Check out our star columnist's thoughts on all his Sunday runners at Naas.
Naas Sunday
14:00 Blackbow
Paul has elected to ride our other runner but the conditions of the race suit this fellow. I don’t mind which one wins – the small field will suit both – but I do wonder if Paul is on the wrong one. We’ll see. Blackbow is back in trip with a hood on.
14:00 Cash Back
I think Paul is putting a line through his last run at Leopardstown where he made a bad mistake at the first. That upset him for the whole race and he’s better than that. We might try different tactics too.
15:00 Ha D'or
He looked very promising when he won in Fairyhouse. He was green in front there and while it may be tough to beat Flame Bearer, who was impressive at the same track last time, we’ll know where our horse fits in the pecking order of the novice hurdlers afterwards.
16:00 Micro Manage
It was good to see the maiden hurdle divided and lucky enough we have one in both divisions. This horse hasn’t progressed the way I thought he would over hurdles, things haven’t quite gone right for him. He showed a nice bit of form on the Flat which you would have thought could have converted into being a top novice hurdler.
It hasn’t happened yet but maybe he’ll get the opportunity here to put that right. He’s in good form and the one negative about the run on Sunday for him might be the underfoot conditions.
16:30 Bring On The Night
This is a nice horse, he was 90+ rated on the Flat in France. We had a few problems with him, but they seem to be sorted now. He jumps well at home and if he brings that jumping ability to the track he could be hard to beat.
Melon back with a bang
It was great to see Melon back to winning ways at Gowran last weekend.
He had worked very well for me the week before and produced an exhibition round of jumping. We were delighted to get a win next to his name. He’d been competing in Grade Ones for most of his career and finding it tough, but we haven’t made a decision over whether he goes to Cheltenham or stays at home and try and win more Grade Twos and Threes. At least he’s back in good form.
Blue Sari jumped very well in heavy ground to win on the same card and possibly that’s what he likes – extreme going. He won a bumper at the track in heavy too. He’s entered at Cheltenham but it might be better to stay at home and go for lesser races, and earn more money.
Ramilles was very good when winning at Punchestown on Wednesday and seems to have got his act together now. He’s always worked very well at home and now we’re seeing that ability on the track too.
We put cheekpieces on Burning Victory in the Quevega Hurdle and they improved her jumping, she produced a good clear round. That run and win will leave her spot on for the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.
I thought Madmansgame was impressive when winning the bumper at Navan on Tuesday. It was hard work but once he got going in the last 50 yards he put three-quarters-of-a-length between himself and Landrake having looked beaten at one stage.
What impressed me was once the penny had dropped he really picked up and ran past the line and around the bend at Navan. Usually horses in deep ground there pull up three strides after the post but he was only just getting into gear. There’s a lot if improvement in him.
