Timefigure analysis including Journey With Me, Jade De Grugy and Spillane's Tower

In the latest reminder that actions and advice in this increasingly clown world from once reliable and respected sources can no longer be trusted, my return from an 18-day busman’s holiday in France over the Easter weekend was delayed by 24 hours because the veterinarian entrusted with worming my two dogs had given them the incorrect medication, resulting in a refusal by the Eurotunnel authorities to let them back into the UK until the correct dose had been administered.

Other than that unwelcome, additional 98 euro sting in the tail, it was an enjoyable release from the preceding winter grind with, believe it or not, hardly any rain, blue skies and nothing even remotely resembling a pothole in sight.

One of those days was spent at Chantilly which I had never been to before and as usual when you visit a racecourse for the first time the impression you get in person is markedly different from the one you have absorbed from television pictures or hearsay.

The Grandes Ecuries and Chateau backdrop was just as magnificent as anticipated, but the racecourse itself was far smaller than I had imagined, the stands no larger than some of the minor provincial tracks I’ve been to over there, and how it managed to accommodate all the spectators when it hosted the Arc in Longchamp’s absence, while providing any sort of viewing experience, I’ve no idea.

Indeed, on the day I went there was no giant screen in operation other than the one behind the main stand when it would have made more sense to have had it in front of it.

One of the continually less satisfying aspects of going racing in France, something the authorities there really ought to address, is the interminable waiting time between the finish of one race and horses appearing in the paddock for the next, which the day I was there was usually over 25 minutes, with the jockeys out in the parade ring well before the horses had arrived. That doesn’t give you a lot of time to look them over, but if there was one horse all day I was impressed by both physically and conductively it was Louise Procter, who won the feature Class 1 event and had behind her in third place Jasna’s Secret, who had been sent off favourite for last season’s Cheveley Park.

In a tongue strap for the first time, Christophe Soumillon set a steady gallop on Jasna’s Secret but once given the office Louise Procter powered past her with a mightily impressive change of speed to seal matters very quickly.

Unfortunately, there were no sectionals returned on the day to qualify the performance more accurately – I suspect her upgrade would have had her another 7lb or so better than the bare result - but the official French handicapper has awarded her a rating just 5lb lower than Blue Rose Cen had going into the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches last year, and with a stack of improvement likely when stepped up to a mile, it will take a very smart filly to lower her colours in that Classic, I’ve no doubt.

Brewin delivers for British raiders

There were calls again this week for the start of the domestic Flat season to be revisited with today’s (Wednesday) Nottingham fixture the third already this season to be abandoned because of waterlogging, but there don’t seem to be any issues on that score in France despite the turf season starting far earlier and the first pattern race of the season there, the Prix Edmond Blanc, already having been run with its 2023 winner Tribalist seeing off last season’s French 2000 Guineas winner Marhaba Ya Sanafi with ease.

It’s just as well then there was some jumping action to take up the slack, though little of what passed domestically last week was of much interest with almost half the 86 races scheduled in the period between Monday March 25 and Sunday March 31 attracting just six runner or less.

On the contrary, there was plenty of competitive action at Fairyhouse where British raiders had their most successful Easter there for many years, saddling one winner, one second and two fourths from five runners with Brewin’upastorm becoming the first British-trained winner at the Festival since John Quinn’s Project Bluebook in 2017, a result that on the back of Marsh Wren’s win in a listed chase at Clonmel in February will hopefully encourage greater British participation when Punchestown comes along.

All credit to Olly Murphy for identifying a winnable opportunity at Fairyhouse in the Grade 2 Ballybin Hurdle, a race that regularly attracts just a handful of runners and has been won by a ragbag of runners since Dan Skelton’s Value At Risk took the equivalent race in 2016.

Murphy probably went there hoping to pick up some decent place money but with Beacon Edge and No Looking Back being pulled out and the 10-week absent Thedevilscoachman running no sort of race in a first-time tongue strap, just three ended up in contention on top of which the steady pace set by the outside of the quartet, the three-miler Maxxum, who was still narrowly in front when coming down two out, worked against the odds-on favourite and recent Champion Hurdle fourth Zarak The Brave, whose best performances have come in strongly-run races.

