Lydia Hislop's Road To Cheltenham: So much to like about Gerri's return

It’s great to be back for another season on The Road, with Cheltenham’s second meeting of the season kicking off on Friday and important races to be digested from Navan over the weekend.

As ever, though, this column takes selected aim at what we’ve seen so far in light of what we learned last season. This week, I’m looking at the staying chasers and chasing mares – two divisions in which there has already been some significant action.

Please also check out this week’s show in the usual slot of 9pm on Thursdays on Racing TV. We’ll be comin’atcha from Cheltenham racecourse itself and have some new tricks up our sleeves.

As ever, we still really enjoy hearing what you’re discussing as the Jumps season powers up a gear, so don’t forget to get in touch at @LydiaHislop on – rolls eyes – X and @RacingTV via its various social channels.

See you then, to coin a phrase.

Gerri Colombe’s position in the Gold Cup ante-post market outstrips his achievements to date but it’s still not hard to imagine him lining up next March as titleholder Galopin Des Champs’ main rival. Unfortunately, it’s also difficult to envisage his current best price of 5/1 getting much longer – barring accidents, of course – because Gordon Elliott plans to run him only once more prior to the Festival. It’s explicitly a one-mission season.

“I want to mind him and have him fresh for the Gold Cup,” the trainer told the Racing Post in late October. “He’s a proper stayer, so three miles and two furlongs at Cheltenham should be right up his street. My job is to have him in the best place I can for that day and I don’t want to bottom him out before we get there.”

After Gerri Colombe’s narrow but convincing victory in Down Royal’s Champion Chase at its rescheduled meeting last Saturday, Elliott underlined his point. “We’ll have one run now and then the Gold Cup,” he said. “He showed that he is in the mix now for the Gold Cup, he stays very well and that's what you need.”

That sole stepping-stone has not yet been identified, but it’s unlikely to feature a clash with Willie Mullins’ star chaser before it’s necessary. You’d expect it to be in Ireland, so Fastorslow is perhaps the only potential rival to cause Elliott a second glance, albeit he will need to prove his scalping of both Galopin Des Champs and Bravemansgame at Punchestown last April wasn’t just scrappy end-of-term stuff.

There was so much to like about Gerri Colombe’s seasonal reappearance. He was facing fitter – if older – Grade One stalwarts, repeatedly inconvenienced by stablemate Conflated carrying him left and, having been switched inside from in the perimeter car park at the second last, did well to run down nippier Envoi Allen at a track where that horse was hitherto unbeaten.

Admittedly, had the runner-up not got in too close to the last and then hung persistently left, he might just have held on. Yet even though the winning margin was merely a neck, Gerri Colombe was well on top at the line and did not require maximum pressure from Jack Kennedy when galvanised for his final charge. Elliott reasonably believes he’ll “improve plenty” for that outing, too.

Kennedy reported his mount’s early jumping was “a bit rusty” and he certainly clouted the third, but otherwise he was notably assured for a horse having his first run outside novice company. Nonetheless, when you consider Galopin Des Champs’ assets – his remarkable tactical speed for one who stays so well – this remains the only chink in Gerri Colombe’s armour. Whilst his jumping is safer than that of the champion (whose own technique improved last season), it is comparatively more deliberate.

This was what lost him the Brown Advisory last March, when The Real Whacker – who returns in Saturday’s Paddy Power Gold Cup – attacked every fence from the front with verve and gained an advantage that Gerri Colombe couldn’t quite peg back at three miles.

The extra two furlongs and more galloping track of the Gold Cup would surely see that result overturned – if that rival heads that way rather than towards the seemingly more suitable Ryanair. But, when Galopin gets it right, as he did when going toe-to-toe with Bravemansgame over the final two fences at Cheltenham, he gets away from his fences more smartly than Gerri. And of course, Galopin’s stamina won’t be ebbing away, having put seven lengths between himself and that runner-up from being upsides at the last.

However, there are reasons to believe Gerri Colombe can spruce up in that department – for being fitter and having this top-notch experience under his belt. That’s what I’ll be looking for from his next start, wherever that is.

Despite jumping lethargically in the early stages, this was ultimately a better performance in defeat from Envoi Allen than when winning this Grade One 12 months earlier. He improved markedly for his Gowran defeat on seasonal debut.

In fact, facing a deeper assignment even than the Ryanair given the mercurial Shishkin was having one of his slothful days, Envoi Allen surely ran right up to his best. So, there’s no reason why he won’t be a force in that Cheltenham event this season and in well-chosen targets en route.

Conflated tends to need his seasonal debut, so it was no surprise the Gold Cup third left behind his opening Punchestown defeat under a positive ride by Sam Ewing. However, his habit of jumping left – particularly at the critical second last – rendered him vulnerable.

