THE two Grade 1s at Fairyhouse last Sunday were won in contrasting styles, the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle coming down to the narrowest margins while the Drinmore Novice Chase produced the easiest winner of the weekend in Romeo Coolio.

Ballyburn shaped just about best in the Hatton’s Grace, Paul Townend perhaps overdoing the waiting tactics as he conceded first run to Teahupoo, but one could see the reason for it with the longer term in mind, looking to give his mount a positive experience back over hurdles after a disappointing novice chase campaign.

Front-running had worked well with Ballyburn as a novice hurdler, but connections may not view that as a viable approach in staying hurdles and they likely want to teach him to settle with a view to going three miles.

I am not sure how well this will work with Ballyburn, however, as he seems intent on forcing his jockey to play dragon rider in the early stages with his low head carriage.

There is also a sense that Ballyburn is on the edge temperamentally, his tail carriage less than convincing in the straight on Sunday. With all that in mind, there are grounds for thinking Teahupoo will uphold form with should they meet again over three miles, even though the market for the Stayers’ Hurdle suggests otherwise.

Teahupoo is a little different to the other three-time winners of the Hatton’s Grace, especially Solerina and Apple’s Jade, in that the intermediate trip at Fairyhouse are not his ideal conditions, at this point in his career at least.

He looked to be going as fast as he could for much of the race, something backed up by Jack Kennedy afterwards.

Three miles is much more his thing now, while being fresh is no harm either, and he remains to one to beat at Cheltenham as he looks even more of a stayer these days.

The Drinmore is a much easier race to assess: the market said Romeo Coolio was a class above and so it proved as he jumped and travelled well throughout, his backers having no worries at any point.

He was a Grade 1 winner as a novice hurdler, though not at the spring festivals where he was put in his place, and needs to improve for fences if he is to mix it at the very top but on this evidence, he has and is a better chaser, his physique suggesting that might be the case.

The choice of his next race will be interesting. He was better than ever over two-and-a-half miles here but hardly looked slow either and there may not be an ideal race for him over Christmas as he will either have to cut back to a shorter trip at Leopardstown or head to Limerick for a more of a slog on ground that is usually testing.

GORDON Elliott had an excellent weekend at Fairyhouse, winning six races along with numerous placed runners, and one notable feature of his team was how many of them were improving, often markedly, for their first start of the season.

Elliott had 13 runners that were having their second run back, as defined by having a break of 100 days or more before their previous outing, with four of them winning.

Using Timeform ratings as a gauge, nine of them improved for the run and even that doesn’t tell the full story as one of the others failed to complete and another is a novice chaser likely aiming at handicaps.

Substantial improvement

Only Maxxum really disappointed among those having their second start of the season and I made the average improvement 3½lbs with the median more like 7lb.

Mange Tout (+20lbs in Timeform ratings), Romeo Coolio (+6lbs, but extra points for style) and Koktail Brut (+5lbs, extra points for toughness) all found substantial improvement to win graded races while Skylight Hustle looked a different horse to the one that ran at Gowran in winning his maiden hurdle by 21 lengths.

Both Touch Me Not (+11lbs) and San Hilario (+8lbs) stepped up on their returns to finish second in handicaps, and could be counted better than the form, Touch Me Not part of an overly strong pace, San Hilario having to chase down Billy Lee Swagger in a slowly-run race where the tricky winner may have been helped by getting a lead from a loose horse.

With this improvement angle in mind, it might be worth keeping an eye on Elliott horses that were themselves returning from a break at this meeting.

Ravendark cost a hefty €350,000 back in June 2024 and while he was beaten a long way in third behind Skylight Hustle, it was his first run of any kind and he should progress, perhaps a lot, for this.

Even more interesting is Grangeclare Park, the beaten favourite in the closing bumper on Sunday. He looked ill-at-ease making the running for much of this race, ears pricked and looking in need of a lead but still managed to keep on steadily late.

He will come forward this with fitness, but perhaps moreso for a slight change in tactics and should be hard to beat next time.

AS with last year, it looks like it will again be Christmas before we see the pick of the Willie Mullins novice hurdlers hit the track but his novice chasers are on a different schedule, Final Demand, Kopek Des Bordes and Kitzbuhel all winning in the last three weeks before Jimmy De Seuil did the same in the opening race of the Fairyhouse Winter Festival.

He might attract less chat than his three stablemates, perhaps because his appearances have been rare lately, running just once last season, but on hurdles ratings he is closely matched with them, and he defied market weakness and reports of indifferent schooling to put up an excellent debut chase win.

In a race where only four counted from an early stage, he jumped well in front and was going best after two out, only needing to be pushed out to go clear late. Time comparisons show him in a good light relative to the strongly run two-mile one furlong handicap chase later on the card.

Quicker

He covered the distance from the first to the line in that shorter race a second quicker than the handicappers despite racing over further and never coming under serious pressure.

The only pity is that the race finished before a quarter to midday which is too early in my book; is it the winter solstice yet?

Another Mullins runner in the race, Joystick, also ran a fine fourth, the distance he was beaten increased by a slight mistake at the last.

A hurdle mark of 129 would have him nicely behind the three that beat him here, but he matched them most of the way at a strong pace and looks like proving a better chaser than hurdler.