Novice Hurdlers - ‘Living the dream’
A Dream to Share Age: 5 Sex: Gelding Trainer: John and Thomas Kiely Owner: JP McManus
There’s only one place that I can kick off the novice hurdle division this year and that’s with the 2023 Cheltenham Festival Bumper winner A Dream to Share.
Everything about this horse last season was just great to watch, giving 86-year-old trainer John Kiely his first Cheltenham Festival winner since he started training, and providing teenage jockey John Gleeson with his first ride and winner at the Festival.
This horse started out his winning streak by taking a bumper at Tipperary back in May 2022 when he was owned by Gleeson’s parents Brian and Claire, before following up at Roscommon at cramped odds.
He then went on to land Grade 2 success in February 2023 at Leopardstown, putting him right for Cheltenham in March, where he bumped into his old rival from that win a month earlier in Fact to File, who was trained by none other than the man who knows a thing or two about winning this race in Willie Mullins.
DREAM START: A Dream to Share wins the Grade 2 Leopardstown bumper. Credit: Racing TV YouTube
After making it 2-2 over in Ireland, the horse was sold to JP McManus, and his debut in the famous green, yellow and white silks couldn’t have gone any better.
The 7/2 second favourite was dropped out most of the journey by his young jockey before passing everyone up the straight to land the spoils, and if that wasn’t enough winning for one season he then went to the Punchestown Festival a month later and landed another Grade 1, unbeaten run intact.
Now the winner from the 2022 running of the bumper Facile Vega didn’t exactly live up to expectations last season, but I feel this horse will.
My only worry so far about him is the fact he missed his first entry at Punchestown due to a stone bruise, but all being well I think he should take all the stopping this year, if he can jump an obstacle of course.
He’s shown plenty with the way he travels and works hard throughout his races so there’s no problems there, I just hope he can pop a hurdle.
‘Tough as Teague’
Captain Teague Age: 5 Sex: Gelding Trainer: Paul Nicholls Owner: Mrs Johnny de la Hey
It’s very rare to put the form of one race under such a microscope like this, but the way he ran in the Cheltenham Festival Bumper to finish third at odds of 40/1 was mightily impressive, and very hard to ignore.
So far in his career under rules he’s only had three starts, landing the odds at Plumpton in December 2022 to take a bumper, doing it easily, before then heading to the Festival in March, subsequently finishing behind the winner A Dream to Share and the second Fact to File.
Paul Nicholls clearly wasn’t bothered about throwing him in at the deep end on hurdles debut either, heading straight for the Grade 2 Persian War over 2m 3f at Chepstow without giving him a prep run, and boy did he deliver.
THE CAPTAIN: Captain Teague makes a winning hurdles debut at Chepstow. Credit: At The Races YouTube
Despite making novicey mistakes throughout the contest, he soon cruised into contention at the top of the long straight, he wasn’t fluent out three out, then edged left going down to the second last, but was always travelling smoothly, and powered clear to win by 9 ½ lengths.
The horse in second of Olly Murphy’s Resplendent Grey won his first two starts under hurdles in the Spring, and brought experience into the race, and the horse back in third Rock House won a bumper at Huntingdon back in April, before cruising clear on hurdling debut at Worcester to win by 13 lengths without even coming off the bridle.
Having won the way he did over rivals who had that bit more experience than him says a lot I think about how nice of a horse he is, to travel the way he did after making some errors and still have enough in the tank to pull clear like he did at the end in tricky conditions suggests there’s still way more to come from him.
‘Hill ready to scale new heights’
Tullyhill Age: 5 Sex: Gelding Trainer: Willie Mullins Owner: Cheveley Park
My final pick then in the selection of novice hurdlers still ties in with the A Dream to Share form, but this horse is a bit more of an unknown quantity I feel.
Tullyhill has only had two starts under rules so far, winning a bumper on debut in March at Gowran Park, beating a Gordon Elliott horse called Will Do, who managed to win next time up at Cork.
ON THE UP: Tullyhill cruises clear on his bumper debut. Credit: Racing TV YouTube
This grey then ran in the Punchestown Champion Bumper, clashing with A Dream to Share, who like we’ve already mentioned could be really smart this season, and he finished in second, 3 ¾ lengths behind him.
The only issue of course by saying that both him and Captain Teague are my horses to follow could pose a problem as they could all meet again come March, but I’m hoping they do take a different route or two, and if not, it just makes that clash even better.