SOFT ground proven. Three miles no problem. Outrageously impressive in one of the most competitive handicap chases in Ireland last time. Potentially very lenient hurdles mark. Available to back at 4/1? This is money for jam, right?
Yet trainer Ronan McNally has even bigger targets than today’s £80,000 Betfair Exchange Stayers’ Handicap Hurdle (2:25) in mind for The Jam Man, the little seven-year-old who is the remarkable gift that keeps giving.
“Our goal is the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot,” he told The Irish Field yesterday. “But that would have left six weeks between that race and the Troytown. He is a real good doer. On the Wednesday after the Troytown he was back up to his racing weight and on the Thursday, he was heavier.
“So I just thought rather than training him hard at home, I’ll give him another run in between. I gave him a week off last week and he just cantered away this week.”
McNally and The Jam Man are well used to travelling across the Irish Sea. This will be The Jam Man’s 12th run in Britain. But it’s a far cry from running off a marks below 100 at the likes of Ayr, Hexham, Sedgefield and Perth. That is exactly where The Jam Man has come from and today he will have plenty fancying his chances of adding to another huge pot.
In fact, The Jam Man has won nine times in Britain already earning a sum total of just over £46,530. If he wins today, he’ll bring McNally home another £45,560.
The jockey booking of Maxine O’Sullivan is bound to have a few eyebrows raised but McNally had absolutely no hesitation with that decision.
He said: “When The Jam Man was trained by Richard Curran back in the early days, Maxine won three on him and she was a big part of his early career when he was running in point-to-points.
“She knows the horse inside out and because he’s so small, I just thought taking the 5lbs off would be key. When he won the Troytown, he was only carrying 10st 6lb and he is down to carry 11st 5lb tomorrow so I just thought taking the 5lbs off that would help him.
“The other key thing for the decision to book Maxine to ride was because of her rides on Dreal Deal. There is no one about who would have ridden him as well as she did. She’s riding well and she’s riding winners for Noel Meade and plenty of point-to-point winners. She’s deserved to get a chance at a nice ride like this.”
Naturally there is any amount of dangers for The Jam Man to live with today and McNally picked out Collooney as potentially his biggest danger.
Last night there was plenty of money for Olly Murphy’s horse who won in good style Fontwell last time. Owned by J.P. McManus, he will be ridden by Aidan Coleman, who has been booked to ride champion hurdler Epatante for the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle next week.
PAUL Nicholls has started the season in sensational form and is currently operating at somewhat frightening 31% win rate with 70 wins on the board already.
If you backed Nicholls horses blindly, all 220 of them since the turn of the season, you’d be up €23.84 for a €1 stake, which is extremely rare for a trainer posting such high numbers of runners.
That said, it is interesting that before Duc Des Genievres last week, Nicholls had yet to catch real fire with any of the Jared Sullivan-owned horses that were moved to his yard during the summer. The likes of Stormy Ireland, Dolcita and Eglantine Du Seuil have yet to win for the 11-time champion trainer, despite being found nice opportunities.
Today at Ascot, two of the more high-profile transfers take their chance: Real Steel in the Chanelle Pharma 1965 Chase (2:05) and Laurina in the Coral Hurdle (2:40), which disappointingly hosts just two other runners.
Nothing looked to be travelling better than Real Steel turning into the straight in the Gold Cup last season, before his challenge faded away in the straight. He spent most of his time going right handed when trained by Mullins and a win today could prompt Nicholls to let him take his chance in the King George.
THE Poplar Square Chase (1:02), upgraded to Grade 2 status, at Naas today looks like a perfect opportunity for one of last season’s top novices to stake a claim in a two-mile chase division that all of a sudden looks more open.
Notebook, Fakir d’Oudairies and Cash Back are all very closely matched on last season’s form and all have the potential to step up now. The first two mentioned must concede the Mullins runner 8lbs, so if they all run to form and either of those horses can do that, it would have to rate a very good performance.
On an excellent card at the Kildare track, the Old Persian at Glenview Stud Fishery Lane Hurdle (12:30) has also been upgraded to Grade 2 status. The race has been won by some top class horses in recent seasons, most notably subsequent Champion Hurdle winner Espoir D’Allen. Impressive Cork winner Indiana Jones could well continue his progression today but a win for French recruits Gars En Noir and Get Free would be most notable.