presse (Venetia Williams)

It’s not unusual for the Cheltenham Gold Cup pecking order to be firmly established over the Christmas period but the Savills Chase could hardly have been more lop-sided, after which impressive winner Galopin Des Champs was generally cut to the even-money market leader as he looks to go back-to-back in the big one in March.

Shishkin will presumably make a late play in the Denman Chase at Newbury if all’s well after the sore splint and perhaps Gerri Colombe will be better served by a shot at the Cotswold Chase rather than lock horns with the Mullins monster around Leopardstown again in the Irish Gold Cup.

But if there’s an obvious potential shortener in the Gold Cup betting right now then it is most certainly L’Homme Presse, a horse expected to tackle the Fleur de Lys Chase at Lingfield in a couple of weeks’ time.

The meeting was abandoned last year due to a frozen track but, if it’s on, you’re generally looking at very testing conditions there this time of year and they would play to the strengths of Venetia Williams’ horse, who could face Dan Skelton’s Protektorat among others.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride with L’Homme Presse since he powered up the hill to complete a near-perfect novice chase campaign in the 2022 Brown Advisory, only blotting his copybook when no doubt over the top at Aintree the following month.

He was back in the groove with a massive effort under top weight in last season’s Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle before unseating Charlie Deutsch at the final fence in the King George. He wasn’t going to win at Kempton, but he’d been sent off the 9/4 favourite in spite of fears over the suitability of the flat track, and the nine-year-old unquestionably has some unfinished business in the big league.

Whether he’d be up to mixing with Galopin Des Champs is another matter entirely but a positive prep would have connections excited again.

Banbridge (Joseph O’Brien)

I can’t be alone in scouring the lands for a suitable Ryanair Chase horse after the events of the past few weeks.

Allaho is a very short price to drop back in trip for another crack at the prize but he’s 9/4 favourite based on what he’s done at Cheltenham in the past (sensational in 2021 and ’22) rather than anything he’s produced on the track since returning from injury this season. I just wonder if the fire really is still burning within for him to produce the goods once more at Prestbury Park.

I wouldn’t be giving up on Stage Star by any stretch but there’s a major question mark over him now too, while things would have to slot into place perfectly again for Envoi Allen to go back-to-back in a race like the Ryanair.

We’ll see how Edwardstone responds to chasing over the intermediate trip this weekend but we know for sure that Banbridge gets the Ryanair trip no problem based on his Grade 1 success at Aintree in the spring and he’s won around Cheltenham a couple of times in the past too, including on the New Course when landing the 2022 Martin Pipe.

Decent ground looks absolutely essential for him and it’s obviously a bit of a moveable feast in terms of where he might pop up for his comeback run, but he’s in good shape according to Joseph O’Brien and I couldn’t really put anyone off the antepost 20/1 in a flimsy-looking market all things considered.

Lossiemouth (Willie Mullins)

Mullins won the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham eight times on the trot between 2009 and 2016 (thanks largely to Quevega’s stunning six victories) but hasn’t done so since Benie Des Dieux in 2018 and you’d imagine it’ll be a hatchet the Closutton camp have been pretty desperate to bury following Annie Power’s famous fall at the last five years ago.

There are half a dozen Mullins could target at the race this time around but nothing can match the potential of Triumph Hurdle winner Lossiemouth, who backed up that win with another superb display at the Punchestown Festival in April.

She’d surely still be unbeaten but for Paul Townend getting stuck in some serious traffic at last year’s Dublin Racing Festival and, given the propensity for top juveniles to end up racing over a bit further as they mature, you’d imagine a step up to two and a half miles this season could yet help eke out even more improvement.

Not that Lossiemouth needs to improve much, if at all, and anyone even vaguely fretting over her not making the track yet this season need only look at Quevega’s record for reassurance. She’ll be there in March; she’ll be favourite; and she’ll most likely win.

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