Winter has barely rubbed the sleep from its eyes but on a bright, sharp afternoon here on Friday, it was easy to imagine at least three of the six winners jumping the last with a chance in spring sunshine next March. More Of That, a Festival winner already in the 2014 World Hurdle, is the new favourite for the RSA Chase with several bookmakers following a successful debut over fences, while Shantou Village and Josies Orders also recorded their first wins at the track where the season will reach its climax in four months’ time.
More Of That had at least a stone and a half in hand of his six opponents on hurdles form as he went to post for the Steel Plate And Sections Novice Chase, and though he did not take his field apart as the bare ratings suggested he might, Jonjo O’Neill’s seven-year-old did more than enough to show Grade One potential over fences too.
Simply getting him on to a racecourse for the first time in nearly 12 months was was the most important step for O’Neill, who now has a solid base on which build towards the Festival.
“It was lovely to see what he did today,” O’Neill said. “He did everything he was doing at home, he did it on the track and you never know until you come here. The wind operation [at the turn of the year] seems to have worked, which a lot of them don’t, and it’s just nice to have a good horse again.
“He was a good horse over hurdles, and hopefully he’ll be a better one over fences. We just need to keep him safe and sound and get experience into him now. We know we have a good horse, it’s just getting everything right on the path.
“We knew his wind wasn’t good [last season], but he was unbeaten at the time and it would have taken a brave man to operate on him when he was winning with it. But obviously, like everything it gets worse, and when it got worse, we operated. He’s had a good long break and to come back like that is just where you want to be.”
More Of That was as short as 5-1 for the RSA Chase with one bookmaker after his two and a half length defeat of As De Mee, though a more realistic 9-1 is available with several others.
Neil Mulholland, the trainer of Shantou Village, saddled his first Festival winner in a handicap chase on the opening day of last season’s meeting, and is wishing the winter away already after his novice hurdler preserved his unbeaten record in the Grade Two Neptune Novice Hurdle.
Penglai Pavilion, who finished fifth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on the Flat and was also a comfortable winner at the Showcase meeting here last month, was odds-on for the four-runner race at 5-6 but could finish only third as Shantou Village made the running under Noel Fehily and stayed on strongly to beat Champers On Ice by 15 lengths.
“This horse will probably be back on Trials Day [in January],” said Mulholland, who also saddled Minella Present to finish second behind Keel Haul after getting no luck in running in the opening handicap chase.
“People think that you know the answer to the likes of this horse before the race, but of course, we don’t. There were four different horses and four different trainers, all hoping that we were going to win today. But we still don’t know how good this lad is.
“Noel came back in and said: ‘Does he want two miles five [furlongs] or three miles?’ He’s still very green. Hopefully we’ll learn that on Trials day, but if he wins like he won today, we still mightn’t learn anything.”
“Minella Present proved he handles the course, and the handicapper might put him up about 5lb. If that’s enough to get him in [to the Grand Annual Chase] you won’t see him until March.”
Nico de Boinville, who took the Gold Cup on Coneygree last season, landed a gamble as Ben Pauling’s A Hare Breath, a 25-1 chance when betting opened on Thursday afternoon, took the novice handicap hurdle at 6-1. The first and last hurdles were omitted due to the low evening sun, but A Hare Breath quickened well to give his trainer Ben Pauling his first winner at Cheltenham.
Nina Carberry, meanwhile, was the only jockey to record a double on the card as she won the Cross-Country Handicap Chase on Josies Orders for owner JP McManus, and the concluding handicap chase for amateur riders on Knock House.
Tony McCoy, who wore the McManus colours to dozens of big-race victories, suggested this week that female jockeys should get a weight allowance from their male counterparts but Carberry provided a compelling counter-argument, avoiding plenty of potential pitfalls on the way to victory.
“Nina Carberry’s experience showed again today,” Enda Bolger, the winner’s trainer, said. “Things were a bit awkward at times with horses falling in front of them, but she got around them. That’s the Carberry factor, though. She’s been hunting since she was four or five and she was able to dodge them.”