You’d expect him to run well if defending his Savills Chase title at Christmas, but he has reportedly already schooled over cross-country fences and Elliott has described that Festival event as “definitely an option”. Stablemates Delta Work and Galvin made their public debuts in that race before going on to contest the Grand National and that is also a likely target for Conflated.

After sticking with his younger rivals until approaching the second last, 2021 Gold Cup hero Minella Indo looked his age. Henry de Bromhead has presumably had a smoother run with him this summer, as this was already the second start of his campaign whereas last term he didn’t reappear until New Year’s Day and only ran once more, when pulling up in last year’s Gold Cup.

His Grade Three reappearance success demonstrated there are still carefully selected races to be won with him, but probably no longer at the top flight. He jumped particularly well under pressure at Down Royal.

On the previous weekend at Wetherby, Bravemansgame jumped impeccably until making a race-losing error at the final fence and conceding his steadily built advantage to the improved and tenacious Gentlemansgame in the Grade Two Charlie Hall Chase.

It looked a case of crossed wires with rider Harry Cobden, who’d organised him into the second last and been rewarded with a super leap, but had left him alone three out when he got in a bit close and had to be nimble. Seemingly having the marginal upper hand over his rival at the last, Bravemansgame took off early and long amid his partner’s indecision and crashed through it.

In defeat, however, he ran to a much higher level than when victorious in the race in 2022 and might even have got away with this mistake had it not been his seasonal debut on ground so heavy that the previous day’s racing had been abandoned. It looked as though he simply lacked the fitness to recover from the impact.

That’s not to detract from his conqueror, for although official ratings judged him to be 18lb inferior minus the 6lb he received for the runner-up’s win in the Grade One King George last term, this was merely his third chase start and by some chalk a career-best performance.

Gentlemansgame had previously won a raggedy novice chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting on his sole start last season by dint of being more straightforward than odds-on favourite but subsequent Irish Grand National winner I Am Maximus. Returning from nine months off, the grey had already split winner Easy Game and Envoi Allen in a Grade Two at Gowran in September.

Holding race-fitness over Bravemansgame, he jumped soundly bar for two scruffy errors – the latter of them three out when his measure appeared to have been taken. He stuck around under pressure from Darragh O’Keeffe, however, who waited until after the last to launch one final attack and was gifted a golden-envelope opportunity by his rival’s error.

Testing conditions also favoured Gentlemansgame as the superior stayer, but he’s clearly a player for the Savills Chase this Christmas. Bookmakers were wholly unimpressed, though, making the winner – owned, like Gerri Colombe, by Robcour’s Brian Acheson – a 25/1 shot for the Gold Cup and pushing out the runner-up to 14/1.

The latter is surely an overreaction about a horse with the second-best form of last season and who raised the only serious threat to one of the better winners of that race in recent years. Equally, the upper limit of his stamina now appears to have been exposed. It was telling that the longest price ventured about him successfully defending his King George crown was 2/1.

Since Wetherby, trainer Paul Nicholls has surprisingly mentioned taking a detour via Haydock’s Betfair Chase on Saturday week – a race he was sizing up as Bravemansgame’s stepping-stone to Kempton until various storms started battering Britain and Ireland, prompting him to re-route to Wetherby. That said, he’ll be conscious that he has in the past blamed a Haydock slog for now-retired dual King George winner Clan Des Obeaux’s defeat at Kempton in 2020.

Back in third, Midnight River acquitted himself with credit – jumping left throughout under a wide trip and briefly breing shaken up after the fourth last before not being persisted with when the front pair asserted. A three-time winner last season – including a best-yet success in Aintree’s Freebooter Handicap – he remains unexposed at three miles.

Ahoy Senor, who ran abjectly in this race last year when finishing last of five, went with more control than that seasonal debut but got in far too close to the ninth, throwing all four legs out to the right in a clumsy effort to keep his feet. That lost him the lead and all composure. He’s now earned the dreaded 'x', the symbol signifying a sketchy jumper, from Timeform.

Yet Ahoy Senor recovered his high level of form on his second start last season and is definitely worth a shot next month’s Coral Gold Cup at Newbury – a highly suitable track where he scored his first graded success as a novice chaser. It might be a season too late in handicap terms.

Whereas the question this time last year was whether he’d learn to put his legs in the right place at the right time, the answer by now – following his six-out fall when bowling along in the Gold Cup – seems to be a resounding negative. He remains a potent threat when on song, however, as his gallant second to Shishkin in last term’s Aintree Bowl testified.

The significant other performance in this division was the return of magnificent dual Ryanair winner Allaho – until Galopin Des Champs hit maturity, the best horse in training in my book. He missed all of last season after a serious problem with his spleen.

