In the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival, Timeform assess the claims of a leading contender. Brown Advisory favourite Ballyburn is next under the microscope.
Pros
Ballyburn was named Top Novice Hurdler at the Timeform Jumps Awards at the end of last season when he showed high-class form in winning four of his five starts. His last three victories over hurdles came at Grade 1 level at the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham and Punchestown, with his best effort coming in the Baring Bingham at Cheltenham which he won impressively by 13 lengths. The fact that he’s a Festival winner already can certainly be counted as point in his favour as he heads back to Cheltenham for next month’s Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.
Already a high achiever over hurdles, Ballyburn looked such an exciting prospect last year because he promised to be at least as good over fences. A tall gelding who had won his only point as a four-year-old, Ballyburn is a chaser on looks but also on pedigree, with his brothers including the very smart Noble Endeavor, winner of the Paddy Power Handicap Chase at Leopardstown.
Ballyburn has duly taken high rank among this year’s novices and it was no disgrace that, after a near flawless chasing debut at Punchestown, he was beaten by the speedier and more lightly-weighted four-year-old Sir Gino over two miles at Kempton just after Christmas. Sir Gino's seven-and-a-half-length success is rated the best piece of novice chase form this season.
A step back up in trip helped Ballyburn register a first Grade 1 win over fences at the Dublin Racing Festival where the most encouraging feature of his performance with his Cheltenham target in mind was his strength at the finish – three miles looks sure to suit him - as he forged five lengths clear on the run-in of Croke Park, unbeaten in three previous starts over fences.
That’s another point in Ballyburn’s favour because at Leopardstown he was following in the footsteps of stablemate Fact To File who went on to win last year’s Brown Advisory, while Willie Mullins has also completed the same double in recent seasons with Monkfish and, further back, with both Cooldine and Florida Pearl.
Heading the Timeform ratings for the Brown Advisory and with the prospect of further improvement to come, Ballyburn looks a worthy favourite, his task having been made potentially easier now that one of his main British-trained rivals The Jukebox Man has been ruled out by injury. Ballyburn has a rating of 157p which leaves him with very little improvement to find to put him on a par with the race’s most recent winners.
Click here to back Ballyburn for the Brown Advisory with Sky Bet
Cons
Although top rated, Ballyburn doesn’t have a huge amount in hand of his nearest rivals, though that’s largely reflected in the betting. Breathing down his neck in most lists is stablemate Dancing City, he too a Grade 1 novice winner over hurdles last season, who has won both his chases. While Ballyburn dealt with Croke Park easily enough last time, the first two from the Ten Up Novice Chase at Navan, Better Days Ahead and Stellar Story who beat The Jigsaw Man and Dancing City in last year’s Albert Bartlett, are two other leading contenders for Gordon Elliott.
Ballyburn hasn’t yet run over three miles, at least under Rules, which could be seen as a negative, though as mentioned above, his point win, his strong finish at Leopardstown last time and his pedigree all point to the longer trip being a positive move rather than a shot in the dark. Native Endeavor, referred to above, ran in the National Hunt Chase as a novice and another of his brothers, the useful chaser Minella Daddy, won over three and a half miles.
The last winner of the Baring Bingham to go on to win what is now the Brown Advisory was The West Awake trained by Oliver Sherwood back in the late 1980s, though that’s arguably more surprising than concerning. In fact, no Baring Bingham winner has run in the following season’s Grade 1 three-mile novice chase since the Mouse Morris-trained First Lieutenant, successful in 2011, was beaten by Bobs Worth in the RSA a year later.
Ballyburn has raced only on ground softer than good so far – it came up heavy when he won at last year’s Festival – so quicker conditions would be an unknown for him.
Analysis by John Ingles
Dan Barber's verdict
A year is considered a long time in racing but a matter of months was enough to shift the perception between a couple of the sport's most outstanding youngsters. For during this period in 2024, Sir Gino's participation at Cheltenham was coming into doubt with the Henderson horses under a cloud and, in his absence, Ballyburn solidified his position as the highest-achieving young hurdler of the season by running away with the Baring Bingham (now Turners) on the Wednesday of the Festival.
Wind forward to Kempton at Christmas and the pair were to meet in a clash to savour - except it was more of a crowning than a confrontation, as the imperious Sir Gino outjumped and outran his big rival in a performance that not only drew understandable superlatives but also seemed to dent the aura around Ballyburn. A future clash seems unlikely in the short term as a result but it did set the wheels in motion for a shift for the vanquished Ballyburn, with a potential Arkle plan abandoned in favour of the Brown Advisory.
And a strong finishing effort to draw away from Croke Park at the end of the Ladbrokes Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival suggests Ballyburn can still prove himself a leading staying chaser. But when it's the potential lack of top-drawer opposition rather than an out-of-the-ordinary performance on the track that really cements the belief Ballyburn is still the one to beat in his chosen Cheltenham target, then the footing may still prove a little shaky as he tackles a bigger field and with it a greater examination of his safe-not-swift jumping technique.
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