THE 2024-25 jumps season was in its final days last week, but still produced two of the better training performances of the campaign in those last seven days.
The first came at Sandown on Saturday where Willie Mullins readied Il Etait Temps to win the Grade 1 Celebration Chase after a 359-day absence and the manner of victory was striking as he jumped soundly and posted a fast time.
Perhaps Jonbon was not at his best on his sixth start of the season, but even so Il Etait Temps is building an excellent record over fences away from Cheltenham and it is particularly hard for horses to win races like this off this sort of preparation, his trainer suggesting afterwards that he was only running him for place prize money.
Since 2008, 103 horses have tried to win an open Grade 1 after 300 days off the track and only eight have succeeded; Willie Mullins trained five of them, Nicky Henderson two and Venetia Williams the other.
Only three of them were over fences, however, the others being Riverside Theatre in the 2012 Ascot Chase and Royale Pagaille in the most recent Betfair Chase, showing the difficulty of doing such in a Grade 1 two-mile chase.
Mighty Marine
The other excellent training performance came from Barry Connell in a similar race, as Marine Nationale won the Grade 1 Champion Chase on the opening day of Punchestown.
On a card when other Cheltenham winners failed to reproduce their form, he was at or close to his best despite having a full season, taking in Christmas and the DRF at Leopardstown along with Cheltenham.
As with other crack intermediate trip horses from his yard, like Vautour and Allaho, Fact To File struggled with the pace of this race though he was beaten far enough out to say that he didn’t run to form.
That was also the case with his stablemate Kopek Des Bordes in the Champion Novice Hurdle earlier on the card. Despite being sent off 30/100, he was the first beaten of the four Closutton runners.
He hurdled with little fluency on ground that may have been too quick for him and perhaps Paul Townend paid for racing too close to the pace set by Salvator Mundi.
Against that, however, he had thrived off a similarly strong gallop in the Supreme and Salvator Mundi himself was able to sustain the pace to some degree to hold on for second despite taking a keen hold.
Too keenly
Another Mullins runner to race keenly was Ballyburn in the long-distance novice chase. His jumping was better than at Cheltenham, though that is not saying much, and he really had no excuses here; getting a largely unpestered lead with an English-trained outsider, the race fell apart around him yet he was still well-beaten by Champ Kiely, two years older and coming off a recent run at Fairyhouse.
Away from the Grade 1 races, the Albert Bartlett Triple Crown Series Final Handicap Hurdle proved an excellent race again in its second year. It produced another British-trained winner, and the planners have done well with splitting the 12 qualifiers evenly across the two jurisdictions.
Ten of the 25 eventual runners were trained in Britain, which is exactly the sort of makeup the organisers would have hoped for though perhaps the winner might be a little easier to find next year, Buy Some Time well down the odds list at 40/1.
AHEAD of Punchestown, the only Irish meeting last weekend was on the flat at Navan on Saturday and Ballydoyle got the best of it with a treble.
Kyprios won the Vintage Crop Stakes for the third time in a race run at a pedestrian gallop that suited none of the field, though there are worse things for horses early in the season than a relative dawdle.
The Listed Committed Stakes was more a more truly run race and Whistlejacket got the job done though not without carrying himself awkwardly in the finish – he was inclined to hang at times last year, but this seemed something more.
Perhaps he will prove more straightforward with this run under his belt, Aidan O’Brien suggesting before and after that it would be needed, and it was the same with his runner-up and stablemate Ides Of March who would prefer better ground. The third Sparking Sea was the surprise package, though perhaps not for those that backed her from 9s to 5s on the show, as she stepped forward markedly from her return at Leopardstown to be beaten three-quarters of a length, unlucky not to win in fact having conceded first run.
Scope to improve
She was back from a 315-day absence last time and Ger Lyons put the sheepskin noseband on, something few of his horses wear, though whether she has the same scope to improve as the Ballydoyle pair remains to be seen.
It was a surprise to see Cowardofthecounty in here and he looked something of an anti-sprinter, slowly away and not travelling early. He looks in need of further, though might not be the best to travel at any trip.
Joseph O’Brien enjoyed Group 3 Salsabil Stakes success with Wemightakedlongway, Dylan Browne McMonagle using her fitness to good effect from the front while dictating slow fractions; the rider doesn’t try to make all too often but when he does, he is good at it and might do it more often.
She beat two impressive maiden winners in Catalina Delcarpio and Tarima, the former likely to be suited by better ground, the latter far too keen and getting no cover, giving herself little chance to get home.
Impressive winner
The most impressive winner on the day was Reyenzi in the 10-furlong median auction maiden, building on a promising initial effort at Naas last September when he blew the start to win by five lengths, beating the same horse as his 90-rated stablemate Dakota Blue had recently by further - despite that one likely being fitter now.
Reyenzi has no group entries now but should be getting some after this, especially as there is a possibility that his easy win was achieved while racing on the worst of the ground, the bigger field races on the card suggesting the near side position was an advantage.
More broadly, his trainer Johnny Murtagh has enjoyed a fine start to the early part of the turf season.
Up to last weekend, he has had eight winners from 54 runners on turf so far in March and April, both his total winners and strike-rate the best he has managed in that period since he started training.
He would not typically be an early trainer, so this good start might be less indicative of a plan to have his horses ready early, and more to do with him having a strong team in 2025.