There are few better moments than Newbury in November to catch a future star in National Hunt when still on the way up but only rarely do two advertise their talent so clearly on the same afternoon as Clan Des Obeaux and Unowhatimeanharry did here on Friday. Both emerged as easy winners of Grade Two events and both looked certain to run big races in Grade One events either this season or next as they did so.
Unowhatimeanharry already has a win at the highest level to his name, in the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle at last season’s Cheltenham Festival, but the effortless way in which he stepped up from novice to open company in the bet365 Long Distance Hurdle seemed to take even Harry Fry, his trainer, a little aback. The punters, too, decided to send off Ballyoptic, a winner at Chepstow earlier in the season, as the 5-2 favourite, despite having plenty of winnings to play up from Unowhatimeanharry’s unbeaten five-race campaign last year.
Unowhatimeanharry was travelling like the winner throughout, however, and had the race won halfway down the straight when he started to open up a clear lead. Ballyoptic could only stay on in the closing stages to finish six lengths behind the winner, who gave Fry his first win at the Cheltenham Festival back in March and is now a leading contender for one of the feature events at next year’s meeting, the World Hurdle.
“Watching it back, it takes your breath away,” Fry said. “Even in our wildest dreams we couldn’t expect him to come out today and win in the manner that he’s won. He’s won by further today than he did at any point last season, which is extraordinary.
“We’ve taken our time to get him out this season. We weren’t quite happy with the ground [at Haydock] last week and so we took him out. We didn’t want to have the guts out of him first time out. Coming here today, he had it all to do on the weights and the ratings but he’s gone on again.
“He kept improving last year but to come out and do it in that fashion is breathtaking. The races pick themselves from here. It’s Ascot in three weeks for the [Grade One] Long Walk and we’ll go down that route.”
Unowhatimeanharry was running in the colours of JP McManus for the first time and Barry Geraghty, his retained jockey, was similarly impressed.
“I’d never sat on him before today,” Geraghty said. “He travelled and jumped really well and I was almost travelling too well at times, which can be dangerous in a three-mile race, but he did it well.
“You’re afraid to talk one up but it was a good, solid performance. At all stages he did what you want a horse to do. Ascot will be tougher and it will be interesting to see the opposition.”
Unowhatimeanharry is now the clear second-favourite for the World Hurdle at Cheltenham in March at a top price of 13-2, in a market headed by Faugheen, the 2015 Champion Hurdle winner, who can be rated only a possible runner at best.
Clan Des Obeaux, who finished sixth in the Triumph Hurdle after a light campaign over hurdles last season, stepped up significantly on his chasing debut at Chepstow in October as he jumped and galloped his rivals into submission in the Fuller’s London Pride Novice Chase. One Track Mind, a Grade One winner at Punchestown in April, proved to be a bitterly disappointing favourite but even at his best it is difficult to imagine he could have laid a glove on the winner.
Clan Des Obeaux was introduced to the betting for the JLT Novice Chase at the Festival at around 14-1 but Paul Nicholls, his trainer, may give him a relatively easy time as a novice with an eye on the future.
“I knew he’d improved hugely since Chepstow,” Nicholls said. “He won well here over hurdles and then he ran in the Triumph but he was never a hurdler. At the end of the day he’s four, so we’ve got to be careful with him. He’s going to be best when he’s five or six.
“He wants two and a half miles or even further but he jumps brilliantly. He takes your breath away at home and he’s definitely got that bit of class.
“I’ve not even thought about a plan for him after this. When you’ve got a horse that gallops and jumps like that you’re going to go places but he is four and I won’t forget that. Sean [Bowen, his jockey] just said that he’s the best horse he’s ever sat on. This will be a Grade One horse in time.”
