THE racing in Ireland last weekend was run-of-the-mill, but it offered decent opportunities for smaller yards to get among the winners, especially at Navan last Sunday where the Irish Stallion Farms EBF-sponsored card presented a pick’n’mix of handicaps over every trip and discipline.

Martin Hassett had a fine handicap chase double with Battle Of Ridgeway and Soloman Lane while Oh My Word lived up to his name to land the Listed Future Champions Bumper, stepping up on a course-and-distance win back at the Navan Racing Festival.

The form of that race seemed suspect with less than six lengths covering the first five home, but he improved markedly on that, always travelling strongly in Derek O’Connor’s hands before going away to win by 11 lengths, most of that margin coming in the final furlong.

O’Connor is a rider that can seem to have more under him than he actually has, but that was not the case here as Oh My Word powered clear to put up the best bumper performance of the season so far, though Willie Mullins has yet to get going in the division for the winter at least, his last bumper winner all the way on October 14th.

The Lovely Man was an impressive winner of the three-mile handicap chase on his second start for Gavin Cromwell and the step up in trip looked to suit.

This was his first run beyond 20 furlongs, and he had often lacked pace over shorter, but he was a different horse here, settling the race quickly between the final two fences.

He is up 9lbs to 123 for this which would leave him a little shy of getting into the Thyestes but a race like that would suit him well.

Cromwell form

Cromwell’s stable form has been much discussed over the last month or so and his figures have improved a little in December. After a November where he was 2/137 with 25 places, both flat and jumps, he has been 6/52 with 14 places in December through last Sunday. More pertinently, fancied horses have been running well, like The Lovely Man but also Cowper Hall and Bridie’s Beau.

Away from the winners, a handful of horses shaped well in defeat on Sunday. The two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle won by Quest With Speed was steadily run and those ridden forward had an advantage.

The runner-up Collaborative was not one of those and did well to come from mid-division, especially as he was initially outpaced, while the fifth Give Him A Chance was set too much to do and did well to finish as close as he did.

Mount Frisco was a distant fifth in the two-mile handicap chase but there was more spark here than there has been in a while as he reverted to the front-running tactics that saw him to such good effect early in 2024.

He missed time after that and struggled for form, but his mark has dropped since (down another pound to 106 after this) and he likely needed his first two runs this season. He can compete in a lower grade than this.

Blaze’s big pot win

It is also worth mentioning the win of Blaze The Way at Cheltenham on Friday last. That he would win a handicap chase at a track with tough fences seemed unlikely as a novice hurdler as he blundered his way through his initial starts in maiden hurdles, but Mags Mullins brought him along gradually and this was a big pot to win.

Sometimes poor jumping is a trait, but this was a case where the trainer managed to fix it, running him initially over shorter, something that may also have helped his handicap mark. His initial British rating of 134 was no gimme, however, while he had another 4lb for being out of the handicap and his rider putting up overweight.

This simply looked the performance of a horse going places as a staying chaser.

THE Christmas meeting at Leopardstown is calling for Irish racing fans, and one key factor will be the going.

A bit like Kempton which hosts the best English racing at this time of the year, Leopardstown tends to produce some of the driest ground of the winter, though most of the form from the last two months is on soft or slower.

Of the 195 jumps races run in Ireland from the start of November through to last Sunday, 160 of them (or 82%) took place on yielding-soft or slower while heavy was in the going description for 112 races (57%). Unlike last season when we had prolonged dry spells, it has already been a wet winter.

Perhaps Leopardstown will be the same, though recent history suggests otherwise. Since 2020, there have been 140 races run at the Christmas meeting and only 14 of them had heavy in the going description; the track does produce soft ground but heavy is unusual.

Another thing to consider going into the meeting is the anticipated Willie Mullins Wave, especially with his novice hurdlers.

Some of the best English novice hurdlers have already been busy, Mydaddypaddy and No Drama This End with two wins apiece so far and favourites for the Supreme and Turners respectively.

Starting point

Leopardstown at Christmas has often been the traditional starting point for the better Closutton novice hurdlers and since 2020, the following horses have won maiden hurdles at the meeting with the price in brackets afterwards their SPs for novice races at the Cheltenham Festival: Gaillard Du Mesnil (9/4), Stattler (7/2), Sir Gerhard (8/11), Jade De Grugy (2/1), Ballyburn (1/2) and Kopek Des Bordes (4/6).

As to individual horses for next week, The Yellow Clay makes each-way appeal in the Christmas Hurdle on December 28th. He was a close second in what looked the best novice hurdle at Cheltenham last season and while the form has been a little devalued since, he is worth another chance on ground that should be more suitable than he encountered last time.

Gordon Elliott has long been of the view that he prefers a decent surface while his last run at Navan came at a time when some of the trainer’s horses needed the outing, many from the stable finding significant improvement for first to second start this season.

Ballyburn is probably the most talented horse in the field, but three miles remains an unknown and a few of his other likely rivals will be having their first start of the season.

Grade 1 novice

The two-mile Grade 1 novice chase on the opening day of the meeting has been reinstated this year, though ironically the horse that would have been the main attraction, Kopek Des Bordes, will miss the race with a setback.

Romeo Coolio is himself exciting, and it will be interesting to see how he copes with returning to two miles, and the one that looks overpriced in the early markets, each-way at least, is Westport Cove, the chance of him running increased by Kopek Des Bordes being ruled out.

He is a summer jumper, but he carried that form into the winter to win the Craddockstown last time on ground that was slower than ideal while carrying a penalty. He is unlikely to be a match for the best novices come the spring, but his form is good enough to get into the shake-up for one of these weaker Grade 1s.