Having sweated up, he won a three-runner procession in the Grade Two Clonmel Oil Chase last Thursday, with stablemate Janidil racing at a respectful distance from the outset, the third opponent Grange Walk of no significance in this class and French Dynamite withdrawn due to heavy ground.

A swashbuckling 14-length winner of the Punchestown Gold Cup over three miles when previously seen in April 2022, Allaho looked decidedly rusty in the jumping department – brushing through the top when typically adjusting left at the first, backing off the second and in close to the sixth and seventh – but he also started getting a premature roll on with Paul Townend, requiring containment in comeback circumstances and fence-organisation in the latter stages.

Janidil had closed the lead down in the straight but a slow jump from him at the second last sealed the deal for his more illustrious stable companion, who won unchallenged. Encouragingly, Townend felt there was “plenty left to work on” and trainer Willie Mullins has since reported that Allaho has come out of his race “fine”.

“The plan has always been to work backwards from the Ryanair and that’s what we’ll continue to do,” he added. “Whether he’ll have one or two runs before then, I’m not 100 per cent sure, and I haven’t given much thought to where we’ll go next with him either. I just wanted to get last Thursday out of the way first before making any further plans.”

Allaho is entered in the John Durkan, in which he began his campaign two seasons ago, but that race has moved forward to a more suitable position in the racing calendar (and is the return target earmarked for Galopin Des Champs) and so comes too quickly. He’s also in the King George, but I’d be mildly surprised if he ran there. On the basis of Clonmel, I’d need to see more next time to be interested in the 3/1 best-available price for him to regain his Ryanair crown at the age of ten.

Janidil is still yet to build on his 14-length Ryanair second to Allaho of two seasons ago, albeit he was set for a marginal career best when having a Fairyhouse Grade Two at his mercy in April – only to fall at the last. His scrappy jumping has held his career back.

Finally, in a race discussed in more detail via the prism of winning mare Dinoblue in the next section, Fil Dor and Sir Gerhard made their seasonal returns in the Grade Three Barberstown Castle Chase at Naas last Sunday.

The former finished second, unable to quite reach the winner after tacking onto the leading group on the home turn. Some leisurely early jumping and a laissez-faire approach from Jack Kennedy had left him a good deal off the pace.

His form deteriorated over fences in Grade One company last season, after he’d won on his second start at Navan, before he was successfully switched back to hurdles in a Grade Three at Gowran in February. He then made no impact at Cheltenham and Fairyhouse. He’s as yet untried beyond 2m1f over fences and, now he’s rising six, up in trip looks the way to go this season.

Sir Gerhard, who failed to convince as a chaser following an early setback last season, was just working up a challenge when stuttering into the second last, getting in too close and taking a crashing fall. He might well have posed a serious threat to the winner but, as Townend commented afterwards, that experience would have “done nothing” for his already shaky confidence.

There had been some promise to his Brown Advisory run despite some deliberate early jumping – he crept into it before the fourth last before another slow jump three out foretold his stamina emptying on the home turn.

Returned to around two-and-a-half miles at Fairyhouse next time out, he narrowly failed to run down stablemate Flame Bearer, prior to pulling up with a cut leg following an error-strewn round back at three miles behind Feronily in Punchestown’s Grade One Champion Novice Chase.

Sir Gerhard could now revert to hurdles, with Mullins subsequently stating that he has “an open mind” about that option but that the horse will step back up in trip from two miles either way.

Not two but three Willie Mullins-trained mares with the potential for top honours have already made their returns in this division. The first was Allegorie De Vassy, who won Clonmel’s T.A. Morris Memorial Irish EBF Mares Listed Chase last Thursday despite ploughing through the first and facing an increasingly likeable rival in stablemate Instit.

The latter made the running in a hood in zestful style under an astute ride from Danny Mullins, jumping straighter on this return to a right-handed track and settling better than can be the case. She still built up a long lead on the first circuit and then again, having been given a breather, by the fifth last where she made her scruffiest jump.

Having rediscovered her technique – which includes habitually adjusting right – after that early scare and some airy recovery leaps, Allegorie De Vassy took closer order from four out and then reeled in the leader, jumping past at the second last to clear away for a two-and-a-quarter-length victory. Her last two leaps, when she was in full flight, were her best – including when rider Paul Townend asked this scopey mare for a long one at the last.

“It woke her up a bit all right!” grinned Townend, when questioned about her first-fence error by Racing TV’s Gary O’Brien. “She jumped fine at home – we’d given her a pop before today – but she just ran down at the first and probably lacked a little bit of room to go right and jumped a bit big for a couple after that. But she got that out of her system and she was fine. She actually has a brilliant jump in her but she’s nearly got rid of me a couple of days.”