Asserting on the run-in, Brewin’upastorm seemingly ran as well as he has ever done to land his third Grade 2 but the race was a forgettable one on the clock with his winning timefigure just 55 if not for Murphy whose first Irish winner this was in four raids having gone close with Bread And Butter at Punchestown last April.

Brewin’upastorm’s race was the slowest of the four hurdles run on Irish Grand National Day with pride of place among the winners in that discipline going to opening winner Implicit (125, same as Timeform’s performance rating) who took advantage of the early leaders going off too hard (finishing speed a painful 93.9%) to pounce late having been in last place jumping the final hurdle with a circuit still to run.

The other two hurdles were won by horses either setting a steady pace or close up behind one with perhaps the more instructive of them being Bottler’secret’s win in the Grade 2 juvenile hurdle, though a final time (winning timefigure just 113) slower than Implicit’s as well as slower sectionals from each of the last three hurdles suggest he might have been at an advantage missing Cheltenham given the efforts of those behind him who ran in the Boodles.

Journey effort stands out

The standout effort on the day on the clock, and indeed at the whole meeting by some considerable margin, came not in the Irish National but in the Grade 2 Fairyhouse Chase where Journey With Me posted a high-class 158 timefigure with Daragh O’keefe replacing usual rider Rachael Blackmore.

Off 10 months prior to his reappearance in March, Journey With Me left his previous efforts on the clock well behind, seeming well suited by being held up off the strong pace set by Saint Sam (eventually pulled up having overdid things) and forging clear to beat the former Supreme winner Appreciate It by nine lengths.

This was a Ryanair-standard performance, but it’s worth bearing in mind his jumping hasn’t always been the best and he fell in the 2022 Ballymore when likely to have finished second to Sir Gerhard.

The Irish National was a pale shadow of the race it has been recently, with the field the smallest since 2022, and the bottom weight and an official handicap mark in the low 120s required to get in whereas the equivalent bottom weight last year ran off 134.

As I wrote last week, the absence of any British-trained runners was a complete mystery and the perceived ‘dominance’ of Gordon Elliott in these events was once again misplaced with fourth-placed Frontal Assault the best of his six runners, of which three started at 40/1 or bigger.

Elliott must be wishing his exposed types such as 80/1 shot Diol Ker would come in for the sort of treatment handed out to Any Second Now who was running off a handicap mark of 140 having been pulled up off a mark of 167 (higher than he would have been in Ireland but even so) in the Grand National less than 12 months previously, but even that handicap freefall wasn’t enough to ward off the progressive six-year-old Intense Raffles.

He was winning his third race in succession since being brought over from France and showed a cracking attitude after a blunder four out to stay on very well for all the winning timefigure was a modest 122 timefigure.

Tower on the up and expected to stay well

In all, 23 horses who had run at the Cheltenham Festival reappeared at Fairyhouse and though none of those had finished either first or second at Cheltenham, their collective results at Fairyhouse weren’t flattering with only Mares’ Novices' Hurdle fourth Jade De Grugy getting her head in front.

That owed plenty no doubt to the step up to two mile four furlongs in the race named after her owners’ outstanding mare Honeysuckle with her 140 timefigure convincing evidence the much more tactical affair she contested at Cheltenham when behind Golden Ace didn’t show her to anything like best advantage.

Jade De Grugy’s timefigure was by some way the best at the meeting over the smaller obstacles and good timefigures over fences were thin on the ground across the three days as well with novice handicap chase winner Captains Nephew the only other winning horse besides Journey With Me to exceed 125.

Spillane’s Tower reversed recent Flyingbolt Chase form with Blood Destiny in the Grade 1 WillowWarm Gold Cup Novice Chase in a race that lacked many of the best novices around, and maybe Blood Destiny wasn’t seen to best effect dropped out over the trip, but even so the tactical speed Spillane’s Tower showed was eyectaching to say the least given the race wasn’t an out-and-out test of stamina (winning timefigure just 95).

Still just six, he looks a really exciting prospect when put over three miles or more which he’ll surely relish.

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