THERE was not a lot of activity in the juvenile hurdle division over the festive period, with Sussex Ranger due to run at Chepstow, only for the meeting to be cancelled. The gelding gets his figure (revised upwards from the initial assessment) as a result of a wide-margin win at Sandown in December which compared very well with all other times on the card.

Act Of Valour gets his figure from defeating Look My Way at Newcastle but has since been found to be amiss when tailed off at Doncaster.

Stormy Ireland ran much faster than the winners of a hurdle and a bumper elsewhere on the December 16th Fairyhouse card when winning by 58 lengths and could be anything, though it should be acknowledged that her opposition that day was poor and the ground was heavy.

Espoir D’Allen is undefeated in four hurdles, the latest of them at Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day, but each of them has been slowly run and resulted in an inconsequential time.

Apple’s Shakira’s latest win at Cheltenham amounted to more, but it can be questioned whether she should be such a short price for the Triumph Hurdle in March.

The race won by Mr Adjudicator at Leopardstown on December 27th was particularly slowly-run – over 10.0s slower to halfway than the Champions Novice Hurdle later on the card – and a resulting timefigure of 104 is not so bad in the circumstances.

PROMISING

Other promising juveniles in action over the festive period included Redicean (90 timefigure), who beat Haulani at Kempton on December 27th in a race in which they went much too fast early on

Also featuring were Albert’s Back, who ran a 116 at Wetherby on the same day, and Nayati, who ran a 106 at Newbury on December 30th.

Plenty of juvenile hurdles are falsely run, but the championship events are less so, and experience of jumping at speed throughout a race has to be regarded as a positive.