Townend’s darker post-race comments about the winner were significant. Noting that her form had “petered out” last season, but that she’d probably “matured for the summer off” and had finished tired in the soft ground, he added: “But she had every chance to not go through with it, which was questionable last year.”

Obviously, that made me return to re-watch the mare’s final three starts last season. In the early stages of Cheltenham’s Mrs Paddy Power Chase, having jumped markedly right ridden on the outside in rear, she got straighter as she took closer order among the field and shadowed the winner Impervious turning into the straight.

A huge leap at the last took her into the lead but her determined battle-hardened rival – with a head carriage worthy of the National Portrait Museum – immediately drove back up the bigger mare’s inside to win by two-and-a-half lengths. At the time, I wondered whether switching from more positive tactics had not suited the bold-jumping runner-up.

But then she ran at Fairyhouse, where – having tracked the pace – she sauntered up to Instit at the second last only to find far less than expected, blunder through the final fence when probably already in trouble and get beaten by nine-and-a-half lengths. It was a relatively quick reappearance, to be fair.

Then at Punchestown, both those mares got trounced by Impervious, but Allegorie De Vassy folded first, after a minor blemish at the third last, whereas Instit put up a fight despite her jumping not standing the test latterly.

Now that Allegorie De Vassy has gained her revenge on Instit over an extended 2m4f at a stiff track on heavy ground, it’s very possible – as Townend was surely musing – that she has just gained some much-needed strength for that big frame, as she’s still only six.

However, the way she ultimately shaped last season made me think stamina could perhaps have been troubling her rather than her attitude and that she needed dropping back to two miles. Most bookmakers nonetheless have her as favourite to go one better in the Mrs Paddy Power.

“Given her level of fitness, that was a very good performance at Clonmel,” Mullins commented in his Racing Post stable tour. “She’s going to improve on that and keep improving as the season goes on. We’ll map out a campaign for her now to get back to Cheltenham for another crack at the Mares’ Chase. That’s her target.”

Instit is a year younger but also a smaller model. In was interesting to hear both O’Brien and Jane Mangan, who were on-course at Clonmel for Racing TV, both make a point of stating that she would come on a great deal for this highly creditable run based on her paddock appearance.

“That sort of performance kicks her up another division,” Mullins also noted. “And she might stay a longer trip.” However, her profile suggests racing right-handed might be imperative.

Back in fourth, Henry de Bromhead’s Grand Annual heroine Maskada shaped a good deal better than her defeat of almost 18 lengths implies. She made headway into third place three out before being allowed to lose her position as she got tired in the straight, making a leaden-footed blunder at the last as she failed to see out the extended 2m4f and clearly needed the run.

Three days later at Naas, last term’s Grand Annual runner-up Dinoblue beat the boys in the Grade Three Barberstown Castle Chase. She chased the early leader, clear of the rest and jumping accurately, before taking over at the fourth but she found her lead steadily depleted from the last and Mark Walsh had to get serious with her over the stiff finish on testing ground. It was no surprise to read Mullins later commenting that “she would have needed that run”.

At Cheltenham, that asset of jumping had let her down over the final two fences. Taking an overly strong hold, she chased a good pace set by veteran titleholder Global Citizen and jumped well until breasting the second last whilst taking the lead and plunging over the final fence for good measure. Although it’s hard to say that cost her – given Maskada finished six-and-a-half lengths clear after forging on for pressure after the second last – but they were jolting errors.

Dinoblue went on to produce successively better performances when winning at Fairyhouse and Punchestown, in novice and open handicaps respectively. This season, Mullins plans ultimately to target the Mares’ Chase over an extended two-and-a-half miles at Cheltenham, albeit “she might have to take on the boys for a lot of the season until then”.

That means Leopardstown’s Grade One Chase at Christmas could be on her agenda, with – following news of dual Champion Chase hero Energumene probably being sidelined for the whole season – El Fabiolo taking the favourite-child route of next month’s Hilly Way at Cork.

“Her pedigree suggests she’ll stay further,” Mullins added, referring to Dinoblue’s half-brother Blue Sari, who stayed 2m4f, and her grand-dam, who was a half-sister to Grand National runner-up Royal Auclair. The fact she has learned to settle since the Grand Annual will also help. She’s been clipped for the Mrs Paddy Power after this effort and is even favourite in some books.

*__Ante-post selections from Lydia & Ruby will appear here, with the date and price advised - Lydia's six ante-post selections last season included Brown Advisory winner The Real Whacker at 12/1 and Ballymore winner Impaire Et Passe at 6/1 with other winners selected for racingtv.com during the Festival itself