DON’T Touch It took four runs before he landed his bumper but he looks to have taken better to hurdling, finishing a good second to Stone Hard on his debut over flights at Gowran Park last month. He looked like overtaking the winner that day before a mistake at the last put paid to his chances of winning. That was a very taking hurdling bow and Don’t Touch It looks well up to winning the two-mile. two-furlong maiden hurdle at Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day.

Tommy Treacy rides Vigil for Dermot Weld in the same race and on his bumper form, he must rate a serious danger. He had two wins to his name, both at Leopardstown and has finished fifth in the last two renewals of the Cheltenham Bumpers. The fact that Vigil holds entries in Grade 1 hurdles over the Christmas suggests he is in serious form at home. However, it is difficult to replicate hurdling experience and Don’t Touch It should record a second consecutive win in this race for Jessica Harrington and indeed he could well be a horse who will make his mark in better company in due course.

RED-HOT DOUVAN

Douvan arrives at the Grade 1 Novice Chase as red-hot favourite for a race that has proven as frustrating as it has fruitful to the Willie Mullins/Rich Ricci combination over the past five years. Blackstairmountain and Arvika Ligeonnaire took the race for the team in 2011 and 2012 before circumstances conspired against their odds-on favourites Champagne Fever and Vautour over the last two years. Mikael d’Haguenet was also turned over for the Mullins/Ricci team at odds-on in 2010. This serves as a timely reminder that odds-on shots are not as certain as death and taxes. Although he faces only three other rivals, those three are, like Douvan, also unbeaten over fences (from five combined starts) so he faces no easy task here.

Looking at their hurdling form, Douvan proved better than Sizing John on three occasions last season in addition to giving Velvet Maker a 39-length thumping in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham. Ttebbob, not being a novice last season, has yet to face Douvan yet but was rated 16lb inferior over hurdles.

The Mullins star appears to have strengthened up physically following his summer holiday and rather than be put off by the fact that he made a mistake at the last on his chasing debut, it’s actually an encouragement to me! In normal circumstances, you’d prefer not to see any mistakes, but when looking at a novice chaser, you’d much rather see him do that in his beginners’ chase and learn from it, that to come into a Grade 1 with a facile 30-length victory under his belt, having learnt nothing.

All things considered, it’s easy to see why Douvan is favoutite and at current odds of 4/7 with RaceBets he looks as good an odds-on shot as you’ll find during the winter months, especially when you recall this is a horse Willie Mullins described post-Punchestown as “an amazing athlete for a horse of his size and I would say he’s as good as I’ve ever had’’. All of a sudden that 4/7 doesn’t look so bad after all!

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