John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on Sunday.
Gavin Cromwell going for back-to-back Leinster Nationals
Gavin Cromwell won last year’s Leinster National (16:45) at Naas with Hartur d’Arc and has a good chance of winning the handicap chase, run over an extended three miles and worth €59,000 to the winner, once again. Last year’s winner bids for a repeat success but had shown little in the twelve months since until finishing second off a much lower mark over hurdles at Naas on his last start in January. The return to this much longer trip is in his favour but the stable looks to have stronger claims with its other runner Tyre Kicker further down the weights ridden by Conor Stone-Walsh.
Tyre Kicker completed a hat-trick over fences around this time last year and while he has to yet to get his head in front so far this term, he has been runner-up three times, including on his last couple of starts. After a good run behind the unexposed Hasthing at the Berkshire Winter Million meeting at Windsor, Tyre Kicker again caught the eye with the way he travelled off the pace when second to Monbeg Park at Leopardstown a week ago. Having made smooth headway, he was short of room going to the final fence where he blundered but stayed on and looks well up to winning a handicap from his current mark.
Another former winner of the race, Espanito Bello who was successful in 2023, heads the weights, but bigger dangers to Tyre Kicker could be novice Kinturk Kalanisi, who looks on a fair mark for his first handicap over fences, and veteran Any Second Now who has been placed in a couple of Grand Nationals and was runner-up in the Irish version last spring.
Sky Bet
Cobden and Skelton playing it safe at Warwick
Being the Sunday before the Festival, neither Harry Cobden nor Harry Skelton is taking too many chances at Warwick. Both have a ride in the bumper, but they’ll be in action in only one race apiece over jumps earlier on the card, and both have good chances of making it a winning one.
Cobden partners St Pancras for ‘Hot Trainer’ Toby Lawes in the novice hurdle (15:20) and the useful four-year-old stands out on form against a fairly ordinary bunch of older rivals, especially now that Olly Murphy has taken out both his intended runners. St Pancras showed his 33/1 win in the Scottish Triumph Hurdle at Musselburgh was no fluke when second to Mambonumberfive in the Adonis at Kempton last time and has a clear chance down in grade under Cobden for the first time which earns him the ‘Jockey Uplift’ flag.
Skelton rides Illico de Cotte for brother Dan in the long-distance handicap chase (16:58) named after Volcano who won the corresponding race three years running. Illico de Cotte has to give weight to all his rivals but he’s the youngster in the field at the age of seven and has yet to finish out of the first three in his completed starts. He made a winning start over fences at Carlisle in the autumn and has run well since to be placed in further stamina tests at the same track and at Exeter. He heads the Timeform weight-adjusted ratings and can go well again up in trip.
Debut for half-brother to Jonbon and Douvan
Jonbon is a short price to win next week’s Queen Mother Champion Chase, a race in which his brother Douvan was beaten for the first time over fences when a still hotter favourite in 2017 before falling in the same contest a year later. Douvan was already a dual Festival winner, in the Supreme and Arkle, and won 14 of his 17 races for Willie Mullins, earning a rating of 182 over fences. Jonbon is a top-class chaser too, now boasting an overall career record of 17 wins from 20 starts for Nicky Henderson and finishing runner-up in his other three races.
The pair by Walk In The Park are the only two runners to date for their dam Star Face, but her next foal to hit the track is her five-year-old son by Doctor Dino, Wilstar, who makes his debut for Olly Murphy in Diana Whateley’s colours in the bumper at Warwick (17:30). Not surprisingly given his half-brothers, Wilstar comes with a hefty price-tag after being bought for €250,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale two years ago.
Jonbon began his career under Rules as a five-year-old with a win in a March bumper, at Newbury, and Wilstar could well be worth siding with to do the same. The Skeltons’ representative Settle Down Jill would be the form pick judged on her debut fourth at Cheltenham, but she failed to repeat that at Market Rasen last time.
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