Eleven days before the opening afternoon at the Festival is mighty close to the season’s main event to give a potential Grade One horse his Cheltenham prep. Le Breuil looked every inch a Festival contender here on Friday, however, as he flew the obstacles with speed and accuracy on the way to a deeply impressive nine-length success, and Ben Pauling, his trainer, made it plain afterwards that the five-year-old is a match for anything in his stable.
Since Pauling’s Festival entries include High Bridge and Willoughby Court, who are both priced at around 16-1 for Festival targets, Le Breuil is clearly a horse with a future. Whether it is an immediate future, however, remains to be seen.
“The reason I left him in at Cheltenham was just in case he came out of this like a bull in a china shop, then we’ve got our options,” Pauling said. “I think he’s that calibre, but if we don’t go to Cheltenham, we can look towards Aintree.
“I think this is as good as we’ve got, so hopefully all being well, tomorrow morning we’ll make a few plans. I’m pleased I left him in because it gives us options, but the only thing we’ll do is what’s in the best interests of the horse.”
Le Breuil holds entries in both the Neptune and the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdles, on 15 March and 17 March respectively, but the recent statistics are not promising. Over the last 10 years, 37 horses have lined up for a Grade One at the Festival less than a fortnight after their previous race. Not one has managed to win, and only one – in the Bumper – has even made the frame.
Few, though, arrived at Cheltenham having shown such abundant promise, and Le Breuil’s hurdling was exceptional.
“He did have a good six weeks, two-month period off [earlier in the season],” Pauling said. “He finds life at home quite easy but we’d done what we could, and it was time to come back to the track and get a step back on the ladder.
“Had I been beaten today I honestly wouldn’t have been over-disappointed. Nico [de Boinville, his jockey] said he took a good blow going to the last and I think you could see from the way he rode him that he was not keen to go at him until he jumped the last, but all in all, a fantastic performance.
“He obviously handles any ground and his jumping is just electric, so fast and accurate that he’ll hopefully have a big future.”
When it comes to late arrivals on the Festival stage, the numbers are slightly more encouraging in the meeting’s handicaps, but only just. Seven out of 147 runners in the last decade have won a Cheltenham handicap within 13 days of their last start, but four (from 68) were in handicap hurdles and Dinsdale, who might sneak into the Fred Winter Hurdle after winning the juvenile hurdle here, does at least hail from a stable in outstanding form.
Michael Scudamore has around 25 horses in his yard, which would have been a fair string when his late grandfather, also Michael, started training in the 1960s, but is a handful by modern standards. In the last 10 days, however, he has now sent out four winners from seven starters, including Kingswell Theatre in the Devon National and Mysteree in the Eider Chase, one of the highlights of Newcastle’s season over jumps.
Most Celebrated, who was quoted at around 33-1 for the Triumph Hurdle before the race, set off as the 2-1 favourite, and looked a certain winner as Tom Scudamore, Michael’s brother, eased him into the lead after jumping the last. He found nothing in the closing stages, however, and offered no resistance as Dinsdale stayed on to win by one-and-a-quarter lengths. Dinsdale picked up a 5lb penalty in the process which could squeeze him in at the bottom of the weights for the Fred Winter on 15 March.
“They’re all running really well, and that’s our 21st winner of the season, which is by far our best,” the winner’s trainer said. “The last week, things couldn’t have gone much better. For a small team like ours, it’s fantastic.
“The plan was that if he ran well today and squeezed into the Fred Winter, that would be the aim. He might struggle [to get into the race] but he’s just improved with every run, a little bit at a time, and he’s still going the right way hopefully.”
One horse that will not be running at Cheltenham, however, is Coney Island, the runner-up in the Grade One Flogas Novice Chase at Leopardstown in February and the 6-1 second-favourite for the RSA Chase on Friday morning.
“He badly bruised a foot during the week and there is no way he will have recovered in time to travel,” Eddie Harty, the six-year-old’s trainer, saidon Friday.
Chris Cook selections
Doncaster 1.50 Markov 2.25 Workbench 3.00 Taws 3.35 Looking Well 4.10 Thumb Stone Blues 4.45 Honey Pound 5.20 Maria’s Benefit
Kelso 2.15 Reivers Lad 2.50 Un Prophete 3.25 Mount Mews 4.00 Tenor Nivernais 4.35 The Orange Rogue 5.10 Sammy B
Lingfield 2.00 Frank The Barber 2.35 My Target 3.10 Miss Mirabeau 3.45 Robot Boy 4.20 Second Thought 4.55 Tartan Bute 5.30 Synodic
Newbury 1.30 Justification 2.05 Harry Topper 2.40 Bloody Mary (nap) 3.15 Vic De Touzaine 3.50 Knightly Pleasure 4.25 Cepage 5.00 Talkischeap (nb)
Newcastle 5.45 Tricorn 6.15 Veena 6.45 Entertaining Ben 7.15 Amber Mystique 7.45 Bowed Not Broken 8.15 African Grey
